Tucson, Ariz ? In college basketball, the road can be mined with phantom fouls and hostile crowds. Kansas University sophomore center Cole Aldrich encountered both Tuesday night in the McKale Center, home of the University of Arizona.

Hacking into a towel while sitting on the bench, Aldrich appeared as if traces of the flu still were running through his body.

Yet, none of those factors came close to being the No. 1 reason Aldrich couldn’t make his typical big contribution to the Jayhawks. The biggest reason was Arizona junior Jordan Hill, and he played even bigger than his listed measurements of 6-foot-10 and 235 pounds.

Sometimes the road is paved with better players, too, and Aldrich faced one. Hill’s a little stronger, a little quicker, a little more explosive, a little more clever with his footwork and a little more experienced than Aldrich.

The way Aldrich came off the bench and neutralized Tyler Hansbrough in the Final Four and then, in November, took it to celebrated Washington forward Jon Brockman in Kansas City and was praised for it by no less an authority on basketball than ESPN’s Bob Knight, it became easy to forget Aldrich still isn’t all that experienced a college basketball player.

Hill took him to school in Arizona’s come-from-behind 84-67 victory, and with each lesson learned, Aldrich will improve.

“I wasn’t a factor in the game at all, and Jordan, he’s a beast,” Aldrich said. “That’s how it is. He’s a heck of a player.”

Aldrich recounted what made Hill such a difficult matchup for him: “He’s really long. He’s athletic as all get-out. He faces you up and jabs you, and he likes that spin. He’s just a great all-around player. He’s by far the best big guy we’ve faced so far this year. He’s just so good.”

Hill finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots. Aldrich totaled 10 points and four rebounds and like the rest of his teammates didn’t block a shot.

Aldrich attempted just four field goals in 23 minutes and was even less effective at the other end. Hill made 11 of 23 shots from the field.

“He’s played better than this,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of Aldrich. “He doesn’t have to be great, but he has to at least give them something to guard, and we didn’t give them anything to guard. Certainly, defensively we were no resistance. That was as bad a whipping as I’ve seen a 5-man give a collection of 5-men. He could get any shot he wanted. Fortunately, he didn’t shoot the ball great, but they got the rebounds when he missed. … He’s a terrific player. He’s a pro. That’s what real post players look like.”

They look like Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin.

“Cole’s going to go against other good big guys, and our second-best player needs to be able to outplay other guys’ big guys,” Self said. “It’s not all on him because that’s a tough matchup for him because Jordan’s so big and athletic, but certainly Cole wasn’t aggressive. He didn’t put us in a position to be in the game. We’ll watch tape. He’ll learn from it. He’ll get better.”

So will Kansas, one of the youngest teams in Division I. It will have to improve in order to pass the many challenging road tests on the Big 12 schedule.