On Sunday, Kansas University’s basketball players left it all on the court in a rousing 95-92 victory over Missouri.

On Monday, the happy but emotionally spent Jayhawks, who completed a magical 16-0 run through the Big 12 Conference, took the day off. Only individual shooting drills were scheduled for today.

No. 1-rated KU will practice hard Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for Friday’s Big 12 tournament quarterfinal game against Colorado or Nebraska.

“It was not easy,” KU forward Nick Collison said of the Jayhawks first undefeated league record in three decades. “We had to pull out some tough games  at Iowa State (88-81), at Texas (110-103, OT) at Nebraska (88-87) and at Missouri. This team had the intangibles to do it. I don’t think we’ll rest on our accomplishments. We do have our minds on bigger things. We’d much rather go 15-1 and win a national championship than go 16-0 and not win it.”

Since 1994, eight teams have entered postseason play after a perfect conference season. Cincinnati went 16-0 in 2000; Utah and Duke were 14-0 and 16-0 respectively in ’99; TCU was 14-0 in ’98; Texas Tech and Kentucky went 14-0 and 16-0 respectively in ’96; and Minnesota was 14-0 in ’94.

“Sixteen-and-oh is something our kids are proud of and will be proud of more as time goes along,” Williams said Monday on his Hawk Talk radio show. “We did not talk about it. I did not think about it. It did not become my goal until after we beat Kansas State (last Wednesday).

“Yesterday before the game I said, ‘We’ve come this far, let’s finish the daggum thing and see what happens.’

“One thing cool to me is Norm (Stewart, ex-MU coach) was at the game. He told me, ‘I won’t lie, it’s not the only reason I came to the game today, but the biggest reason is if you did it, I wanted to be here to say congratulations.’ That meant a lot to me and was really nice of Norm,” Williams added of Stewart, whose Tigers went undefeated in 1994.

“This is a very nice feeling now. Hopefully the kids are still hungry and not just ’cause they are ready for dinner.”

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More honors: KU junior Kirk Hinrich on Monday was named Big 12 player of the week for the second time this season. He averaged 24.5 points in wins over Kansas State and Missouri. Â Williams on Monday was named District 12 coach of the year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He is eligible for national coach of the year honors. The winner will be announced on March 31. Â KU’s Drew Gooden was named first-team NABC All-America with Kirk Hinrich making third team. Other first-team members: Jason Williams and Mike Dunleavy, Duke; Steve Logan, Cincinnati; and Juan Dixon, Maryland.

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Recruiting: KU’s success this season just might help recruiting in the future.

“The success we’ve had  it’s amazing how much more attention you get just from going from No. 2 to No. 1,” Williams said. “All the attention and media requests result in more phone calls for me for sure, but that also translates into more attention. The last three years we won 23, 24, 26 games  most teams would take that any year  but I guess is a little dropoff from what we’ve had.

“This is fun for this team and in the long run I think will help in recruiting as well.”

Williams has signed 6-foot-9 players Moulaye Niang and Jeff Graves and would like to award one or two more scholarships this spring  to a perimeter player and possibly a big man.

“We are looking around. Right now I would not say we’re having the greatest success finding what we are looking for,” Williams said. “We are looking, working a great deal and spending a lot of time looking at tapes and traveling to see people play. We have not found anybody yet I am crazy about. Am I confident we’ll sign another wing player? Yes, but I was confident we’d sign one in the fall, too. It’s like getting married, both parties have to agree.”

“We recruited two perimeter players in the fall. At one time I think we were leading for both,” Williams said, alluding to Hassan Adams, who picked Arizona, and Andre Igoudala, who tapped Arkansas. “We didn’t get either one.”

Igoudala, 6-6, from Springfield, Ill., soon may be available again.

He likely will ask out of his letter of intent at Arkansas now that coach Nolan Richardson is out. Igoudala’s dad told recruiting analyst Mike Sullivan that Andre wouldn’t consider his options until after the Illinois state tournament.

Williams does not comment about specific recruits.

Whatever school lands Igoudala  he chose UA over KU, Arizona, Boston College and Maryland  will likely not have him available to play for one or two years.

If Igoudala receives a release from his national letter of intent, he must sit out a year at his new school and lose a year of eligibility. Without a signed release he must sit two years and lose two years of eligibility.

Players may appeal to the Collegiate Commissioners Assn. for immediate eligibility at their new schools. The fact Igoudala wanted to play for Richardson would not qualify as a good enough reason to have eligibility restored. It says on the national letter of intent form that a player signs with a school, not a coach: “If the coach leaves I am still bound by this letter of intent,” it says.

KU is in the running with several standout juniors including Ronnie Brewer, 6-5, Fayetteville, Ark.; Thomas Gardner, 6-5, Portland, Ore.; Shannon Brown, 6-2, Maywood, Ill.; J.R. Giddens, 6-5, Oklahoma City; Kris Humphries, 6-8, Minnetonka, Minn.; Leon Powe, 6-7, Oakland; Omar Wilkes, 6-2, Los Angeles; Trevor Ariza, 6-7, Los Angeles; Richard Cobbs, 6-6, Mereno Valley, Calif.; Keith Wooden, 6-9, Lawrence Free State; Brian Randle, 6-7, Peoria, Ill.; Richard McBride, 6-3, Springfield, Ill.; Tyrone Nelson, 6-11, Hempstead, Texas; Tyler Koenig, 6-8, Fargo, N.D.; Brian Butch, 6-11, Appleton, Wis.; Nick Bahe, 6-3, Lincoln, Neb.; Dave Padgett, 6-10, Reno, Nev. From the juco ranks, KU has evaluated Jamal Hill, 6-5 sophomore from San Jose City College; Prileu Davis, 6-4, Phoenix CC; Johnny Story, 6-5, North Idaho Junior College; and Tony Allen, 6-4, Wabash Valley Community College.