Some thoughts…from Allen Fieldhouse

Gary Bedore, Journal-World KU men’s basketball beat writer

“Brandon Rush had another big game against Nebraska with five threes. Who would have thought Maric wouldn’t score a point? Nice win for KU. The Huskers have to be plenty happy they won’t have to face the Jayhawks again for a long time. Unless there’s a meeting in the conference tournament. Easy win for KU, really easy.”

Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor

“These teams could play 1,000 times and the same team would win all 1,000 of them. Poor Aleks Maric. If he was unwise enough to put the ball on the floor a guard was there to swat it away. Whenever he ran to where he was going, a big body was there to chuck him along the way, and then another big body, and then another. When he was passed the ball inside, he was surrounded by hyperactivity, and size. He played as if waiting for something bad to happen and it usually did.”

Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor

“Gotta give the Jayhawks credit, since they knew the K-State questions were going to start coming once this game was out of the way. They’re taking the high road in terms of trash talk, not wanting to hit on the Beasley guarantee too much. As for Saturday, I’ll be the third to say it – rough day for Maric. All four times I’ve seen him play against KU, he has looked uncomfortable. This time, though, he didn’t have the numbers in the garbage minutes to cover it up. But after watching Beasley in Manhattan Saturday night, there’s a world of difference between No. 21 in red and No. 30 in purple. KU will certainly have its hands full.”

Inside the numbers

0: It was going to be enough of a task for Nebraska to overcome a tough road atmosphere in producing a better outcome than the 21-point loss it suffered to KU at home two weeks ago. Aleks Maric going scoreless certainly didn’t help things. The senior center was 0-for-6 from the floor with nine rebounds, three turnovers and three fouls in 21 minutes. He’s struggled his entire NU career against the Jayhawks. This set the bar for futility, though, in terms of numbers.

5: Brandon Rush again stroked five three-pointers against Nebraska, making him 10-of-14 from three-point range against the Huskers in two games this season, averaging 18 points per outing. He was especially money from the left corner, where he hit three of four looks in the first half. He also had eight rebounds.

25: KU’s sharing on offense again showed up sufficiently on the stat sheet. The Jayhawks had 25 assists on 32 converted field goal attempts. Mario Chalmers recorded seven of those dishes, despite an offensively silent night (three points on 1-of-6 shooting).

18: Darrell Arthur should get a little more credit than he will for producing 18 points on a tweaked calf muscle. He’s been offensively solid now twice this week even with that injury, but this time had seven rebounds as opposed to the one he had Wednesday night against Iowa State.

10: Sherron Collins scored 10 points and started to look like he’s close to 100 percent after suffering a couple of injuries in the past couple of months. The reason it’s significant, though, is because the Jayhawks could really use Collins playing the way he did at K-State last year again this Wednesday in the trip out west. In a 71-62 grinder last year on the road, Collins had 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

Just in case you missed it…

Bill Self will catch you here and there by pointing out a solid individual performance after the game that might not have been so obvious initially. Saturday it was senior Russell Robinson, who had nine points, four steals, three assists and was a pest for Nebraska’s backcourt to handle all afternoon.

Hopefully you didn’t miss it…

Darrell Arthur seems to have learned his lesson from earlier this season, when he was stepping out of his range just a bit too often on the offensive end instead of working it inside. In conference play, he’s shown toughness each night and has stayed in the paint. He is getting more and more efficient by the game on offense, Saturday going 8-of-13 from the floor. To boot, he rebounded like an absolute man. That’ll be needed against Michael Beasley on Wednesday.

Also, KU’s defense against overmatched opponents continues to be stellar, holding Nebraska to 15 points in the first half. At that point, it was legitimate to think the Huskers’ basketball team may not have been able to outscore the football team from its trip to Memorial Stadium (39 points).

They said it…

Darrell Arthur on his tweaked calf muscle: “(It felt) pretty good. It was bothering me a little bit, but I could play through it, so it was fine.”

Darnell Jackson on the Jayhawks’ defensive prowess against Nebraska: “Coach Self always gives us a challenge every game. He challenges us, and whatever he tells us to do, we go out there and try to meet that goal that he tells us to do when we’re out there playing. Today it was just defense – step it up, turn it on, go out there and have fun.”

Darnell Jackson on Wednesday’s trip to Bramlage: “We’re just gonna look at it the same way we looked at Missouri when we went down there. We’re just gonna go down there and focus, make sure we go over the scouting report real good and when we get down there, we’re just gonna play, don’t worry about mental mistakes and just play.”

Darnell Jackson on Michael Beasley’s guarantee: “I heard it, but it really doesn’t matter, we’re gonna play as a team – one guy can’t beat a team. Actions speak louder than words, and when it’s time for us to play we’re gonna go out there and play.”

Sherron Collins on memories of last year’s trip to Bramlage: “Chickens getting thrown on the floor, blackout, signs, people hollering…it was all right.”

Sherron Collins on going against Michael Beasley: “Texas had Durant last year, we had to stop him, now we’ve got to guard Beasley…I think Durant shoots it a lot better, but Beasley can shoot. Durant was just all-around game. He plays more inside, so I think we’ve got to do a lot more things with him than we did Durant.”

Sherron Collins on Michael Beasley’s guarantee: “It makes me smile, laugh a little bit. I think Huggins guaranteed a victory, too, last year.”

Bill Self on how the Jayhawks defended Aleks Maric: “We really didn’t do anything (special)…we trapped them some when they had two bigs in the game, but for the most part just guarded him. He got off some good looks that he normally makes, but for the most part limited his touches. Our perimeter pressure was good enough that they didn’t get the ball to him too easily in the first half.”

Bill Self on his team’s energy level: “I think our energy level was better, and Russell did a good job of heating up the ball up top. I don’t know if Mario got any steals today, but Russell was so active, he created a lot of havoc. And our big guys got some steals on some entry passes to the post, too, which was positive.”

Bill Self on the upcoming game at K-State: “I haven’t watched a ton of K-State yet. I love their personnel. I really like their team, Frank’s got them guarding, and their rebound margin is excellent, and they’re playing through two guys who are as talented as any two guys on the same the same team maybe in the country. And certainly one of them is going to be a top two-to-three pick, maybe No. 1, and the other one is definitely gonna make a lot of money to be a high first-round pick, so we’ll have to play at a level we haven’t played at here in the last couple weeks in my opinion.”

Bill Self on Michael Beasley’s guarantee: ‘That doesn’t bother me, because I’ll be honest with you, my guys have confidence. But regardless of what anybody says concerning predictions or anything like that, that won’t have anything to do with what happens between the lines. But that doesn’t bother me. We’ll talk to our guys about that. But when a guy is averaging 24 and 13, I think he has a right to talk a little bit.”