Revenge, or so they say, is sweet.

“Revenge on Holy Cross, and I feel I gained some personal revenge tonight,” Kansas University sophomore guard Keith Langford said after scoring 15 points off 7-of-8 shooting in the Jayhawks’ 81-57 Preseason NIT victory over Holy Cross on Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.

Everybody knows the Jayhawks wanted to play a lot better – perhaps even gain some revenge – against the Crusaders, who led at halftime en route to an 11-point loss to KU in last year’s NCAA Tournament.

The talk of personal revenge is what had media types scratching their heads after the victory, which propels KU into Friday’s second-round match against North Carolina-Greensboro at 6 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.

“There’s talk that Keith Langford is the weak link of the five starters on KU’s team. I hear talk like that and I don’t like it,” Langford said. “So it’s dual revenge.”

Where was the negativity was coming from? Students? Media?

“Media, Internet sources,” Langford said. “I don’t consider myself a weak link on the team.”

Langford had the prettiest shooting stats of any Jayhawk in a somewhat ugly game dominated by fouls. There were 49 fouls, 27 by the visitors. KU hit 22 of 37 free throws to Holy Cross’ 14 of 21.

The Jayhawks held the Crusaders to 34.6 percent shooting while shooting 52.8 percent.

“I was ecstatic what we did defensively in the first half,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “I think the whole game was our defense, particularly in the first half. The second half we came out and were awful offensively early and give their defense credit for that.

“They are a hard team to play, patient, staying out of trouble. They have a good basketball team.”

That’s why in pregame, Williams told his team not to get too worked up about the revenge motive against the patient Crusaders, who play rugged zone defense.

“I cautioned ’em not to think that. We weren’t going to come out and beat them by 100,” Williams said. “They’re too good a team for that. I told them I expected it to be the closest game of maybe the top four or five teams in the Preseason NIT. I think they trusted me.

“I think it was just the first game, trying to do things a little too quickly, making some choices that were dumb.”

KU built a healthy halftime lead of 39-21 thanks to a 24-4 half-ending run, in which the Jayhawks held the Crusaders to 1-of-9 shooting with six turnovers the final nine minutes. Nick Collison had eight points in that span, while Bryant Nash brought the house down with a vicious follow dunk.

KU saw its healthy halftime lead dip to 44-34 with 16:37 left. But the Jayhawks went on a 16-2 run and that was that.

Senior forward Collison, who had nine of KU’s first 11 points the second half, had four in that spurt.

He finished with 20 points off 6-of-15 shooting with eight rebounds. He hit eight of 11 free throws.

“I took some bad shots, made some bad decisions I don’t normally make,” said Collison, who more than atoned for his six-turnover, five-point outing against Holy Cross in the NCAA Tournament. “I could have played better, we could have played better, but we did some nice things defensively and got the win.”

“He didn’t have a very good game,” KU coach Roy Williams said, “but he is a pretty doggone good player. He has 20 points, eight rebounds and yet he knows he didn’t play well.”

Senior Kirk Hinrich scored his first points off a three with 4:47 left in the first half. He finished with 13 points.

“I think we played well defensively and I think we can get a lot better is the bright side,” Hinrich said.