Jayhawks find defeat hard to swallow

By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Reporter

Kansas’ reign as the top team in college basketball
didn’t last very long.

When the Associated Press poll is released today, it will show
Kansas bumped out of the No. 1 spot, which it held for just one
week.

The reason? UCLA’s dismantling of what was considered a
powerhouse offense in college basketball.

“Everything we tried to do, they reacted and
countered,” Kansas head coach Roy Williams said.

Going into the game, Kansas averaged 92.6 points per game, tops
in the NCAA. But UCLA held them to just 77 points, a season low for
the Jayhawks.

Williams blamed the low point total on errants shots taken by
his star player, forward Drew Gooden.

“Drew took shots that he had no business taking,”
Williams said. “Especially in the first half.”

Gooden was just 2-of-6 shooting in the first half, with just six
points. He finished with 22.

“It seemed like every time I caught the ball, I had a lot
of guys on me,” Gooden said. “But I had a bad game
““ a really bad game.”

Gooden’s bad game helped the Bruins snap the
Jayhawks’ 13-game winning streak, a mark dating back to an
early-season loss to Ball State in the Maui Invitational.

The loss to UCLA was also Williams’ first in the state of
California since taking over as the Kansas head coach in 1987. He
was 7-0 in the Golden State heading into Saturday’s
contest.

Besides a lack of offense, turnovers also played a key role in
the Jayhawks’ loss. They committed 16 turnovers in the first
half and finished with 21.

“With 16 turnovers in the first half, we were lucky to be
down by only 11 at halftime,” Williams said.

Williams also pointed out the team’s 10 personal fouls as
a reason for the loss.

“We gotta stop the cheap fouls and reach-ins,” he
said. “We didn’t do a very good job (with
that).”

But some of Williams’ players refused to take heat for the
loss.

Forward Nick Collison blamed the loss more on UCLA’s
intensity than Kansas’ own lack of rhythm.

“UCLA was real fired up to play us,” he said.
“But we knew they were gonna be good coming in.”

He then took a jab at UCLA, saying their next opponent, Oklahoma
State, will be an even tougher challenge than the Bruins.
“Oklahoma State is gonna be much better than UCLA,” he
said.