Jayhawks return to court Monday against Omaha. ‘We are back!’ Mykhailiuk tweets

Kansas’ basketball players celebrated with high fives and leaping shoulder bumps on the Pinnacle Bank Arena court after Saturday’s 73-72 victory over Nebraska.

One of the game’s heroes, Svi Mykhailiuk, was bear-hugged by senior point guard Devonté Graham — who fed senior shooting guard Mykhailiuk for his game-winning shot from the corner with 21 seconds left — as well as Clay Young, Billy Preston and others.

“And we (are) back! Rock Chalk!” Mykhailiuk wrote on Twitter on a happy bus ride home after a victory that snapped a two-game losing streak and has the Jayhawks (8-2) thinking positive thoughts entering Monday’s 6 p.m. game against Omaha at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I think it’s pretty evident in our reaction to it,” KU sophomore forward Mitch Lightfoot said, when asked how badly the Jayhawks needed a victory in response to back-to-back losses to Washington and Arizona State.

“We needed a win for sure to get our confidence back,” Lightfoot added. “We’ll be good. It was good for us.”

Monday’s opponent, Summit League squad Omaha, also had something to cheer about after its last game — which happened to be Sunday afternoon, a day before facing KU. The Mavericks’ 99-58 victory over Cornell College was coach Derrin Hansen’s 200th career win against 176 losses at Omaha. It, however, was just Omaha’s third win all season against 10 defeats.

The Jayhawks, who had to wait six days to try to avenge their 95-85 loss to Arizona State at Allen Fieldhouse, enter Monday’s contest knowing coach Bill Self believes the squad, which he recently called the softest he’s had at KU, showed improvement on defense against the Big Ten’s Cornhuskers (7-5).

“Our activity level was better. We got eight steals,” Self said. “That’s not a bad number against them.”

Sophomore guard Lagerald Vick totaled three steals in 37 minutes, while freshman guard Marcus Garrett had two in 16 minutes.

“I thought Lagerald was more active. He was one of the best players in the game,” Self said. “Statistically we didn’t do a ton. I thought we picked our spots. We ran through a couple of passes. Marcus stole the ball a couple of times and got nothing out of it. Svi ran through a pass, ended up throwing it out of bounds. We did some things probably better than the outcome of plays indicated.”

KU also enters the Omaha game with big man Udoka Azubuike coming off a career-high 26 point outing. He also grabbed 10 rebounds, and had one steal and one block.

Azubuike took to heart some stern words from Self at practice during the two-game losing streak.

“I don’t think Doke will send me any Christmas cards or a gift this year from the last 10 days,” Self said with a smile. “He responded well. He was better today.”

Azubuike hit 13 of 17 shots against the Huskers and for the season has made 78 percent of his shots.

“He had great timing on the most important block we’ve had all season,” Lightfoot said. Seven-foot sophomore Azubuike swatted a shot by James Palmer from about 6 feet, chased the ball down in the corner and flung it down the court as the clock ran out on KU’s one-point win.

“All that energy. I was like, ‘That’s my guy,’ ” Lightfoot said. “We all have our off weeks. I felt like Doke did a great job bouncing back, showing us he is the dominant force we know he can be. He was that today.”

Two Jayhawks are probably eager to be taking the court so soon after a game.

Sophomore guard Malik Newman went 0 for 6 from the field and had zero points with six rebounds, two assists and a steal in 31 minutes Saturday. Meanwhile, sophomore guard Sam Cunliffe, who was eligible to play in his first game at KU, had no stat line in 2 minutes.

“I thought he was good on defense,” Mykhailiuk said of Newman. “At the end of the game he did a good job on defense.”

Of Cunliffe’s 2 minutes, Lightfoot said of the Arizona State transfer: “It was good for him to be out there, first game back. “It’s obviously a process. It’s going to be fun. He’ll do well.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2017 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Jayhawks return to court Monday against Omaha. ‘We are back!’ Mykhailiuk tweets."