Notebook

A Nike-brand basketball was used in a Kansas University game for the first time this season.

KU normally uses Wilson.

“It’s my first time playing with one,” KU’s Mario Chalmers stated. “But I’m not going to make excuses. It’s a little more slippery. We practiced with one to get ready.”

Chalmers had 11 points, six assists and two turnovers.

¢ Downs plays: Micah Downs, who has a sprained right hand and played with two taped fingers, had four turnovers, with one assist and one rebound in seven minutes.

Asked why he turned to Downs, who hasn’t been used much lately, KU coach Bill Self said: “If you are going to play (Richard) Roby, we tried Stephen (Vinson) on him. We then went with the tallest guy. We could have put Rod (Stewart) or Micah on him. To me it’s what we needed to do.”

¢ Self says: “This is like Forrest Gump (saying), ‘Life is like a box of chocolates.’ It’s the way it is with our team. You never know game to game who will be the guys to step up. Fortunately tonight it was Darnell (Jackson), with C.J. (Giles) and Sasha (Kaun) not giving much production.”

¢ Faces in crowd: Ex-Jayhawks Mark Randall and T.J. Pugh attended. Randall works in community relations with the Denver Nuggets, while Pugh, a graduate of medical school, is working a residency at several area hospitals.

¢ The best Rush of all?: CU coach Ricardo Patton, on the fact Rush is the brother of former UCLA standout JaRon and current Charlotte Bobcats player Kareem.

“That’s quite a family,” Patton said. “But I think this kid will be the best of the bunch.”

¢ Roby likes KU program: Roby on the Jayhawks: “Kansas is Kansas,” he said, referring to the fact the program will always be powerful, even with a young roster. “Kansas has a lot of talent but when you have a young team the season is going to go up and down.”

¢ First hostile crowd: Wednesday’s game marked KU’s first true road game of the year. The Jayhawks would have been able to prepare for a hostile crowd in December at Georgia Tech, but the Yellow Jackets double-booked the arena for first-semester graduation.

KU’s only three trips from Lawrence were to the Maui Invitational, the Coaches Vs. Cancer contest in New York against St. Joe’s and to face Cal in Kansas City, Mo.

“The Garden feel was very neutral,” Self said of the New York trip. “The Maui games were split 50-50 with fans of Arkansas and Arizona. Last year we hadn’t played a true road game until Kentucky (in January), and we did pretty well there. Last year we played a nonconference game after the conference season had started (at Villanova). That’s not an ideal situation.”

Self is in favor of completing the nonconference schedule, then entering conference play uninterrupted through the Big 12 postseason tournament.