What we learned from Kansas' dominant victory against Kansas State

Shreyas Laddha, The Kansas City Star on Mar 7, 2026

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LAWRENCE, Kan. — On a day when all the pregame fanfare went to Kansas basketball’s seniors, it was a freshman who stole the show.

Freshman phenom Darryn Peterson didn’t take pictures at half court of Allen Fieldhouse or give a big, emotional speech, but it was also his last game in Lawrence.

The projected top-3 NBA draft pick made the final moments of his tumultuous regular season count.

And he got some help from a couple of senior starters to secure No. 14 KU’s 104-85 victory over rival Kansas State on Saturday afternoon.

The Jayhawks end the regular season at 22-9, 12-6 in the Big 12.

Kansas has won 22 or more regular-season games 31 times in the last 33 years, and more importantly, the Jayhawks clinched the coveted double-bye in the Big 12 Tournament, where they will enter as either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed pending Saturday’s results.

Saturday’s Sunflower Showdown game also marked Senior Day for Kansas, and thus the starting lineup featured a bit of a shakeup.

Melvin Council and Tre White remained in the starting five, but they were joined by Jayden Dawson, Justin Cross and Wilder Evers. White scored 23 points and Council came close to a triple-double with 17 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, but Peterson was the show-stopper.

He finished with 27 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Sophomore Flory Bidunga added 13 points on a perfect 6-for-6 shooting.

This game wasn’t competitive, pretty much throughout. The Jayhawks took a 13-point lead into the half and led by double-figures for the final 22 minutes. KU led by as many as 30 points before turning it over to the reserves late.

Up next for KU: The Big 12 Tournament gets underway in Kansas City, Mo., with the Jayhawks first taking the court Thursday in the quarterfinals.

Until then, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game…

Peterson was in total control

From tipoff, Peterson looked like a different player — at least from his recent slump.

The freshman star looked as explosive and bouncy as he has in quite some time. That was apparent when he dunked in the second half. He played 29 minutes off the bench.

Early on, he was efficient, scoring 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting in the first half while grabbing five rebounds. He hit a number of tough layups in traffic, and that hot shooting carried over past halftime.

Peterson scored another 16 points — on an efficient 6-for-9 clip — in the second half alone. He shot 66.7% for the game, a major uptick from his recent run. He’d been held below 40% shooting in his last three contests and below 50% in seven of his last eight.

Could he be trending up in time for March Madness?

Senior send-off for Council, White

Tre White and Melvin Council have played only one season at KU. But both have become fan favorites.

It was easy to see why Saturday. The pair scored 21 of KU’s 46 points in the first half. The duo also combined for 13 rebounds in the period.

By game’s end, both had impressive totals.

White finished with 23 points on 9-for-16 shooting. He added 11 rebounds and two assists. Council was close to his triple-double, and both scored all their points — 40 combined — without making a free throw.

In recent years, it’s been hard to predict what KU basketball will get from its transfers. But Bill Self found two productive and admired players with Council and White this season.

Commanding win before postseason play

It’s clear Kansas State isn’t a great team, and the Jayhawks were playing at home on Senior Day, so just about no one anticipated a stunning upset could be in store.

Still, this was an important win for Kansas. The Jayhawks have not played great basketball of late, and the offense has been a struggle.

The Jayhawks ranked No. 320 nationally in effective field-goal percentage in their last 10 games before Saturday, and Peterson, as mentioned, was stuck in a shooting slump.

But the tables turned Saturday. KU’s offense was efficient — the Jayhawks shot 59.2% from the field, 42.3% from 3 — and Peterson broke out of his skid. Another silver lining was freshman Kohl Rosario, who scored five points with a block in eight minutes off the bench.

That was the most Rosario had scored since Dec. 22, back in nonconference play.

This game was decided well before Wilder Evers scored five points of his own to punctuate Senior Day. The Jayhawks, regardless, will be feeling much better heading into the Big 12 Tournament.