Kansas City, Mo ? If Drew Gooden had his way, he might do away with the Big 12 tournament’s pregame handshake altogether.

“You have no friends in basketball. What’s the use shaking hands?” Kansas University’s junior forward said 21/2 hours after his monumental snub of Colorado freshman David Harrison on Friday at Kemper Arena.

Colorado freshman DAVID HARRISON, left, gets an earful from CU coach Ricardo Patton. Harrison whose pregame comments disparaging Kansas helped fire up the Jayhawks had eight points in 25 minutes of the Buffaloes' 102-73 loss to KU on Friday at Kemper Arena.

Gooden, who scored 18 points in the Jayhawks’ 102-73 Big 12 quarterfinal victory over the Buffs, left Harrison standing alone at midcourt like a groom jilted at the altar when the two were supposed to shake hands during pregame introductions.

Harrison, the Buffs’ 7-foot, 240-pound pivot, has provided KU with bulletin-board material in three games all KU victories this year. On Thursday he said Oklahoma, not Kansas, was the best team in the Big 12.

“It was a lot of trash talk that David Harrison was saying about me to the media,” Gooden said after the Jayhawks claimed their 27th straight victory over the Buffs. “I never went to a media person to talk any trash about any player. I thought it was insulting. The last time we played Colorado at our house after that game I left him with a handshake and telling him what a great player he is. That’s the last we spoke the fact you could go to the media like he did is immature.”

So Gooden didn’t shake the hand of Harrison, who has said he’s the best big man in the Big 12 and also said KU would “get theirs” in Lawrence as revenge for KU’s 97-85 win over the Buffs on Jan. 5 in Boulder. KU won that rematch, 100-73.

“It was something that just happened in the heat of the moment. It’s something I don’t regret happened,” Gooden said of the pregame snub, which turned out to be much more interesting than a blowout which featured 21 points from KU’s Jeff Boschee and 18 apiece from Gooden and Kirk Hinrich.

Harrison, who scored eight points with four rebounds in a contest that propelled KU into today’s 1 p.m. Big 12 semifinal against Texas Tech, was insistent he’s never, ever blasted Gooden in the press.

KU's Drew Gooden gets off a shot over Colorado's Michel Morandais.

“I’ve never said anything about Drew in the media,” Harrison said, denying he ever called Gooden, ‘Drew Puddin,’ as was rumored. “I said it’d be a great feat to stop him. If he wants to check the records, he can do that.”

KU coach Roy Williams said he would have handled the situation differently from Gooden if he’d been a Jayhawk player.

“If it’d been me, if I’m really mad at you, I’m going to shake your hand. I’m going to smile at you. On the inside, I’m gonna say, ‘I’m going to kick your rear end,”’ Williams said. “It’s a game. You have to play out on the court. You shouldn’t need things like that to motivate you.

“A couple of years ago I had a freshman named Drew I won’t say Puddin, I’ll say Gooden but he said some wrong things, too. What you’ve got to understand is they are kids. I don’t think we’re ready to have a war or anything. It’s a game. Today people talk more to see if they can gain an advantage. I coached the greatest talker in the world in Michael Jordan. The only thing greater than his playing ability was his talking ability.”

The Jayhawks, who blazed to a 53-35 halftime lead thanks to Boschee’s four three-pointers and 14 first-half points, said reading Harrison’s comments in the Friday morning papers did catch their attention.

Ku's Jeff Boschee (13) triggers over Stephane Pelle.

“We read a few quotes. They weren’t too bad. We’re used to them running their mouths and then beating them,” KU junior forward Nick Collison said after a nine-point, five-rebound outing. “We got a little fired up. By now we’re used to it, but it does provide a little extra motivation.”

Gooden said he doesn’t need the kind of motivation Colorado’s Harrison brings to the table.

“I let the scoreboard do the talking and all the stats sheets can do the talking, too. You can show somebody better than you can tell them, that’s what my father always said,” Gooden said. “We know we’ve got to come here to play basketball, that’s the main thing. This isn’t a trash-taking tournament or whatever. It’s a basketball tournament. That’s what you’ve got to come here to do, play basketball. You go home if you lose and keep playing if you win.”