No. 1 Kansas hits groove
PHILADELPHIA – A half hour after Kansas’ 84-52 victory over Temple, KU freshman Xavier Henry wandered around a hallway at the Liacouras Center, wondering if he should emerge to sign autographs for the Jayhawks’ faithful still waiting in the stands.
Henry walked past Kansas assistant coach Kurtis Townsend, who told Henry that he probably should make an appearance.
“Just make sure y’all don’t leave me,” Henry pleaded to Townsend. “That’s all I’m concerned about.”
Leave Xavier Henry? The team’s leading scorer on the season and again on Saturday night with 15 points? The idea that Henry could be an afterthought when KU officials rounded up the Jayhawks for the bus ride to the airport would be absurd if not for the fact that, against the Owls, just about every player who stepped on the floor for Kansas looked like he could have led the team in scoring.
“We’ve got depth, and we’ve got a lot of good players,” KU coach Bill Self said. “But today, for the first time, it really didn’t matter who was out there.”
Saturday, for the first time, No. 1 KU looked the part for 40 minutes. Coming in, the Jayhawks, now 13-0, had only played well in tantalizing bursts, and none of those teasing performances had come against a top 25 opponent. Well, here was No. 18 Temple, a winner last month over then-No. 3 Villanova on this same floor. The Owls’ fans chanted “We want Kansas!” after that one and did not relent in poking the Sleeping Jayhawk on Saturday as they chanted “Overrated!” minutes before the game had even tipped. Big mistake.
The Jayhawks had already felt a growing discontentment among national critics who were picking Temple as a trendy upset pick to begin the new year, and being called out again by the Owls’ fans was the tipping point.
“We were on the losing radar all day,” KU guard Sherron Collins said, “on everybody’s losing radar.”
Collins, more than any other Jayhawk, has a way of sensing disrespect, imagined or unimagined. He heard the “Overrated!” chant and tried to put it out of his mind. It must have worked, because he scored the game’s first seven points for KU, which trailed just once (3-2) and had already claimed the game by halftime with a 40-23 lead.
“I let the ball do the talking,” Collins said.
The Liacouras Center was quiet throughout, except for what looked to be a couple thousand KU fans, who proved once again that they will go to any length to sing the “Rock Chalk” chant in an opposing venue.
“The great thing is, there are Jayhawk fans all across the country,” KU center Cole Aldrich said.