Warned by Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers of impending bad weather, the Jayhawks flew their charter plane to Lubbock on Thursday, instead of Friday.

As it turned out, the Lubbock airport remained open all day Friday despite light snow and freezing rain.

“In hindsight, we could have done it,” KU senior associate athletic director Larry Keating said of arriving the day before the game. “But it really looked bad for a while. The weather was bad just north of here.”

Texas Tech’s women’s team also flew charter out of Lubbock to Stillwater, Okla., Thursday for Saturday’s game against Oklahoma State.

KU had to spring for an extra night of room and board because of its early arrival. The charter cost remained the same.

The Jayhawks were able to depart Lubbock after 8 p.m. Saturday after a de-icing of the charter.

They landed a little after 9 without incident.

“We’ll look at it on a case-by-case basis,” Keating said of leaving for road trips earlier than usual the rest of this season because of ice and snow.

The league already has one postponement this year – last Saturday’s Oklahoma State game at Nebraska, which will be made up Monday, March 5.

Russell Robinson said coming a day early was no hassle and no reason for a 69-64 loss to Tech.

“We came up early. It was almost like the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “We got some practices in, went to a movie (The Hitcher). We watched a lot of film. Everybody got enough rest like a normal trip. We just came a day earlier.”

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Bears vs. Saints today: KU sophomore Julian Wright, who hails from Chicago, is a Bears fan.

“Yes, I’ll watch the game. And yes, they’ll win,” Wright said of today’s NFC championship game against the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field.

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Good defense: Robinson held Tech’s leading scorer, Jarrius Jackson, to no field goals in three tries during the first half.

“I think I did a good job on him early, but he got free throws late, and that maybe gave him some confidence,” Robinson said.

After hitting three free throws late in the half, Jackson scored 12 points in the second 20 minutes.

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Notes: The Jayhawks lead the all-time series against Tech, 16-3, with all three losses in Lubbock. : Texas Tech is 9-1 at home this season. : Tech lost to Baylor, 73-70, last Saturday. Baylor was drilled by Oklahoma, 91-51, Saturday. KU will play Baylor on Wednesday night in Waco.

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Bob Knight on the fans storming the court after the game: “I didn’t understand why all the fans were on the court. Then I realized it was because we broke our record again.”

Knight, of course, recently broke Dean Smith’s record for all-time coaching victories.

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Good crowd considering: Because of bad weather, Texas Tech provided a free student shuttle running a continuous route from campus dorms to the arena and back. The shuttle ran for an hour and half before the game and continued afterward until all students were taken back to their dorms. One parking lot was closed because of the possibility of falling ice.

All the extra effort helped, as 11,469 fans attended on a wintry day. The building seats 15,098.

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Head coach designate: Pat Knight will take over for his dad, Bob, the day the Hall of Famer decides to retire. Like Sean Sutton did for his dad, Eddie, the last couple of seasons at Oklahoma State, Pat sometimes subs for Bob at media sessions.

“We’ve been working on attitude and being competitive,” Pat told the Lubbock Avalanche Journal before the game. “We were like a team of tin men (in a three-point loss to Baylor on Jan. 13). We had no heart.”

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On Knight: KU sophomore Brandon Rush was asked if it was neat playing against the legendary Knight.

“Not really. It’s just another Big 12 conference game. He passed the record. I’m not really worried about that. He’s not on my team.”