OKLAHOMA CITY | The Kansas Jayhawks were never going to lose to Lehigh. Well, it’s a lot easier to say that now, after their 90-74 victory on Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.</p><p>The reason the first upset of a No. 1 seed by a No. 16 seed wasn’t going to happen, despite a rough start by KU, is pretty simple. When KU coach Bill Self talks about his two best players, he does not mention sophomore forward Marcus Morris, who was one of his best two players against the Mountain Hawks with a double-double 26 points and 11 rebounds. </p><p>Last season, in three NCAA games, Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich were the only KU players to score in double figures. Production was going to come from them, or it wasn’t coming. Morris was so unprepared for the Big Dance that he went scoreless in 14 minutes against Dayton. </p><p>Thursday, on a night when Aldrich put up 11 points, the Jayhawks needed Morris, and he showed what a year of maturity can do for a player in Self’s program with a career-high in points. Morris’ performance was nothing new. His ability to score from all parts of the floor, along with the chance that streaky-shooting freshman Xavier Henry could go off any night, are what make this team a much-improved version from the group that lost in the Sweet 16 last year. </p><p>Of course, it always helps to have Collins, who took the game over during a stretch in the second half and finished with 18 points, six assists and four rebounds. </p><p>It is Collins who knows all for the Jayhawks, 33-2, who advanced to play No. 9 seed Northern Iowa on Saturday at 4:40 p.m. And it was Collins who gave his team a little flavor of the day’s events in the pregame layup line, when he told several players that “Georgetown lost.” The Hoyas, the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Regional, were just the latest casualty on a day that saw Cinderella get dropped off at the ball in a Limo. Out of the gate at the Ford Center, Kansas looked like it could be next. Self has accused his team of “playing to the situation” all season, and to Self, that is one of the worst crimes a basketball team can commit. But convincing a bunch of high-school All-Americans that every second of a game is as important as the next can be a trying ordeal. It certainly seemed so on Thursday. </p><p>The Jayhawks knew they were playing in the same arena that held the biggest upset in KU history – No. 14 seed Bucknell 64, No. 3 seed Kansas 63 – and on the five-year anniversary no less. Of course, the Jayhawks also knew that no KU player had anything to do with it – Collins was a junior in high school – and that no No. 16 seed had ever beaten a No. 1 seed. They said going in that they thought Lehigh was capable of beating them, but could they actually believe it?</p><p>Apparently not. The Mountain Hawks held Kansas scoreless – or was it Kansas holding Kansas scoreless? – for the first three-and-a-half minutes. The Jayhawks turned the ball over four times in that span, and Self pulled Morris, who had the first two giveaways. Less than a minute later, Aldrich coughed one up, and Self put Morris back into the game for Aldrich. </p><p>These Jayhawks need to feel challenged, and after hearing about how great they were from everyone including President Barack Obama, it was time for Self to issue the challenge when the Mountain Hawks built their lead to 12-4 with 14:04 left. </p><p>Self called timeout, just like he had done many times this season. And, predictably, the Jayhawks got going. A Morris three bounced high off the rim and in, and minutes later, an Aldrich jump-hook bounced in, too, for a three-point play. The Jayhawks went on a 15-0 run and at least let the blue-clad crowd know that they were present. </p><p>KU looked like it was going to run away from the Mountain Hawks, leading 25-14, but Lehigh went on a 9-0 run to keep all those Missouri students in Columbia hopeful they could make Lehigh T-shirts as they did five years ago after KU’s Bucknell heartbreak. </p><p>Noticeably absent early for KU was Henry, playing in his native Oklahoma City. Henry made just one three in the first 20 minutes as the Jayhawks’ half-court offense couldn’t get in gear. KU had four assists and eight turnovers.</p><p>But Henry made a surge in the second half, finishing with 11 points and six rebounds. Sophomore Tyshawn Taylor had six points, four assists and six steals.