Moments That Popped, Champions Classic: Kansas 89, Kentucky 69

The 15th-ranked Kansas Jayhawks became the first team in the Champions Classic to get to 10 wins, with a dominant, 89-69 beatdown of No. 24 Kentucky on Tuesday night at United Center in Chicago.

KU is the only team in the 4-team classic with a winning record against the three other opponents, with Tuesday's win moving Kansas to 4-2 against Kentucky in the early-season hoops event. KU is 3-2 against Michigan State and 3-2 against Duke, as well.

This one, however, was one of the more impressive wins by any of the four teams in the history of the event.

Tre White led the Jayhawks with a career-high 30 points and freshman forward Tyran Stokes added 23 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 4 assists.

Things started a little slow for Kansas, but they quickly found their stride around the 15-minute mark of the first half. After Kentucky built an early lead of 10-5 and led 15-11 nearly 8 minutes into the game, KU ripped off a 15-2 run to take control and led the rest of the half, pushing the lead to as many as 11 (42-31) at one point.

Kansas led by 10 at halftime (46-36) and then came out and started the 2nd half by showing that that wasn't nearly good enough. In teh first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, the Jayhawks turned that 10 point lead into a 22-point advantage, with elite ball movement and shot making continuing to give the Jayhawks open looks and whatever they wanted on offense.

Kentucky, meanwhile, struggled mightily on the offensive end, struggling to get good looks or run much of anything offensively. Give KU's effort and intensity, along with a breakneck pace, a ton of credit for putting the Wildcats on their heels for most of this one.

The Jayhawks (3-0) will take a week off of game action before returning to the floor next Tuesday night, when they take on UNLV in Las Vegas at the Players Era event, the first of three games in three days in Sin City for the Jayhawks.

Tipoff for that one is slated for 8:30 p.m. central on ESPN.

Here's a look back and some of Tuesday's action.

LIKES

• Holy Stokes! – It came down to Kansas and Kentucky in the recruitment for the Louisville, Kentucky native, and boy were the people in the Bluegrass State lamenting that they let him get out of the state on Tuesday night. Stokes exploded for 23 points, 10 rebounds and 4 dimes in 32 minutes, putting together a stellar first half that showcased darn near every aspect of his game, from outside shooting and passing to hustle and heart and everything in between. He also showed his fire and personality and appeared to be having a ton of fun on one of the biggest stages college basketball has to offer.

• KU's pace was outstanding – It didn't matter if it was Kentucky makes or misses, the Jayhawks played at an absolutely outstanding pace for most of Tuesday night. And that was without Melvin Council Jr. Give Leroy Blyden Jr., who replaced him in the starting lineup, a ton of credit for handling the moment and contributing to KU's desire to run early and often. He wasn't perfect, but he made a few plays and shots and did not look like he was overwhelmed by the moment. Even some of KU's jumpers – and a couple by Blyden – came after paint touches that broke down the Kentucky defense. The ball moved, the Jayhawks flew up and down the floor and they used their depth and experience to really take it to the Wildcats all night.

• TKR as a passer – It's such a thing of beauty to watch and it speaks to that elite intelligence and feel for the game that Kansas coach Bill Self has talked about with Trey Kaufman-Renn since his arrival. So much of his skill as a passer comes from understanding angles and offense. But he also has great touch and placement with his passes, especially on the many back cuts he likes to hit his teammates on. Plenty has been made about Stokes' skills as a passer, but there's no doubt that TKR is right there with him and the two of them together could be lethal in this department. Kaufman-Renn finished with 6 assists and 0 turnovers to go along with 12 points in 24 minutes. He's good, folks. Really, really, really good.

• Stokes' fiery personality – After drilling a 3-pointer in front of the Kentucky bench to put Kansas up 20-17 mideway through the first half, Stokes hit the Kentucky bench with his signature shark fin celebration. As he ran back down the floor, still screaming a little, the official nearest him told him to chill out. Stokes seemed to say, "I'm good," and the two moved on. On the very next KU possession, Stokes hit Christian Reeves with a dime for an easy two that led to a Kentucky timeout and Stokes' celebration as he ran to the KU bench featured all kinds of yelling and hype, with TKR bumping him as he reached the bench and yelling right along with him.

