You know what they say about the National Basketball Association … that pro players just mess around until the fourth quarter and then turn it on.

That’s not always the case, of course, and it’s not always the situation with Kansas University’s No. 3-ranked men’s basketball team. But the Jayhawks did wait until the fourth quarter — or its equivalent — Saturday before they started taking Colorado seriously.

Not that you could blame them. Colorado hasn’t won in Allen Fieldhouse since Ted Owens was the Jayhawks’ coach, and that was more than two decades ago.

I’m not sure what the trigger was Saturday, but with about 13 minutes remaining and Kansas pussy-footing with a six-point lead, the Jayhawks exploded.

Keith Langford started doing what he does best by driving to the basket time after time. And Aaron Miles, who had been in an offensive Bermuda Triangle for a week or so, started launching shots again.

Something told them it was time to start playing, time to stop treading water, time to kick the butt of a team whose backsides were oh so vulnerable to their Nikes. And their windpipes, too.

“I’m just glad,” Langford said, “we can see what happens when we put our foot on somebody’s throat.”

I asked Langford what he thought had ignited the explosion that buried the Buffs under a 38-14 point onslaught in the last 13 or so minutes. The 6-foot-5 senior couldn’t put a finger on it, but he did mention an intangible that has been apparent most of the season.

“We don’t play well when we don’t think we have a chance to lose,” Langford said. “It’s the urgency switch. We have to turn on that switch.”

KU's Keith Langford, right, stiff-arms Colorado's Richard Roby. Roby, the Buffs' freshman phenom, had 14 points in 30 minutes against KU.

It’s no secret Langford has had more forgettable first 20 minutes than memorable ones this season. His mantra of changing shoes at halftime in order to change his performance has become part of KU basketball lore.

And yet, after scoring just two points and taking only four shots — three from beyond the three-point arc — in the first half, Langford did not switch his footwear this time. Instead, he slogged along until about 12 minutes remained, then counted 10 of his 14 points until coach Bill Self pulled the starters with a little less than four minutes remaining.

With Kansas scheduled to turn around and play Monday night at Texas Tech, Self clearly wanted to afford his starters as much bench time as possible so they would be fresher for the Red Raiders.

As it turned out, only Wayne Simien logged more than 30 minutes, so the best-case scenario of resting his starters worked out pretty well, if not to perfection. More rest would have been even better.

“To be honest,” the KU coach said, “if we’d have played right in the first half, we could have done it earlier. But it was nice we were not stretched to the very end, and those guys could get off their feet some.”

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The last time KU’s regulars logged fewer than 30 minutes on the floor was three weeks ago against Texas. In fact, that 90-65 romp over the Longhorns was similar to Saturday’s 89-60 decision over the Buffs.

If you’ll recall, that Texas game was also the first part of the Jayhawks’ initial Saturday-Monday assignment of the season. Two days after ripping the Longhorns, KU returned to Allen Fieldhouse, and, even with that unaccustomed Saturday rest, the Jayhawks didn’t set the world on fire in dispatching Missouri, 73-61.

In this Saturday-Monday set-up, the Jayhawks won’t have the luxury of home cooking twice. They’ll be playing a ranked team smarting after losing Saturday at Iowa State in its own barn.

On the flip side, though, the Jayhawks might be able to turn that negative into a positive because, for one of the few times this season, they darned sure have a chance to lose Monday night.

If you ask the KU seniors if they want to run the table in the Big 12 Conference, they’ll lapse into player-speak. Still, you know they would love to do it. A 16-0 league record would be a heck of a feat — a tangible legacy to leave if KU is destined to become one of the 65 teams that rolls snake eyes in the NCAA crap shoot.

Kansas needs six more victories to do it, and the Jayhawks can do it if they perform in those half-dozen games like they did in the last 10 minutes Saturday.