Basketball
After Kansas lost to West Virginia on Saturday to fall to 1-12 in Big 12 play, Jayhawks coach coach Bill Self ripped his team, saying “we suck right now.” Self’s assessment didn’t age well Tuesday when the unranked Jayhawks put on their best showing of the season and upset No. 2 Iowa State 84-63 in emphatic fashion at Allen Fieldhouse to hand the Cyclones (16-1, 3-1 Big 12) their first loss of the season.
Kansas (12-5, 2-2) went wire-to-wire with the win and dominated on both ends with a season-high 12 made 3-pointers on the offensive end while forcing 12 turnovers on the other end from an ISU team typically careful with the ball. Every major piece clicked for KU including star freshman guard Darryn Peterson, who had 16 points and five boards. Fellow backcourt mate Tre White added 19 points — a game-high — of his own. Fifteen of White’s 19 points came from the 3-point line.
The dominant win for Kansas is more of the same vs. an Iowa State program it has dominated historically and recently. The win extended KU’s winning streak vs. the Cyclones in games played in Lawrence to eight games, and improved its record in the last 11 meetings to 8-3. KU now holds a 100-16 record vs. ISU in games played in Lawrence.
Self’s proclamation over the weekend that his team sucks right now was not tongue-in-cheek — but it was made with a heavy emphasis on the latter part of that statement.
“But it’s right now,” Self said. “Everybody goes through ebbs and flows in the season. … We’ve got to flip it.”
It’s just one game — an impressive one, to be clear, but still just one game — so we can’t declare KU flipped. Not yet. But KU dominated one of the best teams in college basketball in a way that cannot be ignored. For a KU team that has been riding a roller coaster much of the season, this could serve as an inflection point to get its season back on track.
For Iowa State, it loses the chance to be the last remaining unbeaten team (only four remain) and it takes a tally in the loss column — but there is no reason to panic. The Cyclones didn’t have their best stuff Tuesday. Kansas did. It happens.
It was ugly, to be sure, and out of character. ISU’s mighty defense gave up 50.8% shooting from the field to Kansas, 12-of-24 shooting from 3-point range and forced only nine turnovers. No team has made ISU look more fallible this season than Kansas.
Despite the loss, ISU is still tracking toward a potential No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and remains a real contender in a wide-open Big 12.
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