Some thoughts…from Omaha

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

“It was just what KU and its fans wanted, a first-round blowout. The Jayhawks got off to a quick start and though Portland State did cut it to six early, KU hit its outside shots and the Vikings never were a factor. Russell Robinson deserves credit for stopping Dominguez. He’s good, folks. On to Round Two. KU fans now can sit back and relax and watch some other games with KU not playing again until 5:50 p.m., Saturday.”

Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor

“Too old for first-round jitters and way too talented for Portland State, Kansas made sure this one was over before it started. The Jayhawks didn’t show up for the second half, by which time it didn’t matter in the slightest. They got what they needed to get out of this one, an angst-free victory and a healthy roster.”

Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor

“I’ve wondered, and I’m sure many of you have recently as well, just what’s gotten into Brandon Rush that’s pushing him to be so efficient offensively of late. The junior guard is averaging 21.7 points per game over the Jayhawks’ last three. I asked his good buddy, Mario Chalmers, and his fellow junior seems to think it’s because Rush is now officially comfortable playing without that bulky knee brace he donned for much of the season. Whatever the reason is, when Rush (and Chalmers) are shooting this well simultaneously, there might not be a team in the field of now 48 that can take out KU when you add in all the other pieces.”

Inside the numbers

17: Brandon Rush scored 15 of his 18 points in the first half – while it was still somewhat of a game. The most impressive part of his stat line, though, may have been his season-high 17 shot attempts. The showing included a 4-of-9 performance from distance.

3: Russell Robinson took slippery PSU guard Jeremiah Dominguez out of the game early with his sticky defense. The Big Sky Conference Player of the Year was held to 13 points. That’s only a point below his season average, but Dominguez was visibly frustrated by the size and quickness of KU’s guard set for much of the afternoon…er, morning.

1: Oddly enough, KU only outscored the Vikings by one point in the second half, 36-35. Thanks to a big first half, it really didn’t matter all too much.

12: The three-point lava flow which took over the Sprint Center in Sunday’s win over Texas for KU clearly carried over into Thursday, as KU hit 12 trifectas. Aside from Rush’s four, Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins each cashed three apiece.

13: The reason for all the open looks in the first half largely stemmed from KU’s excellent ball movement. KU tallied assists on its first six field goals, and on the day had 21 dishes on 33 conversions from the floor.

Just in case you missed it…

Jeremy Case cashed one of his two three-point tries late in the game, playing some mop-up duty. Given the nature of the NCAA Tournament, this might have been the final opportunity Case got to see the floor for extended time in his five-year Jayhawk career. If that’s the case, here’s a salute to one of the most genuine, good guys to ever come through the program.

Hopefully you didn’t miss it…

Don’t underestimate the value of again taking advantage of Darrell Arthur’s extended skill set inside. His 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting kept the PSU defense on edge for much of the night, and there wasn’t much he didn’t do well. Arthur also had seven rebounds and only two fouls in 27 minutes on the floor.

They said it…

Bill Self on his team’s overall performance: “I thought we played well the first half, second half I didn’t think we played very well. I thought, you know, 20-minute halftime is too long, then no matter how much you tell ’em ‘Hey, the score is 0-0, lets just go control the second half,’ I think the guys, we did relax a bit, and we made some pretty careless plays. But all-in-all, we played pretty well. We also played a lot of guys the second half, too. Sometimes that’ll throw off the continuity.”

Bill Self on advancing again as a one-seed: “I think that there’s no question that, I said this earlier, being a one-seed is great. But still, it will happen when a 16 beats a one. And when it does, it will be the intro to every NCAA Tournament for the rest of eternity, so you wouldn’t want to be known for that. I thought getting off to a good start relaxed our guys.”

Bill Self on going against Lon Kruger Saturday, who he took over for at Illinois before coming to KU: “Well he’s a great coach, and everybody knows that. He’s a fabulous coach, and he was a perfect guy to follow at Illinois, because the guys were well taught and he has no ego. So he was a great guy to follow, all he wanted was for Illinois to be successful. I have a lot of respect for him, and I was really happy with his great run last year with he and his son. They lost a lot of guys, but somehow he manages to get em playing at the most opportune time. They’re undersized, but sometimes undersized guys are scrappy and they get up under you and they will definitely try to pressure.”

Mario Chalmers on KU’s first half: “We put a stamp out there that we’re here to stay and we’re not going home anytime soon. So we’ve got to keep working hard and playing hard…I think it was just people finding open looks and getting comfortable with the gym, and I think shootaround yesterday really helped us out with that.”

Mario Chalmers on Brandon Rush’s recent surge: “I think finally he got his brace off. He’s comfortable without his brace now. I think he kinda struggled when he first got it off, but now he’s back to the old Brandon…I don’t think it was a mental thing, I think it was just something to try to get used to. That brace was kinda heavy, he got it off and he felt lighter.”

Sherron Collins on defending Jeremiah Dominguez: “Now I see how some people feel when they guard me. It was pretty hard to guard a little fella like that. That’s the first thing you’ve got to do is figure out how quick he is, how he adjusts his speeds and know what type of tempo he wants to do.”

Brandon Rush on the win in general: “It felt good, especially the first half, everything was going our way. We made shots, we rebounded the ball pretty good and we eliminated touches. It’s very nice to play that early. Now we get to sit around, see who we’ve got to play first, do all that scouting stuff and then just lay around, chill the rest of the day.”

Darnell Jackson on whether playing early Thursday gives KU an advantage Saturday: “It doesn’t give us an edge at all, because we can’t relax, can’t lose focus, can’t have any distractions, because the more we win, the next games are just gonna get harder and harder the more we play.”

Darnell Jackson on how good KU is with Rush and Chalmers shooting like they have of late: “It changes a lot, because the energy they had against Texas just carried over to today, and when they’re making shots like that, it spreads the offense for us, where it helps the bigs get easy shots. When we’re slipping to the basket we get lobs. Or the guards, when we set screens, the guards get in there and make plays. It helps when they’re knocking down shots.”