By Wendell Barnhouse
Big12Sports.com Correspondent
LAWRENCE, Kans. – Check that dateline, the origination, the location of this report. As they like to say in Rock Chalk Country, the Big 12 Conference regular-season champion still comes through here.
At least that’s how it appears as the second round of the round-robin schedule begins. That’s because Wayne Seldom turned back into Wayne Selden after halftime to spark the eighth-ranked Jayhawks to an impressive 89-76 Big Monday victory over No. 11 Iowa State.
“It’ll be fun to watch how this plays out over the last nine games,” Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg said after the Cyclones’ 10th consecutive loss in Allen Fieldhouse. “It’s tougher than hell to walk out of here with a win.”
KU won the first-half championship but to get the complete title. They have nine conference games remaining with five on the road; the Jayhawks have yet to play West Virginia, which is alone in second place now heading into Tuesday night’s game at Oklahoma.
“We’ve put ourselves in a favorable position but it’s way too premature to start thinking about that,” Kansas coach Bill Self said when about his team’s chances of winning an 11th consecutive regular season title. “We have to play at Oklahoma State (Saturday) and historically we haven’t played well there. We’ve got five road games left and if we don’t play well we’ll go 0-5.”
The Jayhawks (19-3, 8-1), though, are playing well. Iowa State (16-5, 6-3) ran KU out of Hilton Coliseum on Jan. 17, using a blistering fast break to post an 86-81 victory. Sweeping the season series would have put Iowa State in a strong position for the second half of the race. But the Cyclones were far from perfect on a night when near-perfection was needed.
The Jayhawks went over six minutes without a field goal in the game’s first eight minutes. Iowa State, though, could only build a seven-point edge, going up 16-9 with 9:46 to play. Five turnovers helped short circuit the visitors’ offense as the Cyclones appeared to hurry. Hoiberg blamed trying to force dribbles and passes into tight spaces instead of spreading the floor.
“We were making some mental mistakes,” said Iowa State’s Georges Niang, who had a game-high 24 plus five assists. “It’s a tough environment and you’ve got to limit those mistakes if you want to win on the road.”
Usually visiting teams that have to “weather the storm” in The Phog. Self credited his team’s defense with keeping Iowa State from pulling away.
“I looked up and they had 16 points in the first 10 minutes,” he said. “Our defense was good but we were kinda lucky to just be down seven.”
The three-ball then became KU’s weapon of choice. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Brannen Greene and Perry Ellis – both from the top of the key on delayed fast breaks – trimmed Iowa State’s seven-point lead to one. The Jayhawks made 11 of 16 shots as the flipped the seven-point deficit to a 35-28 halftime edge.
In the first half, Selden auditioned for the lead role in The Invisible Man. He played nine minutes, scored one point and missed three shots. In the second half, he scored 19 points, equaling his career high with five 3-pointers on six attempts.
He scored eight consecutive points – two threes sandwiching a jumper – to boost KU’s lead to 49-34 in the first five minutes of the second half. His last 3-pointer came with 4:41 remaining and gave the Jayhawks a 72-53 lead.
“My teammates just found me,” said Selden, a sophomore. “There was a lot on our minds. We thought about the Iowa State game a lot, we kept thinking about it. They outplayed us the first time, we played pretty well tonight.”
Indeed. Kansas overcame missing 10 of its first 12 shots to shoot 50.8 percent from the field. The Jayhawks, who lead the Big 12 in 3-point accuracy, were 10-of-21 from 3-point range. Ellis had 17, freshman Kelly Oubre Jr. had 16, Frank Mason III scored 12 and Greene had 11.
“I look at our team and I see eight starters,” Self said. “We also did a great job of answering when Iowa State made a run (pulling within 10 with 2:34 remaining). The game pressure didn’t get to us. I’d like to think we’re doing a better job understanding which possessions you’ve got to win.”
And there are hundreds of possessions remaining during the last half of the Big 12 schedule. Kansas has the inside track and even though Iowa State headed back to Ames with a loss, the Cyclones and the other eight Big 12 teams will be hunting Jayhawks over the next month.
“The season’s not over,” Niang said. “Leave it at that.”