OPINION

By Mike DeCourcy

updated 4:29 p.m. ET Jan. 31, 2008

Mike DeCourcy

Kansas State basketball fans waited a quarter-century for this, and those last two minutes of this year's game against Kansas seemed to take another 25 years. Eventually, though, K-State ended its unrivaled streak of homecourt futility — and KU's unbeaten season — all at once.

Precisely 24 consecutive times, Kansas had visited Kansas State and left with a road victory. It was a streak unlike any other in college basketball. Of all years to end it, the Wildcats did it when their intrastate rivals brought to town one of the best teams in their recent history.

The night began with Kansas at 20-0, one of two remaining unbeaten teams.

Now, there's just one.

Memphis had a challenge of its own Wednesday night, not as immense as simultaneously trying to fend off Michael Beasley and Bill Walker, but the best Conference USA can offer. Memphis was on the road at Houston and did a much better job of fighting off a hostile crowd and an inspired opponent. Faced with an early deficit, the Tigers surged back riding a brilliant performance from star forward Chris Douglas-Roberts and his 30 points, a ridiculous 22-rebound night from big Joey Dorsey and a rock-solid 10 points and nine assists from freshman point guard Derrick Rose.

There won't be many more nights like this in the Tigers' league, nights in which they'll have to perform at their peak in order to survive.

Kansas will have several: at Texas, home against Baylor, on the road at Texas A&M in early March. And in the event the Jayhawks find themselves behind in any or all of those games, they can apply what they learned from this game. Which is: Whatever we did against K-State, do the opposite.

The KU big men struggled to defend on the perimeter against Beasley and Walker. Beasley torched veterans Darnell Jackson and Sasha Kaun by drawing them away from the goal with his long-range shooting. It seemed that neither really bought into him as a deep shooter. He entered shooting 38 percent on 3-pointers, but they kept daring him to try again. He made 4-of-5 and used that threat to set up his ability to make one- and two-dribble moves into mid-range jumpers. Walker continually drove the ball against Darrell Arthur and chased him into foul trouble. Walker was not effective from 3-point range, but made 6-of-8 inside the arc and scored 22 points.

Once the Jayhawks got behind, they showed their inexperience at comebacks. This is a team that has dominated nearly every opponent, with one single-digit victory since Dec. 2. So there was not a good understanding of the necessity of trading 3 points for 2 down the stretch, or of how to use full-court pressure to unsettle the team in the lead.

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Memphis coach John Calipari lately has been saying his team doesn't need to lose to learn the lessons essential to March success, but Kansas' disintegration here shows how necessary it is to be in such games. Beyond whatever extra pain coach Bill Self might inflict in the next practice, the consequences of losing this game aren't going to be great for the Jayhawks. They're a game back in the Big 12 race, but there's time to make that up, especially with the Wildcats visiting Allen Field House on March 1. But now KU knows what it feels like to lose composure, what it feels like to lose a game.

The Jayhawks can learn from this. What did the Tigers learn in Houston? That they're really, really good. They already knew that, though.

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