Freshman ejected

Kansas University freshman Markieff Morris was ejected early in the second half for committing a flagrant foul after diving on the floor for a loose ball. It appeared one of Kent State’s players — perhaps Chris Singletary — fired an elbow at Morris, who may have swung back at him.

The incident never came close to erupting into a fight.

Marcus Morris said his brother said a KSU player “hit him in the mouth.”

“He showed toughness not backing down, but you’ve got to be smarter than that,” KU’s Sherron Collins said. “Next time he’ll do a good job of that.”

Morris was not ejected for fighting, so he’s eligible to play in Wednesday’s game against New Mexico State.

“Markieff said he got hit, then he said he got hit first. It made it sound to me like he retaliated there,” KU coach Bill Self said. “It was a flagrant foul, the same as going in for a layup and hitting him.”

Self was asked the proper way to respond.

“You always have to think of the team first and the next play. I’d be disappointed if we didn’t stand up to it, but I’m not sure a melee should ensue. To me, it’s always think the next play (and retaliate by play on the court).”

Alley-oop wiped off board

Marcus Morris completed an alley-oop pass to Cole Aldrich on an out-of-bounds play, which Aldrich dunked to close the half. The officials waved off the 40-foot pass from the side and slam, which came with .2 of a second remaining.

It was waved off because Aldrich caught the ball and dunked instead of just tapping it in. With .3 of a second or less left, a player cannot “possess the ball” and take a shot, just tip it in.

“It was the right call probably not to count it,” Self said. “I was proud of our kids. We had not worked on that (play).”

Self did think there should have been 1.1 seconds on the clock instead of 0.2 and said an official agreed with him.

“I’m not placing blame. If the battery packs (to stop and start clock) are not accurate, we should not be using them,” Self said.

Rankings

KU is ranked 25th in the USA Today/ESPN poll and unranked in the AP poll.

“I’m glad we were in there. It wouldn’t be a bad deal if we weren’t,” Self said.