KU hoops notebook

Mario Little on the loss

“I was surprised at our turnovers (18). We never got in the flow of our offense. We started our offense at halfcourt. We couldn’t execute basically the whole game.”

Big 12 race

KU is two games behind Texas in the league race.

“I mean, our focus is to be Big 12 champs,” Little said. “Every day when we break (huddle) we say, ‘Big 12 champs.’ After the regular season we say, ‘National champs.’ We’ll put our heads down and keep working. We still have NCAA … that’s our main goal.”

Tyrel Reed on KU’s play

“Obviously we are upset with the way we played, but give K-State credit. They caused us to play bad. I don’t think we came in prepared and in the mind-set that we needed to have. We knew it’d be a tough game because this is always a tough place to play. But we are not going to panic. There are obviously things we need to do better. So we will go watch film and get ready for our next game.”

Marcus honored

Kansas University junior forward Marcus Morris on Monday was named Big 12 player of the week for the third time this season.

Morris averaged 19.0 points and 9.5 rebounds as Kansas recorded home victories against No. 19 Missouri (103-86) and Iowa State (89-66). He had 22 points off 7-of-9 shooting versus Missouri and 16 points off 7-of-12 shooting with 11 rebounds against the Cyclones. Morris also earned Big 12 Player of the Week honors Jan. 17 and Nov. 29.

Poll topper

KU on Monday moved to No. 1 in the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls. KU has been ranked No. 1 at some point in five of coach Bill Self’s eight seasons at KU.

Tidbits on being No. 1: This marks the 19th time in the Self era that KU is No. 1 in both polls. … This marks the 34th-straight week KU has been ranked No. 7 or higher in both polls. In that span, KU has been ranked in the top five 30 times. Under Self, KU has been ranked in the top 10 in 95 AP polls and 98 ESPN/USA Today polls.

Big 12 in the polls

With Baylor ranked No. 1 in the women’s poll, this gives the Big 12 the top team in both sports for the first time in conference history.

Texas is ranked second in the coaches’ poll and third in the AP. It’s the second straight season the Big 12 has had the top two teams in the rankings. The first time it happened was on Nov. 30, 2009, when the Jayhawks were first and UT was ranked second. … KU and Texas were ranked first and second, respectively, for six consecutive weeks during the 2009-10 campaign. … The Big 12 is the only conference in the country with every team ranked in the top 150 of the latest RPI. Seven squads are among the top 64.