Here is an article from the Kansas City Star about Kansas' win Wednesday night over Nebraska. It was a hard fought game with some chippy play coming from both sides. Nebraska guard Cookie Miller and Kansas guard Mario Little got into a jump ball situation that almost got out of hand with both players refusing to give in. Says Little:
“We aren’t gonna take nothing from nobody,” Collins said. “There’s going to be more games like this. Teams are going to come out and be overaggressive. We’re going to stand as one. We’re going to stand together.”
Little played 30 minutes — his previous high was 14 — and for the first time he understood what it meant to wear a Kansas jersey.
“Everybody’s got their own opinion about us,” Little said, “saying that we’re soft and all that. Guys are trying to out-tough us, trying to talk that talk, just trying to scare us. It’s just talk. We can get through it.
As the referees conferred over Little and Miller’s situation for several minutes, the Jayhawks huddled and regained their composure. The huddle felt different than it had minutes before.
“That just brought us closer as a team,” KU center Cole Aldrich said.
Coach Bill Self had an idea on how they pulled out a win. He has been saying that Little makes the Jayhawks more manly, and this was a man’s game. Little had four points, seven rebounds and two assists.
“Probably not his best game,” Self said, “but still I don’t think we win the game without him.”
Little wasn’t trying to prove anything by posturing to Miller. He was just being Mario.
“I’ve never played soft, I’ve never been soft,” Little said. “We just gotta install that in the rest of the guys.”
