Kansas City, Mo. ? Texas Tech looked like an octopus Saturday  all arms and no legs.

“It’s pretty simple,” Tech coach Bob Knight said. “We were beaten by a much better team, and we were tired from the beginning.”

No. 1-ranked Kansas had much less trouble than expected in disposing of the Red Raiders, 90-50, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Conference men’s basketball tournament at Kemper Arena.

Texas Tech toppled Texas A&M, 80-71, on Thursday, then knocked off No. 13-ranked Oklahoma State, 73-51, on Friday, but three games in three days were too many for the Raiders, confirming Knight’s fears.

On Friday night, Knight mentioned that concern to TTU athletic director Gerald Myers.

“I told Gerry our stamina is such it scares me,” Knight said. “We’re not strong on stamina and everything caught up with us.”

Stamina or no, in the umpteen years Knight has coached at Army, Indiana and now Texas Tech, it’s unlikely his two leading scorers ever wore the collar in a game.

It happened Saturday and Knight was hard-pressed to recall such an unusual happenstance.

“I don’t know,” Knight said, his voice dripping sarcasm. “My memory’s slipping a little bit.”

All-Big 12 first-teamer Andre Emmett, averaging 19.7 points a game, shot blanks. The 6-foot-5 sophomore was 0-for-9 from the field and scored the same number of points Knight did. Meanwhile, 6-11 Andy Ellis, who was scoring at a 17.0 clip, missed all six of his shots and likewise had a goose egg in his scoring column on the stat sheet.

“Kansas is a great team and we knew we had to play a perfect game,” Ellis said. “We didn’t do it, and they beat us pretty good. I don’t think it’s all that discouraging, though. Kansas is No. 1 in the country for a reason.”

Saturday’s loss was the Red Raiders’ worst by far under first-year coach Knight. The next worst was a 108-81 thumping administered by Kansas on Feb. 9 in Allen Fieldhouse.

Still, the Raiders have a 23-8 record and they’ll be included in the NCAA Tournament bracket to be released today.

“It’s a big accomplishment,” said 6-8 Kasib Powell, a junior college transfer who helped turn the Tech program around. “A lot of people didn’t think we’d go as far as we are. We’re definitely looking forward to Sunday.”

Powell insisted Saturday’s lopsided loss will mean nothing once the NCAA Tournament begins.

“You have to think it wasn’t there for us today,” said Powell, the Raiders’ third-leading scorer at 15.2 points a game but only a nine-point producer Saturday. “I don’t think fatigue was a big thing, but it was a little factor.”

Factor No. 1 was Kansas.

“We expected them to come right at us,” Ellis said. “We had some open looks and didn’t hit them. But they played great defense to prevent us from getting more of them.”