I'm not a big believer in motivation carrying a team or whatever, but the early energy in this game certainly suggested that KU came out ready to rally around Silvio de Sousa's news from yesterday. The Jayhawks were moving the ball early, connecting on their threes and playing stifling defense against Texas Tech, while the Allen Fieldhouse crowd supported them at deafening levels.
Kansas jumped out to an 18-9 lead at the under 12 mark. Tech would keep the deficit in that general range for a while, but KU wasn't willing to take their foot off the gas.