It was easy to find Kentucky’s star player in the layup line. He was the real cool customer with the blue towel hanging over his left shoulder. He was the one the ESPN cameraman came nearly nose-to-nose with on the court until being shooed away by an assistant coach.

And then the game started. It was a little tougher to find Kentucky’s star because Kansas University’s Russell Robinson and his defensive supporting cast took UK’s Rajon Rondo right out of the game.

“I knew he was their key, so we tried to cut the head off,” Robinson said. “I think we did that today.”

He didn’t think it. He knew it.

In a game that will serve as a standard to try to attain for the remainder of the season, Kansas University suffocated Kentucky, 73-46, Saturday to the delight of a crazed Allen Fieldhouse crowd.

Not only has Ashley Judd, seated behind the Kentucky bench, seen better days, she never has seen a worse one.

Where was Rondo? Oh, there he was, with teammate Bobby Perry’s hand of a fully extended right arm in his chest. The other end of Perry’s wide wingspan was planted in teammate Joe Crawford’s chest. Perry was playing the role of a parent breaking up a fight between siblings. After a pass from Rondo to Crawford dribbled out of bounds, the two players began bickering at each other. It had come to that. The KU defenders frustrated the Wildcats until they began to turn on each other.

The Jayhawks so disrupted the offense Rondo tried to trigger that Kentucky didn’t have its first assist until more than five minutes into the second half. Sure, Kentucky missed some easy shots, but here’s the thing about shooters: When they don’t get many open shots, they don’t hit the ones they get.

“Russell did a real good job on Rondo,” said Brandon Rush, the star of the game. “Russell pressured him, and we showed strong help. Everybody was in the paint.”

Rondo’s usually the one doing the pestering, and in the opening minutes that was the case. By Self’s count, Rondo got his hands on the basketball three times, with Robinson handling it at the start and never again. Robinson did not turn the ball over once in 29 minutes, and the Jayhawks had just three turnovers in the first half.

Soaring above the rest of the traffic to get 12 rebounds to go with 24 points, Rush was the star, Robinson (12 points) the glue.

No better illustration of Robinson’s value came than when he requested and was granted a breather with 14:00 left in the game. As Robinson walked toward his seat, Self smiled, formed the No. 1 with his index finger and told him, “You’ve got one minute.” Sure enough, with a break in the action at the 13:04 mark, Robinson checked back in.

It was Robinson who ignited the loudest crowd reaction on the play of the day. Kentucky’s Patrick Sparks stole the ball near Kentucky’s basket and went in for what looked as if it was going to be an uncontested layup. Robinson blocked the shot.

“I didn’t even see Russell, then he comes from out of nowhere to block it,” Rush marveled.

At the next break, the normally stoic Robinson pumped his arms and let out a scream you only could see and not hear because 16,300 voices had beaten him to it.