LAS VEGAS — Kansas had 43 points at the end of the first half. Ohio scored just 41 all game in the Jayhawks’ 98-41 rout of the preseason MAC favorite. It was the second consecutive game the Jayhawks could have literally not scored in the entire second half and still won the basketball game.
Bill Self wasn’t happy, though. He said it was the ugliest blowout he’d been a part of.
“I think our guys acted chippy, which is definitely a sign of immaturity,” he said.
The physicality or chippiness that dictated the tone of the Jayhawks win, began with a Ricardo Johnson flagrant foul on Elijah Johnson with 1:39 left in the first half and a 24-point Jayhawk lead.
“Sometimes believe in not being dunked on,” Elijah Johnson said. “If that’s how they feel, they probably will do that.”
Johnson had a clear breakaway dunk, but was tackled from behind by Ohio’s Johnson before he could complete the play.
“I thought it was a cheap foul,” Marcus Morris said. “I felt like, after that, it became personal.”
So much so that he talked to his teammates after the play. The Jayhawks had already been ripping the Bobcats — it was 40-16 at the time — but Morris wanted it taken to a new level.
“Everytime something like that happens it makes us think about Sherron,” Johnson said. “He used to get us so fired up when somebody did something like that, just get us jacked up. So that’s what Marcus did tonight. He just told us, ‘From now on you don’t let your man score on you. Point blank, period.’”
The impressive thing? Though the Bobcats had hit an abysmal 24 percent shots from the field before the flagrant foul, the Jayhawks actually made them shoot even worse (23 percent) from there out. The Bobcats were 0-for-18 from behind the arc.
Self said the Bobcats “just didn’t make shots,” but Ohio is the second opponent the Jayhawks have forced into an 0-for night from outside. At this point, it’s difficult to argue that the Jayhawks’ perimeter defense have more than a little to do with it.
The Jayhawks have developed an early reputation for staying on the throttle long enough to ensure a blowout and coasting in, but that wasn’t the Friday night. Self left his scrubs on the bench until there were less than three minutes left in the game. It was an ill-concealed fact that the foul on Johnson was at least part of the impetus for that.
“Could be,” Morris said with a smile. “I’m not saying it is. But it could be.”
The Jayhawks will need to continue with both the defensive prowess and the intensity Saturday night against an Arizona team that will no doubt be the toughest Kansas has faced all year. Led by 6-foot-8 sophomore Derrick Williams, the Wildcats boast the first real frontcourt test the Jayhawks will see. While the Jayhawks’ perimeter defense has been strong, their interior defense has remained something of a question mark.
Morris and Williams, who was averaging 19 points and nine rebounds entering Arizona’s late game against Santa Clara Friday night, faced each other this summer at Amar’e Stoudemire and LeBron James’ camps for NBA prospects. Morris said he was impressed with Williams, and that he wants the defensive assignment tomorrow.
“I want to guard him,” Morris said. “I want that defensive assignment to guard their best player.