Manhattan ? It doesn’t seem to matter much who is basketball coach at Kansas University and/or Kansas State.

The Jayhawks, as everybody in the Sunflower State knows by now, own the Wildcats in hoops.

That was proven again Wednesday in KU’s 78-70 victory over KSU — the Jayhawks’ 28th in a row over the ‘Cats overall and 21st straight win in Manhattan.

“I haven’t thought about it much,” first-year KU coach Bill Self said of picking up where predecessors Roy Williams and Larry Brown left off. “This makes for a much more pleasant 24 hours without having to answer any more questions about the streak.”

The Jayhawks (13-3 overall, 5-0 Big 12 Conference) who have beaten KSU coaches Jim Wooldridge, Tom Asbury, Dana Altman and Lon Kruger in the remarkable streak in Manhattan, didn’t discuss KU’s dominance at all before the victory.

“We didn’t talk about the streak. We talked about how the number could be motivation for K-State. We didn’t say, ‘We’ve got to continue it,'” Self said.

The Jayhawks’ talented junior trio of Keith Langford, Wayne Simien and Aaron Miles didn’t even see the need to mention the streak to the younger players in team huddles.

“We don’t need to, it’s advertised so much,” Simien said.

The juniors’ play showed the underclassmen how much they wanted to beat KSU and stay undefeated in Big 12 play.

Langford erupted for 19 points, with six rebounds and five assists in 33 minutes. Simien scored 16 points and grabbed eight boards in 34 minutes, while Miles had 13 points, 12 assists and just one turnover in 38 minutes.

Kansas University's Keith Langford, bottom, signals that an out-of-bounds call should favor the Jayhawks as David Padgett tries to help Langford to his feet. Langford scored a team-high 19 points in the Jayhawks' 78-70 victory over Kansas State Wednesday in Manhattan.

“They believe they are going to win,” Self said of the junior class — a group that also includes Michael Lee, who had five points and four assists in 21 minutes. “They were excited to play tonight. The way K-State played us the first time, they had our players’ respect.”

It showed in KU’s razor-sharp play.

The Jayhawks committed one turnover the first 20 minutes in building a 40-29 lead. That one turnover came with just over a minute left in the half, when Langford dropped a pass in the paint to Christian Moody, who had turned around thinking Langford would shoot the ball.

KU had 14 assists the first half; Miles recorded seven of the assists against no turnovers. The Jayhawks finished with a season-high 24 assists and season-low eight turnovers.

“We need to bottle that,” Self said. “That hasn’t been the case all year. We’ve been too careless.”

The Jayhawks also need to bottle the balance exhibited. Nine players scored in the first half.

“Nobody cares who gets the points,” Langford said. “The main thing was we played hard and moved the ball.”

Miles iced a big three-pointer right before the first-half buzzer, giving KU a 40-29 lead at the break.

The game was put out of reach following a 13-2 spurt that boosted a 47-37 lead to 60-39 with 12:59 to play. Freshman David Padgett scored four points, while Langford and Simien had five and four in that surge.

“They are our leaders,” Padgett marveled of the juniors. “Keith and Wayne’s scoring and Aaron’s passing help us every night, not just tonight.”

KSU (9-7, 1-4), which grabbed 22 offensive rebounds and had a 45-33 rebounding edge overall, did not quit, of course, using a 10-0 run to slice the gap to 64-55 at 8:13. The ‘Cats crept to seven points, 75-68, at :34 before Langford hit two free throws at :31 and Miles one of two at :20.

KU coach Self wasn’t worried about the lack of offense in the final eight minutes. The Jayhawks had no field goals in the last 7 1/2 minutes following a J.R. Giddens three.

“They stayed in a zone,” Self said of the Wildcats. “Do you want to shoot quick against the zone (with big lead)? If we didn’t finish great offensively, it’s my fault. I told our guys to use the shot clock more. They kicked our butts on the glass.”

The Jayhawks also used some zone, which appeared to confound K-State. KSU hit six of 20 threes to KU’s six of 19.

“The zone we played wasn’t effective at all. We weren’t able to rebound out of it at all,” Self said. “We played it to buy time for the foul situation.

Padgett, Giddens and Jeff Graves picked up two fouls apiece in the first eight minutes.

“We executed against their zone pretty well,” Self added. “Twenty-four assists and seven turnovers is the best we’ve done all year by a landslide. We were able to get the ball inside early in the second half, and that helped us against their zone.”

It all added to KU’s 21st straight win in Manhattan in the series, a fact the Jayhawks didn’t gloat about afterward.

“We had nothing to do with past history,” Langford said, “but we wanted to win tonight’s game for this team. We knew they would be fired up because people talk about it so much on talk shows and in newspapers.”

“Nobody had to mention it, people talk about it enough,” Padgett said. “I mean, we know people are talking about it and whether we can keep it alive. In our mind-set it’s winning a conference game on the road.”

Up next is Saturday’s game at Iowa State. Tipoff is 3 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum where the Cyclones are 11-0 this year.