Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. (14) looks to drive against Houston guard Milos Uzan (7) during the first half, Friday, March 13, 2026, at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Photo by Nick Krug
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Kansas went into halftime down eight points to Houston on Friday, it was 4-for-15 on shots within the arc.
That included 1-for-2 on layups and 2-for-2 on dunks, meaning that on shots from anywhere between the arc and the basket, the Jayhawks had gone 1-for-11.
Somehow, it all got worse in the second half.
KU missed its first 16 overall shots after the break and finished with a total field-goal percentage of 24.6% in a resounding 69-47 loss to the Cougars, which eliminated the Jayhawks from the Big 12 tournament.
“The one thing about this game tonight, it didn’t camouflage our deficiencies,” KU coach Bill Self said. “It exposed them in a big way.”
Name any given Jayhawk and chances are that Friday night’s loss was one of his worst offensive showings of the year. Darryn Peterson led KU with 14 points and the Jayhawks’ remaining starters combined to score 16 on 5-for-31 shooting. Freshman forward Bryson Tiller was benched and did not play in the second half.
“We were terrible, terrible playing behind ball screens,” Self said of the offense. “I mean, we knew how we wanted to attack it and we didn’t attack it. We were really bad at that.”
The Jayhawks’ offensive struggles were so severe as to render completely moot a decent defensive performance, although Houston’s Kingston Flemings was consistent throughout and scored 21, and fellow freshman Chris Cenac Jr. tormented KU in the first half on his way to 17 points and 14 rebounds (six offensive).
“They kind of just went on a run and just hit a lot of 3s and we just couldn’t really hit a shot,” KU guard Elmarko Jackson said. “They finished the game 10-for-18 from 3. It’s a lot of stress on our defense, and our offense just really didn’t make shots.”
Self was displeased from the start after the Jayhawks allowed an early dunk to Cenac off an offensive rebound by Joseph Tugler, prompting a quick timeout. But it didn’t do much to improve KU’s struggling offense, and at the other end the Cougars went on a 9-0 run with consecutive 3s by Milos Uzan, Flemings and Cenac.
Peterson knocked down one of his own to stop the bleeding, but KU did little to cut into Houston’s early lead and only had seven points by the under-12 timeout.
He pulled up for a second 3-pointer to make it 18-12 and revive the KU-friendly crowd. Houston endured a scoring drought of its own but was able to get back on the board when Mercy Miller banked in a runner.
In the previous matchup between KU and Houston on Feb. 23, the Jayhawks had success daring Cenac to shoot. They had no such luck in the early stages of Friday’s game. The freshman forward drained a 3-pointer from the right wing with 4:42 to go that gave him 13 first-half points and three 3s. That put the Cougars ahead by 12, their biggest margin of the game, and forced another timeout from Self.
Tre White sank a 3-pointer from his familiar left-corner spot, but missed another try from the right side after an offensive board by Flory Bidunga.
Fouls took center stage in the last two minutes of the half. Bidunga was able to draw the second foul on Tugler shortly before halftime in the final seconds of the shot clock on what had looked like a doomed possession. He made one free throw to cut the deficit to 29-23.
Peterson committed a late-clock foul of his own but then slapped away an inbounds pass by Flemings and went all the way for a dunk to cap off an 8-0 run.
Just as KU had built its most significant momentum of the game, Houston drew a series of key fouls. One, the second on Bidunga, came as Cenac was attempting a putback and resulted in two free throws. Then Flemings flung his arms into a shooting motion while standing on the Big 12 logo at midcourt as he was fouled by Jackson and went 2-for-3 at the line.
“Time was winding down and we didn’t want them to get into their set, so coach told me to foul, and yeah, he just went into his shooting motion and they called a foul,” Jackson said. “So I got to be better at that, timing that up and making sure opposing teams don’t know that I’m about to foul.”
Finally, Jackson pushed off on KU’s last offensive possession, resulting in a 33-25 margin in Houston’s favor at halftime even though the Cougars did not make a field goal in the final 4:46.
“We were so bad early offensively, but when we got it to 29-25, I’m actually thinking, ‘You know what, all we need to do is finish the last minute and a half decent and we’re going to go in with a little bit of momentum. We’re going to be fine,’” Self said. “And then they scored four to end the half and that was disappointing.”
With 15 points in the first half, Cenac was approaching his career high of 18, and had already matched a career-best three 3s.
Jackson started in place of Tiller after the break. Houston jumped on the Jayhawks immediately, with Flemings zooming past Bidunga for a layup and Emanuel Sharp hitting a 3-pointer in transition to give the Cougars an immediate cushion.
“To come out the second half down eight, I mean, how many times have we been down eight this year? Many,” Self said. “And come out and lay an egg that first two minutes was disappointing to me. We got the ball exactly where we wanted to get it, we missed a shot or whatever and then they make a harder shot on the other end. It wasn’t game over but it was to the point where it was deflating enough that I think it took a lot of the wind out of our sails.”
Paul Mbiya was KU’s first post player off the bench in Tiller’s stead, but he conceded several offensive rebounds to Cenac, including one that resulted in a second-chance 3-pointer by Flemings that made it 45-27.
Houston’s next two buckets were also 3s. By the time Bidunga rattled in a dunk to end KU’s unfathomable streak of misses from the field — it didn’t even go into the basket smoothly — the Jayhawks trailed 51-31 midway through the half.
“I feel like today was about ball movement,” Bidunga said. “I feel like we didn’t do a good job about it, as far as paint touching, making the initial pass, all that stuff. That’s something that we can look out for, for sure.”
“It’s just part of the game,” said Melvin Council Jr., who went 1-for-14, of the offensive slump. “That’s what happened. We just got to do stuff that’s going to make us score, and that’s playing defense. We did a pretty good job, but they was making all the shots today.”
Kohl Rosario made a pair of 3s off the bench, his second cutting the margin to 58-41 with 4:57 remaining, and then scored on a putback. But KU never got within striking distance in the second half.
Houston advanced to face Arizona in the Big 12 tournament championship on Sunday. The Jayhawks will await their postseason fate in Sunday’s selection show, which is set for 5 p.m. KU is a likely No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament as assessed by most bracketologists.
“The only thing next week is win or go home,” Council added.
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Written By Henry Greenstein
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