Moments That Popped: No. 8 Kansas 81, Oklahoma State 69

It was the perfect response to a bit of a dud over the weekend, and it led to a relatively easy and ultra-efficient road win for the 8th-ranked Kansas basketball team over Oklahoma State, 81-69 on Wednesday night in Stillwater.

KU jumped out of the gate with ferocious energy and never looked back. Things went so well in this one, even freshman wing Kohl Rosario finally saw a 3-pointer fall during the second half.

You could hear the Rock Chalk Chant filling Gallagher-Iba Arena as the final seconds ticked away.

The Jayhawks never trailed, led by as many as 23 point as one point in the first half and spent the entire second half leading by double digits, despite Oklahoma State having a few moments of good basketball.

Those moments for the home team were too few and far between, though, and the Jayhawks had a lot to do with that.

Kansas won the battle on the boards, the war in the paint, 2nd-chance points and bench points. It was a complete team victory in which everyone who played contributed in a meaningful way.

Bryson Tiller snagged 10 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists and three other Jayhawks scored in double figures, with a fourth missing by just two points.

The Jayhawks have now won 9 of their last 10 games and will head into the final five games of the regular season with a real chance to challenge for a Big 12 title. They'll have to win some big, big games in the next couple of weeks and may still need some help. But each of the teams still in the hunt for the regular season crown has its own share of tough slates the rest of the way.

Next up, KU (20-6 overall, 10-3 Big 12) will return home for two games — 11 a.m. Saturday vs. Cincinnati (noon on CBS) and Monday night against No. 2 Houston (8 p.m. on ESPN's Big Monday).

Here's a look back at some of the action from KU's mid-week trip to Stillwater, Oklahoma.

LIKES

• Sensational start - The Jayhawks played better and possibly even harder in the first 5 minutes of this one than they did all day on Saturday in a loss at Iowa State. Credit that game for reminding the Jayhawks that they have to bring it from the jump whenever they hit the floor. They did exactly that on Wednesday night and raced out to a 19-6 lead, showing urgency, intensity and a strong sense of purpose throughout the first half.

• Sooooo connected - They've had a few other games where they were whole and running at top speed. But this one really stood out, in part because it was on the road and in part because of how unbelievably well they played off of each other and with one another. Hard cuts, crisp passes, quick decisions. You can't make all of that work quite like Kansas did at OSU unless you're very in tune with one another. Despite how this season has gone in terms of Kansas having its whole roster, the Jayhawks have found a way to develop that and they appear to be fine-tuning it at the moment. This could be a product of Self basically deciding to play just 7 guys throughout most of the Big 12 season.

• DP kicks it up a notch - Not offensively. He was the same, 3-point shooting, smooth-operating cat that we've seen for most of the season — when he's been out there. Where he really showed a new gear in this one was in all of the other areas. Blocking a jumper near the free throw line in the first half with his defense. Hitting the offensive glass to get his own miss with incredible effort a few minutes later. And he did it all without so much as a peep. Just a man doing his job and doing it really, really, really well. DP finished the night with 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including a 6-of-10 clip from 3-point range. He played just 18 minutes in the blowout win — 15 in the first half and 3 in the second.

• Knockout sequence - Oklahoma State had a little momentum building early in the first half, but there was a sequence with around 16 minutes remaining that really hurt the Pokes. With OSU big man Parsa Fallah feeling himself and playing well, he caught the ball in the post and went right at KU big man Flory Bidunga again in the paint. But this time, Bidunga elevated just a tick higher and rejected the Fallah shot right at the rim. That led to a KU run-out and an open 3-point look by Elmarko Jackson, which he buried to put Kansas up by 15 points, which allowed the road team to regain control of the contest. Bidunga finished the night with 4 blocks to go along with 8 points and 11 boards, and continued his surge as arguably the best defender in the Big 12 Conference.

DISLIKES

• 11-0 OSU run - The Jayhawks weren't great defensively during this stretch late in the first half, but their offense wasn't very good either. OSU might've found a way to get it going a little more with effort, some buckets at the rim and a couple of jumpers falling. But if KU had continued to execute on the offensive end during the run, the Pokes would not have cut into what was a 23-point KU lead quite as much. It wasn't a devastating run. And KU still led by 14 at halftime, 43-29. But the Jayhawks definitely let up just a little to give Oklahoma State a little hope late in the first half.

• A step slow to rebounds and loose balls early - It was weird because these moments — and there were only a couple — came during the first couple of minutes of Wednesday's game. And, looking back, maybe that was what sparked the Jayhawks to play such good ball in running away from Oklahoma State early in a game that was never really close. After those initial lazy moments, there weren't many more the rest of the night. Kansas was simply fast, effective and fully in control of their fifth true road win of the season.

• DP sits - He had another one of those first halves that made you think, man... he might go for 40 or 50 tonight. And then he played just 3 minutes in the 2nd half of the run-away win and appeared to check himself out after draining his only shot of the second half in front of the KU bench. People will hate it. It will continue to be a story and one of the first things people talk about when they talk about Kansas and it will be annoying. You know who it's not annoying for? The Jayhawks. They don't care. They're not distracted. And they'll take the 20+ points from DP no matter how many minutes he plays. On to the next one.

WHAT THE?

• "Jayhawk"??? - I swear I saw Oklahoma State coach Steve Lutz tell his team, early in this game, to run "Jayhawk" on its next offensive possession. That's not exactly new. Coaches across the country have used team mascots or the name of the school to call their sets. But to see a Big 12 foe use a play called "Jayhawk" against the Jayhawks was pretty funny. It also didn't really work. A couple of down screens and a flare to the wing opened up the lane for OSU to pound the ball into Christian Coleman in the paint as he posted up Darryn Peterson. But Coleman couldn't finish the shot. It looked like the Cowboys actually may have run "Jayhawk" on back-to-back possessions and neither one was all that effective.

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