One thing you can say about fans in Kansas State’s raucous student section in Bramlage Coliseum: They love their signage.

K-State’s students were flashing signs in abundance Wednesday night prior to Kansas’ umpteenth straight basketball victory over the Wildcats.

“Revenge 4 Football” was one. That’s a new one, of course, because KU knocked off the Wildcats in football last fall for the first time in more than a decade. Anyway, no revenge.

“The Streak Ends Tonight” was another. Actually, the sign should have read, “The Streaks End Tonight,” because KU now has won 29 straight games from the ‘Cats and 22 in a row in Manhattan, but why worry about grammar at a time like this?

One more sign. “Jesus Saves. Repent Sins.” Well, one out of three isn’t bad. It was Ash Wednesday, after all.

Now it’s my turn. If I could have held up a sign on press row, mine would have read: “Kaun Can.”

In fact, I’m not sure Kansas would have won this game if it weren’t for Sasha Kaun, the angular 6-foot-11 native of Russia who suddenly has become the only freshman coach Bill Self is counting on down the stretch.

Granted, Kaun doesn’t possess flashy offensive skills, and his free-throw shooting is dreadful — his two missed foul shots Wednesday made him a frigid 5-for-22 from the stripe on the season — but Kaun definitely can play defense.

When starter Christian Moody had a dickens of a time trying to guard Kansas State wheelhorse Jeremiah Massey, Self inserted Kaun, and darned if Massey didn’t virtually disappear.

After being fouled by Moody just 70 seconds after tipoff and converting a conventional three-point play, Massey went scoreless for the next 18:12. He missed seven straight shots during that span.

Kaun deserves the credit for disrupting Massey’s rhythm.

“In the first half, Sasha did a great job on him,” Self said. “He was 2-for-9, and we kept him off the free-throw line.”

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Notably, Kaun did the defensive job on Massey without getting into foul trouble as Moody did. Kaun logged 26 minutes on the night — eight more than he has in a single game all season — and was whistled for just two fouls.

Moody, in the meantime, fouled out after spending only nine minutes on the floor.

In large part, Kaun was more successful against Massey because he’s four inches taller than the K-State standout, while Moody is only an inch taller. Too, Kaun moves his feet better than Moody.

But Moody is a veteran, and Kaun just a freshman, and, as any coach will tell you, freshmen don’t know how to play defense. In this case, though, Kaun knew enough.

“He’s left-handed,” Kaun said of Massey, “and we tried to eliminate his left hand. We did eliminate some of his shots. Our main goal was to make him shoot over us.”

Massey made four of seven shots from the field and seven of 10 free throws in the second half, but Kaun’s ability to neutralize Massey in the first half placed the ‘Cats in a position where they had to spend three-fourths of the night coming from behind, and, of course, they never did.

Usually a box score tells you everything you need to know about a basketball game. You can see that Keith Langford scored 24 points and that Wayne Simien had another double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds.

At the same time, you can’t miss J.R. Giddens making four of six three-point attempts and scoring 18 points. On the flip side, it’s easy to an imposter was wearing Aaron Miles’ numbers because the usually steady senior wound up with only one point and eight turnovers.

What you can’t see in black and white, though, is the defensive handiwork of Kaun, who was playing in Bramlage Coliseum for the first time and hardly was overwhelmed by anti-KU atmosphere.

“For me, it was just another game,” Kaun said. “Some things went well.”

Actually, a lot of things went well. On this night, Kaun not only could, but did.