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Three days after one of its worst efforts of the season, Kansas has a perfect chance to redeem itself.
The sixth-ranked Jayhawks (13-4) were awful on Wednesday, shooting 32.8 percent in a 60-59 loss to Colorado. Now they can make up for that misstep when top-ranked Arizona (14-1) visits Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday.
Williams was extremely disappointed with Kansas' latest effort.
``Colorado made the plays, not us,'' Williams said. ``They were into it, emotionally and mentally. We took some bad shots and were very impatient. We didn't execute worth a darn.''
Kansas had won 10 straight before falling to the Buffaloes. But Williams saw all the good things from that winning streak disappear on Wednesday.
``It's about as frustrating as you can possibly be to play like that for 40 minutes after the positive things we've been doing,'' he said.
The Jayhawks were just 22-of-67 from the field and were outrebounded 38-28. All-America candidate Kirk Hinrich, who is averaging 17.3 points on 50.8 percent shooting, shot just 3-of-13, scoring 10 points.
Nick Collison, another All-America candidate who averages a team-leading 19.6 points, was the Jayhawks' only consistent scorer. He had 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting.
Kansas will certainly need contributions from more than just Collison on Saturday.
Arizona, which regained the top spot in the rankings when Duke fell to Maryland last week, has won its last nine by an average of 16.3 points.
On Wednesday, the Wildcats had one of their closest games of that stretch, beating rival Arizona State 71-63.
While Arizona has been hampered by slow starts for most of the season, it was a sluggish second half that almost did it in against the Sun Devils. The Wildcats nearly blew a 26-point lead before hanging on.
``It was kind of embarrassing in the second half to let our rivals do that,'' Arizona forward Rick Anderson said. ``We took quick shots and didn't play any defense, that's it.''
Jason Gardner led the Wildcats with 19 points, but his backcourt mate, Salim Stoudamire, struggled mightily. The sophomore guard had only three points in 20 minutes, and Arizona coach Lute Olson kept him on the bench down the stretch.
``I just wasn't happy with a couple of things that happened,'' Olson said.
Since Saturday's matchup is Arizona's final nonconference contest, Olson expects a game that will toughen his squad for the rest of the Pac-10 season.
``With Kansas on Saturday, we are going into a very tough place to play,'' Olson said. ``They are a very talented basketball team, and we are going to have our hands full. It should be a great game. We are going to see how well our players respond to that kind of pressure.''
Kansas leads the all-time series 5-1.
Updated on Friday, Jan 24, 2003 4:59 pm, EST
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