A few brief-ish notes about the Jayhawks, who are suddenly in a three-way tie for first place in the Big 12 after a very good week.

Tuesday’s win at Oklahoma State was terrific in many ways. It capped a week in which KU got better over the three-game stretch, beating two very good teams relatively comfortably. It was a fantastic team performance, with the offense looking as good as it has looked all year. That was especially important as Jalen Wilson struggled and DaJuan Harris and Kevin McCullar both rolled their ankles and either missed chunks of the game (Harris) or left the game without returning (McCullar).

Ernest Udeh continued to provide nice minutes. Although his numbers weren’t as flashy as against Oklahoma, he slowed down Kalib Boone. Zuby Ejiofor got back on the court for the first time in three weeks and also guarded Boone better than KJ Adams did.

McCullar was probably playing his best game of the year before he got hurt: 15 points on 6–9 shooting, 8 assists with no turnovers, and though he was only credited with one steal he was super disruptive on the defensive end of the court. He also hit two huge baskets when both Wilson and Harris were out, in a moment when it seemed like OSU could crawl back into the game. The health of his right ankle is HUGE not just for the Baylor game Saturday, but for how KU closes out the final third of the Big 12 schedule.

And Gradey Dick got going! His first three of the game was on one of the prettiest plays you’ll see, with Harris passing to Ejiofor to McCullar to Dick who hit a rainbow at the first half buzzer to give KU a lead they never relinquished. He hit his first three shots to open the second half, which, given the final score, effectively ended the game.

Eighty-seven points. On the road. Against one of the best defensive teams in the league, one that seems designed to give KU fits at its weakest point. And with KU’s leading scorer only playing 28 minutes because of foul trouble, and only scoring nine points in the first 35 minutes of the game.

That, my friends, is a confidence-building win.

I’ve been laughing at ESPN’s Chris Spatola’s recurring line that fans should “call your congressperson” to fix the scourge of replay reviews that are ruining the college game. It’s a little over the top, but I like it. You would think the NCAA, in its efforts to regain control of college sports, would step in and make some changes. I think an overwhelming majority of fans would be fine with restrictions on reviews. But since we know the NCAA won’t do a damn thing about it, I guess Congress is the next step.

One more announcer note, I loved how in one of the KU games Jay Bilas did recently, he threw some subtle shade at how Texas ruined the Big 12 from day one. When ESPN flashed Danny Manning’s career stats, he wondered why those records were only called Big 8 records. “Those other schools joined the Big 8, right? So shouldn’t the records still stand?” While he was broadly blaming the four schools that joined the Big 8 in 1996, everyone knows it was Texas that nuked the existing record books.

As a KU fan, I approve. We need to get Danny back on top of all the conference lists he deserves to lead. As a child of the ‘80s, I enjoyed Bilas sticking up for the era he played in.

I think I complain about this once a year, but it drives me crazy that ESPN can’t be consistent in crowd audio. One game it sounds like you’re in the arena, with all the noise from the crowd pouring out of your speakers. Other nights it seems like they have one, small microphone laying on the press table. While you see fans going crazy, the audio is more like you’re a couple blocks away and only getting a small hint of the roars and yells. Tuesday’s game had great audio. When KU played at Iowa State a week ago it was awful.