Kansas University freshman guard Sherron Collins impressed again Wednesday with 10 points and six assists against three turnovers in 22 minutes. He hit two threes in two tries.

“The little man is playing well,” Kansas coach Bill Self cracked of the 5-foot-11 Collins.

Collins actually is shrinking. He says he’s just under 200 pounds now, which is a lot of lost weight for a guy who weighed about 220 when he arrived at KU.

“He takes pride in his diet now. He weighs himself every day,” Self said. “It’s saying a lot. He’s a guy who ate fast food two meals a day, or at least one, 18 years of his life. I don’t think he bought into it completely until a month ago. He’s really playing well. He’s had peaks and valleys already. He’s been very coachable.”

“It’s a lot of cardiovascular, watching what I eat,” Collins said. “I feel really good right now. The team is playing very well.”

¢
Stats, facts: Self is 5-5 against his alma mater, Oklahoma State. : KU opened the game on a 25-8 run in which five Jayhawks scored. Brandon Rush had 10 in that surge. : Rush set career highs in free throws made (nine) and attempted (10). His nine made free throws and 10 attempts in the first half were most in one half by a Jayhawk since Wayne Simien hit 11 of 11 against Colorado in 2005. : Mario Chalmers tied a career high with six steals. : KU’s 30-point victory margin was its largest in the series against OSU since a 104-72 win on Feb. 2, 1997. It was the largest margin of victory over a top-10 foe since a

33-point win over Marquette on April 5, 2003. : KU has won 16 straight conference openers; the last loss was to Oklahoma on Jan. 8, 1991.

¢
Sean is doing well: Self is not surprised Sean Sutton is off to a 15-2 start in his first year at Oklahoma State.

“He had an opportunity last year to begin the stages of making it his team,” Self said of Sean, who took over for his dad, Eddie, late in the campaign after Eddie took a leave of absence prior to his official retirement.

“That may have been a blessing in disguise as far as the transition. It seems to me they played better late last year and got confidence from that. They picked up where they left off last year at a much higher level. Usually when you have an outsider such as me (coming to KU) a few years ago or Mike (Anderson, Missouri) or Bob (Huggins, Kansas State) coming in, there may be a faction of guys that may fight it a bit. There’s no fighting it there (at OSU). They already knew it.”

Self actually coached Sutton when he was an assistant to Eddie Sutton at OSU.

“He was very smart beyond his years, playing with unbelievable feel for the game,” Self said. “He’s tough, competitive, understands the game, has a great offensive mind.”

¢
In the house: Travis Releford, a high school junior from Roeland Park Miege, attended, as did Xavier Henry, a sophomore guard from Putnam City, Okla. The Jayhawks are recruiting both players, who attended on unofficial visits.