UCLA remembers Kansas all too well

Reporting from Lawrence, Kan. — Playing Kansas can feel like getting poked in the eye without knowing what hit you.

Reeves Nelson knows this all too well. A year after being struck in the right eye by a stray finger, the UCLA forward still doesn’t know whether the culprit was Marcus Morris or his twin brother, Markieff.

“They’re identical and you couldn’t really see the [jersey] number on the tape,” said Nelson, who returned to the Bruins’ 73-61 loss to the Jayhawks last December at Pauley Pavilion even after his eye had swollen shut.

UCLA forward Tyler Honeycutt, who had been sidelined by an injury, also was left dazed. His first college game was against Kansas last season.

“That was a hard game to make your debut in, against the No. 1 team in the country,” Honeycutt said.

The Jayhawks are no longer the nation’s top-ranked team, but they are still landing heavy blows to their opponents’ psyches. No. 4 Kansas (6-0) has defeated all comers by an average of 35 points and heads into its game against UCLA (3-2) on Thursday at Allen Fieldhouse coming off an 87-79 victory over Arizona, a team picked to finish ahead of the Bruins in the Pacific 10 Conference.

There is also the matter of the Jayhawks’ 63-game home winning streak, the longest in the nation.

“Some guys will definitely be intimidated, but you just have to go in excited,” UCLA forward Brendan Lane said. “It’s just an opportunity.”

Going up against Kansas’ front line of 6-foot-10 Markieff Morris, 6-9 Marcus Morris and 6-9 Thomas Robinson could present a chance for Lane, identified by Bruins Coach Ben Howland as his team’s best post defender, to get additional playing time.

Marcus Morris, in particular, will present a challenge for UCLA’s post players. He is shooting 67.7% and has made eight of 13 three-point shots while averaging a team-high 19 points.

“We know we can’t hold them to zero points,” Bruins center Joshua Smith said of the Morris twins. “We just want to make it as hard as possible for them to score.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com