Kansas basketball crushed by BYU in 2nd straight loss. Is this rock bottom for Jayhawks?

Shreyas Laddha, The Kansas City Star on Feb 18, 2025

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Before Tuesday’s matchup against BYU, Kansas coach Bill Self said there had been “enough talk” from the players and coaching staff about the Jayhawks’ struggles.

He wanted the team to “go out and do it.”

Instead, the Jayhawks had their worst outing of the season in Provo, Utah. The game was an unequivocal disaster that highlighted multiple issues with the 2024-25 KU team.

And it tied the largest margin of defeat of the Self era (34 points).

BYU blew out No. 23 Kansas 91-57 Tuesday night at the Marriott Center. The Jayhawks (17-9, 8-7 Big 12) have lost four straight road games in Big 12 play. They’ve lost five of eight games overall.

KU’s Hunter Dickinson led the team with 12 points, adding 14 rebounds and two assists. Bench guard David Coit added 11 points, but six of them came in the final 2:30.

Freshman Flory Bidunga started in place of Rylan Griffen, as Self mixed up his starting five. The other four starters were regulars Dajuan Harris, Zeke Mayo, KJ Adams, and Dickinson. (Griffen started in place of Bidunga in the second half.)

The results weren’t good. BYU was red-hot from 3 in the first half, making 10 shots from long range, and took a 20-point lead into halftime. The 46-26 margin marked the largest halftime deficit for KU this season.

The second half wasn’t better, as the Jayhawks never got within single-digit points. They trailed by 30-plus for more than 11 minutes. Their largest deficit was 38 points.

Up next: KU hosts Oklahoma State at Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday.

Until then, here are four takeaways from KU’s road loss on Tuesday …

Panic time for KU?

On Saturday, before the Jayhawks lost to Utah, Kansas was revealed as the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Regional — ranked No. 15 overall — on the NCAA March Madness Bracket Preview show.

After the loss to Utah and Tuesday’s blowout at BYU, the Jayhawks are in serious danger of falling below a top-4 seed for the first time in the Self era. It’s also more than likely the Jayhawks, who dropped to No. 23 in the AP Top 25, will go unranked for the first time since 2021.

For a team that began the season at No. 1 in the country, nobody expected this type of season.

The Jayhawks are running out of time to figure it out.

Another glaring stat: Kansas hasn’t led in back-to-back games.

Jayhawks’ offense was a struggle

The Kansas offense had high expectations to begin the season. It has not met them.

Before Tuesday, the Jayhawks were all the way down at No. 46 overall in KenPom’s offensive rankings. That mark will likely be even worse come the morning.

The triple-big-man starting lineup of Adams, Bidunga and Dickinson didn’t do KU any favors. The Jayhawks have already struggled with spacing issues all season, and those were made worse by that configuration. KU shot just 25% on 3-pointers (4 for 16) in the first half.

KU made just 11 total shots in the period and was at 36.7% shooting through 20 minutes.

KU finished the night shooting 36.5% from the field, 28.1% from 3. On top of that, the Jayhawks only shot five free throws — another issue the team has faced all season.

BYU buries KU from deep

The Cougars have had no issue firing away all season. They ranked No. 18 in the nation in 3-point rate before Tuesday’s game.

Perhaps the Jayhawks didn’t get the memo.

KU players constantly missed assignments, got caught on ball screens and closed out without urgency. BYU made 10 3-pointers ... in the first half alone.

To understand how bad it got for the Jayhawks, Self, whose teams often have been built on defense, used his last timeout with 14 minutes left in the game. That was after BYU ripped off an 8-0 run to take a 31-point lead.

BYU finished the night shooting 14 for 36 (38.9%) on 3-pointers. The Cougars shot 51.5% from the field.

KU basketball’s stars didn’t show up

The Jayhawks had two players score double-digit points: Dickinson and Coit.

Dickinson finished the night shooting 5 for 13 from the field for 12 points. More than half of Coit’s 11 points came in garbage time.

Star guard Zeke Mayo had one of his worst outings of the year. He shot 2 for 7 from deep for just six points.

Nothing came easy on offense, with Harris, Adams and Mayo combining for 12 points.

On top of that, the Jayhawks had multiple stretches where they didn’t score for multiple minutes. They won’t win many games playing that way on offense.

KU’s starting five shot 11 for 36 (30.6%) from the field and attempted just two free throws.

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