LAWRENCE, Kan. -- There was a moment just before halftime Monday night when Kansas forward Jalen Wilson watched an Omaha player bury a 3-pointer at the buzzer, and he looked over at the bench expecting to catch Bill Self's wrath.
Only the Jayhawks' coach wasn't there.
Self was serving the first game in a school-imposed four-game suspension, along with assistant Kurtis Townsend, so Wilson and the rest of the Jayhawks got a reprieve from one of their coach's pet peeves. The buzzer-beater hardly mattered in the end, either, as No. 5 Kansas began its national title defense with an 89-64 rout of the Mavericks.