It’s not often one major-college basketball team builds a 43-8 lead on another.

But that’s exactly what happened 19 days ago when Kansas University rolled to a 35-point advantage in a 76-56 victory over Nebraska at Devaney Center in Lincoln.

“It was one of those days they couldn’t get anything to fall. I’m pretty sure they have a better team now,” KU junior Russell Robinson said Friday.

Apparently.

The Huskers, who hit 39.1 percent of their shots versus KU, have won three of four games and take a 15-9 record, 4-6 in Big 12 play, into today’s 3 p.m. contest against KU (22-4, 9-2) at Allen Fieldhouse.

“The whole thing is, we dominated them the first 17 minutes. They outscored us by 15 and controlled the last 23 minutes,” KU coach Bill Self said. “It was not that we weren’t trying to score or took guys out of the game. We didn’t do a good job of guarding the second half. We were really good the first half.”

NU center Aleks Maric (17.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg) was held scoreless the first half. He finished with nine points and six boards.

“K-State shut him out in the first half and he went for 41 the next time they played,” Self said.

Indeed, the 6-foot-11 Maric, who finished with 10 points in a 61-45 loss at Kansas State on Jan. 27, erupted for a career-high 41 points – one off Eric Piatkowski’s school-record 42 – in the Huskers’ 74-64 rematch Tuesday in Lincoln.

“The pattern would be he’ll probably be pretty good (today),” Self said.

Sasha Kaun, who did not start the second half of Wednesday’s win at Colorado, will open on Maric, Self indicated.

“It’s an important game for Sasha, especially with Maric here,” Self said. “You will not stop him with one guy. He’ll at least start out as our primary defender on him.”

Kaun said Maric, who hit three of eight shots versus KU in Lincoln, “is so strong. Against K-State he got 20 uncontested points. He just laid it up. The major thing is to not give him easy points.”

“We just have to use our defensive principles on him, not give him easy shots,” sophomore Julian Wright said. “We have to limit his touches, make it hard to catch.”

NU’s other double-digit scorer in the starting lineup is Ryan Anderson, a 6-4 freshman who averages 10.7 points and had 19 in the first meeting.

At one point in the second half, NU coach Doc Sadler removed Anderson from the game for yelling, ‘You better guard me,’ in the direction of the KU bench.

“I remember the game was already over. He hit a couple threes and decided to talk a little trash to the coaches and stuff. It was nothing big, nothing to get excited about,” Robinson said.

Nebraska's Aleks Maric (21) walks off the court after the Huskers' 74-63 victory over Kansas State. Maric had a career-high 41 points in the victory Tuesday in Lincoln, Neb.

Anderson’s former summer teammate, Mario Chalmers, said: “I don’t think it was directed to our bench. He was just kind of happy he hit some shots. It can fire us up, but we’re not worried about one person. We just have to play our game. He is a great pull-up shooter. He can catch it and shoot it.”

The Jayhawks say they are going to try to forget about the performances of Maric and Anderson in the first meeting. It’s a new game today, one KU likely must win to keep pace with Texas A&M in the league race. The Aggies, who also are 9-2, travel to Oklahoma today.

“We expect a fired up Nebraska team trying to get revenge for that loss we gave them up there. We have to play our game and be focused,” Chalmers said. “We have a good chance to win the league title now. We’ve still got to go out and do it.”

Memories of ’57?

Were you at the 1957 national championship game to watch KU and North Carolina in Kansas City, Mo.? If so, we want to hear your stories.

Also, if you have mementos of any kind from that game, let us know, so we can make it part of our 50th-anniversary special coming next month in the Lawrence Journal-World and on KUSports.com.

If so, call Ryan Greene at (785) 832-6357 or e-mail to editor@kusports.com