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LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas coach Roy Williams tried to deflect
the praise for his 400th career victory to his players. They gave it right back -- along with the game ball from the
12th-ranked Jayhawks' 98-70 win over Wyoming on Wednesday night. "Coach will tell you it's the players who get it done," said
senior forward Nick Collison, who had 28 points and 11 rebounds.
"But he's the one who puts us in the right positions." Still, Williams was intent on spreading the credit around. "If you talk for one minute about 400 wins, you need to talk
about good kids," said Williams, who was also acknowledged with a
standing ovation when he pulled his starters with just under 4
minutes left. "You need to talk about kids who have tried to do
things the right way and represent this university well." Kirk Hinrich added four 3-pointers and 19 points for the
Jayhawks (12-3), who won their ninth straight game. Wyoming (12-3)
had a nine-game winning streak snapped. Williams is 400-96 in 14½ seasons at Kansas. He joins Phog
Allen, who was 590-219 in 39 seasons in Lawrence, as the only
Kansas coaches with 400 wins. "I'm sure someone's going to be around when he gets his 500th,
his 600th," Collison said. "He's going to win a lot more games." Collison was held to two points in the first 9½ minutes but
added 15 before halftime as Kansas took a 48-32 lead after leading
by as many as 23 points. The Cowboys got within 15 points twice early in the second half,
but Aaron Miles scored five points and Keith Langford had four in a
16-4 run that made it 68-41 with 11:41 left. Langford finished with 16 points and Miles had 14 points. He
also led Kansas with seven assists, all in the first half, and five
steals. Jeff Graves, making his third start for injured forward Wayne
Simien, had 14 points and 10 rebounds as Kansas outrebounded the
Cowboys 42-27. "They're a great rebounding team," Wyoming coach Steve McClain
said. "There were times when they knocked the ball out of our
hands and put it in for points." It was the second straight double-double and third in four games
for Graves, who also blocked three shots and had three steals. "I'm a lot more confident out there now,"
Graves said.
"That's a result of me just falling into my place in this program
and being a lot more aggressive in practice." Donta Richardson led Wyoming with 29 points and Uche
Nsonwu-Amadi had 10. Only seven players scored for Wyoming. Kansas got only seven points from its reserves. Collison was 12-for-14 from the field for Kansas, which outshot
the Cowboys 52 percent (36-for-69) to 44 percent (27-for-61). The Jayhawks forced 22 turnovers and had 16 steals, converting
Wyoming's miscues into 32 points. "Defense is kind of like our security blanket," Hinrich said.
"When we're defending well, that makes everything go well." The game was tied at 7 more than 4 minutes into the game when
Kansas started a 35-12 run that put the Jayhawks in control for
good. Graves led the early part of the run with four points, two
rebounds and a steal. Hinrich took over from there with 11 points,
including three 3-pointers, and an alley-oop pass to Langford for a
thundering dunk. Langford capped the run with a baseline jumper with just under
5½ minutes left in the half, giving Kansas a 42-19 lead. "You have to have a good start," Richardson said. "We had it
7-7 at the first TV timeout, but after that. ..." The Jayhawks led by as many as 31 points in the second half.
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