#3 16-0 Vs 12-4 <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Oklahoma has lost in its last eight visits to Allen Fieldhouse. It will be hard to break that streak Monday night against a Kansas team that's among three remaining unbeaten squads in Division I. The third-ranked Jayhawks (16-0, 1-0 Big 12) look to continue their best start in 11 seasons when they take on the Sooners (12-4, 0-1). Kansas is off to its best start since the 1996-97 season when it won its first 22 games. The Jayhawks join top-ranked North Carolina and No. 2 Memphis as the lone undefeated teams in D-I. They haven't lost at home to Oklahoma since an 80-77 defeat on Feb. 17, 1993, and have won 26 of their last 27 games overall at Allen Fieldhouse, including 11 this season. The teams did not play in Lawrence last season, but Kansas won two meetings, including a 64-47 victory in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals that ended the Sooners' season. The Jayhawks are second in the country in field-goal percentage at 52.2 percent and lead the Big 12 in scoring with 83.7 points per game. Their offense may eventually get even better if Brandon Rush continues to play like he did his last time out. The 6-foot-6 guard scored a season-high 19 points in a 74-53 win at Nebraska on Saturday in the Jayhawks' Big 12 opener. The performance came after coach Bill Self questioned Rush's aggressiveness. Rush had major surgery on his right knee in June and wasn't expected to play until December. He came back by mid-November, but averaged only 10.3 points in his previous nine games before Saturday. "I think I'm back," he said. "I'm starting to rebound the ball well rim-high like I did before I got hurt." The surgery prevented Rush from entering the NBA draft, but it's possible he may do so this summer. Turning pro is also a possibility for Oklahoma star forward Blake Griffin. Griffin, a 6-10 freshman, is ninth in the Big 12 with 15.4 points per game and turned in an excellent effort in his last contest. He had 27 points and 14 rebounds in his matchup with Kansas State star forward Michael Beasley, but Oklahoma fell 84-82 on Saturday. Beasley scored 32 points, including the winner with 2.3 seconds left, and added 11 rebounds. "He is a great player," Beasley said of Griffin. "We just came out and played and it ended up being the battle of the beasts. He is my guy. In basketball there are no friends on the court, but we will always be friends after the game." The Sooners had a five-game winning streak snapped, a run that included two victories over ranked teams. Oklahoma allowed Kansas State to shoot 56.4 percent -- the highest allowed by the Sooners since they let West Virginia shoot 66.7 percent in a 92-68 Oklahoma loss Dec. 22, 2005. "We needed to defend like we normally defend," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. "...That is the thing I am most disappointed in." Capel used only seven players Saturday, and his lack of depth could be a big problem against one of the best benches in the country. Kansas gets an average of 29.3 points from its reserves, who outscore opponents' benches by 10.8 points per game.</div> http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/preview?gameId=280142305
85 55 <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Whatever slim chance Oklahoma might have had against No. 3 Kansas on Monday night evaporated 5 minutes into the game when Blake Griffin went up for a rebound and "came down kind of funny." The rest of the night, the Sooners' 6-foot-10 freshman standout looked on glumly from the bench with an ice pack on his left knee as the Jayhawks cruised to an 85-55 victory, hanging with No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2 Memphis as the only unbeatens in Division I. Darnell Jackson had 17 points and eight rebounds and Brandon Rush had 16 points and nine rebounds for the Jayhawks (17-0, 2-0 Big 12), who have won 31 of their last 32 games and are off to their best start since the 1996-97 team began 22-0. Griffin, the Big 12's freshman of the week after scoring 53 points in his last two games, hobbled to the bench and then to the locker room with what coach Jeff Capel said was a sprained knee. He was to undergo an MRI on Tuesday. Without Griffin, the Sooners (12-5, 0-2) were missing their leader in scoring, rebounding and steals and looked hopelessly outmanned against a deep and talented Kansas team that's hardly been challenged so far this season, let alone defeated. "I don't know if it sealed the deal," Kansas coach Bill Self said, "but I'm sure that deflated them right there. We didn't get their best shot." Griffin said he went up for a rebound and then felt he knee pop. "I was just trying to go up for a rebound. I kind of got pushed and I came down wrong. I twisted it or something," he said. "At first, it hurt a lot. When I got back to the locker room it did not hurt that bad." Jackson, who began the game with a huge dunk off the opening tip, was disappointed Griffin went out. "I was looking forward to playing against him," Jackson said. "I hope he gets well because he's a great player. We told ourselves we would go out there and play hard no matter what." Trailing 40-20 at halftime, the Sooners opened the second half with a 5-0 run. But Mario Chalmers scored six straight points in an 11-0 run capped by Rush's fourth 3-pointer, and Oklahoma called a timeout with 16:32 left and the Jayhawks leading 51-25. "We got off to a better start in the second half with that quick 5-0 run, but then we got into taking some bad shots. Kansas is tremendous," Capel said. "They are going to be a tough team for anyone to beat." Longar Longar had 21 points for the Sooners, hitting double figures for the eighth time in nine games, but could not stop Kansas from putting its biggest whipping on Oklahoma since a 91-61 victory in 1978. Darrell Arthur had 14 points and Chalmers added 13 for Kansas, which shot 53 percent against an Oklahoma defense which had been holding opponents to 39 percent. The Sooners were 21-of-64 from the field (33 percent). Without Griffin, they were outrebounded 40-31 by Kansas' deep frontcourt. Making Griffin's loss even worse for the Sooners is the absence of backup Keith Clark, who has been declared academically ineligible. Oklahoma was forced to play walk-on Beau Gerber. Kansas took a big early lead and already seemed to have full command of the game when Griffin went out. A few minutes later, David Godbold's 3-pointer sliced the lead to 23-14. But the Jayhawks went on a 10-0 run. Arthur hit four straight free throws to kick-start the spree and Jackson pulled down two rebounds and Sherron Collins had two straight buckets, capping the run with a jumper from the top of the key for a 35-16 lead with 3:17 left. Tony Crocker had 10 points for the Sooners. "We outhustled and outrebounded them," said Rush, a 6-foot-6 junior who has scored 35 points in the last two games. "We played our type of game." Oklahoma has a good perspective on the three nation's unbeaten teams, having played two of them. The Sooners lost to No. 2 Memphis 63-53 on Nov. 15. "I think [the Jayhawks] are better," Capel said. "They are the best team we've played and we have played some really good teams. They are so balanced. They shoot better than Memphis. They are bigger. They are probably equally as good in transition but this team passes the ball better. "I don't think it's close, this is the best team in the country."</div> http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=280142305 Sorry I'm Late
