Kansas forward Marcus Morris grabs a pass in the paint between Ohio players D.J. Cooper (5) and Ivo Baltic (23) during the second half of the Las Vegas Invitational, Friday, Nov. 26, 2010 at the Orleans Arena.

Las Vegas ? Following Kansas University’s 98-41 men’s basketball victory over Ohio, Bobcats guard Ricardo Johnson immediately checked with his coach, John Groce, to see if KU guard Elijah Johnson was OK.

Ricardo was ejected in the final two minutes of the first half after undercutting Elijah on a dunk attempt. The play drew a flagrant foul.

“Ric’s a great kid,” Groce said. “I think he was just overanxious trying to prevent the layup, over-ran it and bum-rushed the guy.”

Groce said he didn’t have any issue with the officials ejecting Ricardo after a video review of the play.

“I trust those guys’ judgment,” Groce said. “They said it looked like a flagrant foul on the film. That kid wouldn’t hurt a flea. I’m trying to get that kid to be tougher. He’s one of the nicest kids on our team.”

The first-half flagrant was just part of a physical game that included 42 combined fouls.

“It got chippy between both teams,” Groce said. “Really, that’s not what we want to be about. Obviously, we want to do our talking with our play. We just didn’t play very well tonight, and Kansas had a lot to do with that.”

The Bobcats might have entered a little bit too excited. Groce said before the game he was trying to get his team “amped down.”

“We were intense,” Ohio sophomore guard D.J. Cooper said. “We wanted to play this game bad. Shots weren’t falling, so we got a little bit frustrated.”

The greatest frustration came from the three-point line. Ohio was 0-for-18 from beyond the arc, its worst outside shooting performance since an 0-for-19 effort against St. Bonaventure on Dec. 5, 1997.

“After a while, we started getting used to it,” Cooper said of his team’s missed three-pointers.

Ohio’s 41 points tied for the worst offensive output in the team’s last 15 seasons.

The Bobcats’ 23.7-percent field-goal shooting also was their worst effort in at least 15 years.

Groce said that he didn’t know how many teams were better than KU.

“Obviously, (KU) coach (Bill) Self probably wouldn’t want me to say this,” Groce said, “but in a game like today, just sitting there coaching, I don’t know how many weaknesses they have.”