DALLAS — For the third time this season, Kansas proved to be

too much for Iowa State. The top-seeded Jayhawks knocked the No. 9

seed Cyclones from the Big 12 Tournament 89-74 Friday in the second

round.

Big 12 player of the year Nick Collison shot the ball just eight

times, but he got plenty of help from the rest of his team as all

five starters scored in double-figures for the Jayhawks with Keith

Langford leading the way with 19 points.

After going into the half down by 15, Iowa State could only

match Kansas in the second half with 44 points, but couldn’t put

together any long runs. Jackson Vroman led all scorers with 24

points to go along with 12 rebounds.

“Vroman was tough for us from the get-go,” Kansas head coach Roy

Williams said. “On the perimeter, we tried to make it difficult for

Jake Sullivan and Tim Barnes to get their shots.”

Sullivan had just six points on 2-of-11 from the field. He was

guarded mostly by Kansas star Kirk Hinrich.

“I don’t think he gets enough credit for what he does on the

defensive end of the floor,” Williams said of Hinrich.

With Collison scoring just 14 points, big-man Jeff Graves

stepped it up for Kansas grabbing 12 boards and scoring 16

points.

“We didn’t do a very good job keeping him off the glass,” Vroman

said. “A lot of his points came off offensive rebounds.”

“I think it was Graves’ best game since he’s been at Kansas,”

Williams added.

Marcus Jefferson had another solid game scoring 18 points off

the bench for Iowa State. Tim Barnes drained four three-pointers en

route to 13 points and Jared Homan also scored 13. But the Cyclones

shot just 40 percent for the game compared to nearly 60 percent for

Kansas.

“We knew they were going to make runs, so we just tried to play

at a tempo that gave us the best chance to win,” Jefferson said.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t do a very good job of that today.”

Kansas dominated in the paint out-scoring Iowa State 56-30 and

scored 23 points off of Cyclone turnovers.

“We had a lot of breakdowns today because of who we were

playing,” head coach Larry Eustachy said. “They are a potential

national championship team.”

Vroman was disappointed with his team’s effort, noting they

didn’t go after the loose balls the way they did against Texas

A&M on Thursday.

“Sometimes you can’t compete athletically with some guys, but

you can always out-hustle someone to a ball and we didn’t do that

today,” he said.

The loss marks the end of conference play for Iowa State but the

team is expected to be invited to play in and possibly host some

games in the National Invitational Tournament next week.

“We’ll meet Sunday night, maybe practice a little bit,” Eustachy

said. “We’re not sure of who, what, when or where. But I think it’s

going to happen.

“Some teams look at it like it’s a disappointment. We look at it

as a positive, a step in the right direction.”