College basketball's new No. 1 team proved worthy of its ranking on Wednesday night.
Sharp from the start, Kansas hit 13 of its first 16 shots and its first six three-point tries, blazing to a 25-point lead after eight minutes en route to a 96-57 blowout of Nebraska.
So much for the No. 1 jinx.
"No matter what, we believe we are the best team in the country," freshman guard Aaron Miles said after dishing 12 assists, the most by any freshman to play at KU. He passed Jacque Vaughn and Steve Woodberry, who each had 11 dishes in games during their rookie seasons.
"No matter what, we're also going to play hard every game," Miles added. "We came out ready to play. It was fun. We were running the floor, D-ing up. It's how we want to play for 40 minutes."
KU (13-1 overall, 2-0 Big 12) ran Nebraska (7-6, 0-2) out of the fieldhouse early.
Jeff Boschee scored eight of his 16 points, while Nick Collison scored five of his 20 points, Drew Gooden four of his 16 and Kirk Hinrich three in a 20-0 run that gave KU a 25-4 advantage just 51/2 minutes in.
"It was as fun a half as we've played since I've been here," Collison said.
He and Gooden scored 11 points apiece, while Hinrich hit three threes and collected 13 points and seven assists the first half as KU blazed to a 57-24 lead.
Miles also had seven assists, while Gooden and Collison had eight and six boards respectively the first 20 minutes.
"I really enjoyed the first half," KU coach Roy Williams said. "I didn't think there was any point of the first half I didn't enjoy. It was really a lot of fun to watch. I told the kids if they didn't enjoy playing that, there was something wrong with them. I really enjoyed watching them during that stretch."
It seems the coach was a bit concerned coming in, but not because of the No. 1 ranking.
"I was concerned because everybody wanted to talk about UCLA," Williams said of KU's opponent Saturday in Los Angeles. "Everybody was asking the players for tickets for UCLA, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, our next three games. I said, 'We've got to play tonight.' I challenged the kids they had to be ready and they were."
Hinrich opened the game by sticking a three, and it seemed KU clicked after that.
"I thought we responded great," Hinrich said. "We came out with that intensity. We'll try to do it every night. We made some open shots and defensively made some things happen."
Hinrich helped hold NU senior Cary Cochran scoreless. That's right, scoreless.
The Huskers' leading scorer who has burned KU in the past missed three shots in 20 minutes.
"Just get after him and not give him any daylight," Hinrich said of KU's defensive strategy.
Perhaps the only negative for KU was the Jayhawks' play to open the second half.
KU missed its first six shots, and Williams pulled his starters for Brett Ballard, Michael Lee, Jeff Carey, Wayne Simien and Keith Langford. Ballard and Lee both hit threes in a nifty 7-1 spurt.
Williams wasn't upset when he pulled the starters except maybe at himself.
"I probably caused that. I told 'em the last two games we'd shot 37 percent the second half and I told 'em I wanted us to be sharp the second half," Williams said. "I think they were worried about field-goal percentage instead of just playing. We played well. We shut them out the first four minutes of the second half and had three, four, five offensive rebounds. We just couldn't make a shot.
"I took the five guys out and wasn't screaming, ranting, raving. I just said we have to be a little more patient and calm down. At halftime one of my goals was pretty simple not to get mad. It's hard not to do. It was a fun night for us."
It was fun thanks in part to the five subs, who righted the ship. KU cruised the rest of the way.
"I guess we wanted to show people we are worthy of a No. 1 ranking and put away a conference opponent early and gain confidence going to UCLA," Simien said after scoring 12 points with 10 boards in 17 minutes. "That is as dominating as I've seen us play."
KU will put its ranking on the line again Saturday. Tipoff is 2 p.m.
"I don't think the team really cares about the No. 1 ranking," Gooden said. "It's good to have, but still says Kansas across our chest. Every time we step on the floor people will be ready to play us. It was time to play again and we played well tonight."
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