Tuesday's roundup: Top-ranked Kentucky crushes No. 5 Kansas by 30
Indianapolis — Kentucky coach John Calipari made one simple adjustment to his game plan Tuesday night.
He scrapped the zone.
The Wildcats didn't need it. Instead, a fierce man-to-man defense got No. 5 Kansas out of sync and No. 1 Kentucky ran away with its most impressive win of the season— a 72-40 victory in the State Farm Champions Classic.
"We kind of bum-rushed them a little bit and every time they looked there were more tanks coming over the hill," Calipari said. "It wasn't substitutes, it was reinforcements. It kind of gets to you a little bit."
It also elicited exactly the kind of reaction Calipari wanted from his team.
After Kentucky (3-0) won its first two games by 40 and 19 points, they dominated Kansas despite having only two players reach double figures. Dakari Johnson had 11 points, Andrew Harrison had 10 and Willie Cauley-Stein finished with seven points and 10 rebounds.
But they didn't need big-time scorers Tuesday.
The Jayhawks (1-1) made only 11 baskets — eight in the first half, three in the second. They shot just 19.6 percent from the field and were 3 of 15 on 3-pointers. Kansas finished with its lowest point total since Bill Self took over as coach in 2003-04, easily falling below the 49-point effort against Arizona in November 2005 and barely avoided becoming the first Kansas team to finish with fewer than 40 points since a 37-point effort against Oklahoma State in February 1962.
Wayne Selden Jr. led the Jayhawks with nine points. Cliff Alexander finished with eight.
"We never once did anything that resembled a team offense at all and I hope they were the primary reason why," Self said after sipping a glass of water and joking that he needed a stronger drink to help ease the pain. "I knew that we haven't practiced well or done some things real well, but I didn't think it would be like this. No matter how bad we shot it the first half we actually proved that we could shoot it a heck of a lot worse in the second."
Big Ten
No. 20 Ohio State 74, Marquette 63: Kam Williams scored 15 points and Shannon Scott added a career-best 14 assists to lead Ohio State. Amir Williams had 12 points and Marc Loving scored 10 for the Buckeyes (2-0), who shot 65 percent from the field (32 of 49) — including 8 of 15 on 3-pointers.
No. 21 Nebraska 82, Central Arkansas 56: Terran Petteway scored 23 points, Shavon Shields added 16 and Nebraska shook off a sloppy first half to beat Central Arkansas. Tai Webster had 11 of his 13 points in the second half for the Cornhuskers (2-0), who turned the game into a rout after leading their opponent from the Southland Conference by only five points shortly after halftime.
Minnesota 76, Western Kentucky 54: DeAndre Mathieu had 11 points, six assists and five rebounds, helping Minnesota control the pace from start to finish. Mo Walker led the Gophers (1-1) with 14 points.
Top 25
No. 9 Virginia 75, South Carolina State 55: Malcolm Brogdon and Justin Anderson scored 17 points each andVirginia closed the first half on a 22-6 run. It was the 13th consecutive victory at home for Virginia (3-0), which has coasted in each of its first three games.
No. 11 Wichita State 71, Memphis 56: Ron Baker scored 21 points to lead the Shockers, pushing their regular-season win streak to a nation-leading 33 games. Fred VanVleet had 15 points and Darius Carter added 12 for the Shockers (2-0).
No. 15 Virginia Commonwealth 87, Toledo 78: Senior Treveon Graham and junior Melvin Johnson each scored 22 points to lead the Rams (2-0), who finally took control of the game with nine unanswered points down the stretch.
No. 16 San Diego State 53, No. 25 Utah 49: JJ O'Brien had a strong second half and finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, helping San Diego State (2-0).