• Trent Perry was built for this stage – His energy fits, his effort can be felt all over the floor and the better things go, the better he plays. The KU freshman is not yet locked into a role of consistent minutes every night against every opponent, but he seems to really like these big time challenges and, so far at least, has done a great job of elevating his play to match them. In just a few minutes on the floor midway through the first half, he got a hustle steal that led to a dunk for Stokes, drew a foul by being a pest and hounded whoever he was guarding wherever they were on the floor. He also had a terrific finish over a Kentucky big man off of a perfect transition pass from Stokes. And he showed more than a little fire as he ran back down the floor.

• Mark Pope suited up – Kentucky coach Mark Pope, now in his third season at his alma mater after a stellar run at BYU, was decked out in an old-school gray suit for this one, instead of the more typical quarter-zips and casual wear that coaches have opted for in the post-COVID era. It's funny what we've gotten used to in such a short period of time. These suits — Rick Pitino at St. John's is another who loves the old look — really stand out now days when coaches opt to wear them.

DISLIKES

• Free throws. Yep, really – It didn't matter on the scoreboard because KU so thoroughly dominated so many other aspects of this game. But this team's free throw shooting is going to be an issue — and something that leaves them vulnerable at any time — until it's not. The Jayhawks shot 65% at the free throw line in this one, making 15 of 23 attempts from the stripe. Just something to keep an eye on and a bit of a nit-picky dislike on a night when most things went right for the Jayhawks. .

• Dawes' first two fouls – What a terrible call the second one was. As UK's Mason Williams drove to the rim in transition, with KU big man Keanu Dawes running with him. As they got near the block, Williams ducked his shoulder into Dawes, created just the slightest amount of contact and then missed the layup on the underside of the rim. Rather than the miss and KU ball going the other way, officials blew the whistle for the foul on Dawes. It was the second suspect foul called on the KU reserve in the game's first 7 minutes and while it didn't destory the Jayhawks on the scoreboard, it was an issue for their depth, with Kansas being down a couple of players to begin with in Melvin Council Jr. (broken foot) and Kohl Rosario (concussion).

• TK's shooting – Overall, he had a pretty great game. No moment was better than watching him chase down a Kentucky player to commit a foul and prevent a layup after a turnover that led to a pair of missed free throws. That, as much as maybe anything, was a tone-setter play for this night. So, yeah, Kinney was solid. He played hard, he dished 8 assists and he played 33 minutes as the Jayhawks' lead guard, who, as you know, was playing with the security blanket of veteran Melvin Council Jr. being out there with him. The only area he struggled, inside and out, was with his shooting, where he went just 1-for-9 on the night, including 1-of-4 from 3-point range. I like that he looks to be aggressive and a lot of times that means taking shots and getting downhill to attack the rim. But he's gotta get to a point where he starts making a few more of the shots he does take because there are simply too many other good options on this team with him.

WHAT THE?

• Early scrum – After Ousmane N'Diaye landed on top of Tyran Stokes in the game's opening minutes, he was called for a personal foul. As he stood over Stokes, with Stokes clapping with enthusiasm while lying on his back below him, Stokes friend and teammate Taylen Kinney came over to help him up and nudged his way between N'Diaye and Stokes. N'Diaye took offense to the move and shoved Kinney with two hands, momentarily creating a bit of chaos on the floor in front of the KU bench. N'Diaye's Kentucky teammates tried to wrap him up and calm him down, as assistant coaches and officials also tried to contain the skirmish. This game came with a fair amount of intensity from the jump, as games between these two typically do. Both Kinney and N'Diaye picked up technical fouls on the play and things calmed down considerably as officials reviewed the action on the monitor. N'Diaye's reaction was far more intense and physically imposing than anything Kinney did, but Kinney was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got dinged, too.

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