Kansas City, Mo. ? With no one on his team standing over 6-foot-7, Toledo basketball coach Stan Joplin should’ve seen this coming long ago.

If he didn’t, Joplin surely came to the realization after Kansas University had a school-record 15 blocked shots -10 by players taller than any Rocket – in a 68-58 Jayhawk victory at Kemper Arena.

“It’s tough,” Joplin said, “to finish over a bunch of trees.”

Sasha Kaun (6-11) swatted four shots. Darrell Arthur (6-9) had three. So did Julian Wright (6-9), and even 6-6 Brandon Rush had four rejections of his own.

It was a doomed day from the beginning for the Rockets, with all that height constantly standing between the ball and the basket.

“If they are going to block shots against Florida, they are going to block shots against us,” Joplin said of the Jayhawks. “We tried to use our perimeter play as much as we can, but we still got to the basket, and they rotated over. We got the ball inside, but it’s tough to finish over those guys.”

Remarkable, then, that Toledo (2-5) actually had a 37-35 rebounding edge over Kansas. That helped keep the game close, with Toledo never once out of it and even getting the score within six late in the second half.

Like all season long, the Rockets relied on senior Keonta Howell (18 points), Justin Ingram (13 points) and Florentino Valencia (11 points, six rebounds) to lead the way. The Rockets survived KU’s hot first-half shooting, then went cold themselves when it was time to answer.

Of course, the 15 blocks by KU had something to do with it. Eight came after halftime.

“It was not a problem trying to run the offense,” said Howell, who averages 19.5 points per game. “But once you ran the offense, executed it well and thought you had an easy shot, someone would come out of nowhere and block your shot.”

Toledo dropped to 2-5, but it hasn’t played a game at home yet. Three games on the road and four more on a neutral court have tested the Rockets, who so far haven’t passed. Their lone victories have been close contests against Middle Tennessee State and Virginia Commonwealth.

Toledo’s next game will be its first at home – Saturday against North Carolina-Wilmington. Considering the sluggish start a month on the road brought, home couldn’t be a happier place to go at this point.

“I think our effort was good,” Joplin said. “We kind of panicked down the stretch, but I thought we had them where we wanted, and we just didn’t capitalize.

“When you play against a good team like this on the road, it’s very tough.”