By Nick Gray

[email protected]

This was Kansas. It was not supposed to be this easy.

UK’s opponent was not a middle-of-the-pack MAC team or a mid-level SEC roster. It was Kansas, a top-five team that was reloaded, fast and athletic as ever under head coach Bill Self. The Jayhawks were picked to win the Big 12 and are alongside UK among college basketball’s elite.

But the Cats manhandled the power early and never took their foot off of the gas in a 72-40 win that was never in doubt.

UK whipped Kansas primarily because it was the bigger and tougher team around the basket. The Cats set the tone with five blocks in the first eight minutes. Easy breakaway layups were swatted away by junior forward Alex Poythress. A peek at the rim by a Kansas guard was swiped by junior forward Willie Cauley-Stein or sophomore forward Marcus Lee.

The Jayhawks put together a 7-1 run to finish the half down by 10 points. But they were already worn and torn from battling with UK’s big men for 20 minutes.

And for the final 20 minutes, it showed. Kansas sophomore guard Wayne Selden and freshman forward Cliff Alexander combined to miss three consecutive layups over UK’s rotating cast of big men. When the bigs were out of the paint, Selden left an easy jumper short.

The story was the same all game for Kansas and UK. The Cats pushed Kansas around and the undersized Jayhawks ran out of gas.

Statistical proof that Kansas was gassed, besides UK’s decided advantages in points in the paint and rebounds, lay within the Jayhawks’ free-throw numbers. At one point in the second half, Kansas missed more free throws (12) than it made (11). For the Jayhawks, there was not enough time in the world at the line to rest.

UK wasn’t necessarily a flawless and efficient basketball team on Tuesday. It shot under 40 percent in the first half and hovered around that margin throughout the game. Freshman forward Karl-Anthony Towns and sophomore forward Marcus Lee got into foul trouble early in the second half as they’ve tended to do so far in this young season.

The Kansas team UK beat will become a good basketball team as the season progresses. The Jayhawks were not particularly lacking in terms of getting open shots and forcing bad possessions on defense. The Cats were just that much better around the rim.

Bigger is better, and that was magnified by the Cats’ suffocating effort.

With 1:21 left, when UK led by 29, walk-ons Tod Lanter, Sam Malone and Brian Long entered the game. The substitutions were a sight to be seen in UK’s exhibitions of the past, against maybe Pikeville or Transylvania.

But on Tuesday, they played against Kansas.