LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas coach Bill Self called his team "selfish" and "soft." Senior guard Tyshawn Taylor bemoaned an "ugly" performance.
Just imagine what they would have said if Kansas lost.
Thomas
Robinson bailed out the fifth-ranked Jayhawks by scoring 16 of his 18
points in the second half Monday night, leading them to a 64-54 win over
scrappy Texas A&M.
"We didn't play well in the first half,"
said Self, whose team trailed by two at the break. "We did some better
things in the second half, but still, that wasn't very good playing."
Could have fooled Aggies coach Billy Kennedy.
"Kansas is very aggressive and very good defensively," he said. "We have to do a better job of being a little more physical."
Tyshawn
Taylor added 17 points in another solid performance, and Kansas (17-3,
7-0 Big 12) used a big surge through the middle of the second half to
wrap up its 10th consecutive victory and extend its winning streak at
Allen Fieldhouse to 17 in a row.
Kansas is 18-1 against Texas A&M (11-8, 2-5), the lone loss coming in February 2007.
"I
feel like a win in conference -- a win like this is ugly, but all the
wins in conference count," Taylor said. "It wasn't pretty."
Elston
Turner had a career-high 24 points and David Loubeau added 15 for the
Aggies, who played without starting forward Khris Middleton, their
second-leading scorer. He missed the game after tweaking his right knee
over the weekend, the same one he had surgery on in November.
Senior guard Dash Harris also was hobbled but played the entire game.
"You
look at how limited we are, you lose Khris Middleton, that puts a lot
of pressure on our team," Kennedy said. "We really struggle
offensively."
They struggled to contain Robinson, too.
One
of the leading candidates for national player of the year, the junior
forward was held to two points in the first half on 1-for-6 shooting, as
Texas A&M collapsed two or three defenders on him whenever he got
the ball in the post.
He started bulling his way to the basket
more effectively in the second half, going to the foul line 10 times --
and making all of them. He also finished with 10 rebounds.
"The
defense was trying not to let me touch it, so I had to knock my free
throws down," Robinson said. "I just kept posting up. I just got the
whistle more in the second half."
The Jayhawks threatened to turn the Big Monday matchup into a big snooze early on.
Taylor
picked up right where he left off the past three games, hitting his
first basket and then adding a 3-pointer as Kansas raced to an 11-0
lead. Texas A&M turned it over on four of its first five possessions
and missed its first four shots along with two free throws.
The
teams traded baskets before the Aggies went on a 16-2 run that gobbled
up nearly 5 minutes, gave them the lead and silenced another packed
house at Allen Fieldhouse.
Naji Hibbert started it with a
3-pointer and Turner added another of his own. Even freshman backup
Daniel Alexander got into the act, hitting a pair of 3-pointers after
coming into the game having made two all season.
"The whole team had to step up," Turner said. "We showed glimpses."
Kansas
pulled even at 28 when Jeff Withey converted a three-point play with
3:44 left, but that was the final basket until Dash Harris' layup at the
buzzer gave Texas A&M the halftime lead.
The game remained
close until Robinson converted a three-point play with 6:55 left that
gave Kansas a 47-42 lead. Robinson added two free throws on the next
trip -- at that point he'd scored 11 of the Jayhawks' 13 second-half
points -- and Elijah Johnson's jumper made it 51-42.
The lead
reached 55-53 when Withey scored in the post and made a couple of free
throws, and then Robinson answered two foul shots by Turner by tracking
down a rebound, putting it back on the glass and getting fouled in the
process. The free throw made it 58-47.
Kansas managed to coast
the rest of the way against the team that was picked by the league's
coaches as the co-favorite to win the Big 12 along with the Jayhawks.
While
Kansas remains the lone unbeaten team in conference play, Texas A&M
has lost seven of its last 10 and is already in danger of playing
itself out of the NCAA tournament.
"I'm proud of the way our guys
competed. I thought we gave ourselves an opportunity to win. Thomas
Robinson and their length, and their free throw shooting, was a big key
in them getting the win," Kennedy said. "I thought we executed our game
plan about as well as we could tonight."
It just wasn't good enough.
