2008 KANSAS BASKETBALL
17
FEBRUARY 2, 2008
Kansas overcomes tie at half, bounces back with victory
BY MARK DENT mdent@kansan.com
BOULDER, Colo. — The intensity and furor that Kansas showed in the nonconference season and early Big 12 play felt like a distant memory in the game's first 20 minutes. A loss to, gasp, Colorado, seemed like a possibility.
Kansas Coach Bill Self didn't want his team to lose its second straight game, especially to the dismal Buffaloes.
"No one is going to throw you a pity party because you lost a game," Self said to his team at the half with the game tied at 30.
And no one had to. Kansas (21-1, 6-1) won 72-59, using an 8-0 run to
open the second half, and put it away with an 11-2 run late in the game Feb. 2.
"I think coach changed it at halftime," sophomore guard Sherron Collins said. "We came out with more energy and changed it from there."
Collins and the other guards needed the talk the most.
They just weren't pressuring the ball like they used to. Earlier in the season, guards Collins, Brandon Rush, Russell Robinson and Mario Chalmers stole as easy as Danny Ocean's crew. On Feb. 2, though, they had about as much success with theft as the wet bandits from "Home Alone."
KU's defense didn't steal the ball
once in the first half, and the defensive woes went far deeper than that. Colorado's guards got almost any shot they wanted. Richard Roby made his first four shots, and Cory Higgins made all five of his in the first 20 minutes. They outplayed Collins, Rush and Chalmers, who scored a combined 10 points on four of 10 field goals.
Collins, Rush and Chalmers scored 22 points on eight of 13 shooting in the final 20 minutes. Roby and Higgins scored just 12, and all of them were Roby's. Chalmers sparked the early 8-0 run with two steals.
"I think they felt like they had something to prove," Self said.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Junior guard Mario Chalmers dunks in Kansas' victory at Colorado. The game, Kansas' first after its loss to Kansas State, was tied at halftime.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN