Leading up to Tuesday night, there was an odd, almost "Twilight Zone" feeling in the air.
It would have been too critical to say that Kansas had a poor season, afterall with the on and off career of Darryn Peterson combined with a relatively poor offense mixed with an elite defense, which has kept them afloat through an 11-5 start and a 1-2 conference record.
With reports of a player-only meeting following Kansas 86-75 loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday, a consensus mood that things needed to be changed was felt across all who don the KU colors.
Tre White said on radio pregame the players held a players only meeting in the wake of the loss at WVU. He said what was needed to be said was said. We'll see if it matters. ISU is one, impressive undefeated team.
— Gary Bedore (@GaryBedore) January 14, 2026
Safe to say that message was well received as the Jayhawks notched an electric 44 points in their first half against the No. 2 Iowa State Cyclones. The 26 points Kansas once led demolishes the 13 points Iowa once held against Iowa State, which, up until today, was the largest they trailed by all season long. Leaving Kansas up 44-23 heading into the half
Kansas had six different scorers notch at least six points in that first half, as Tre White led with 12 points. Behind White was Melvin Council Jr., who had scored eight. Bryson Tiller, Darryn Peterson, Flory Bidunga, and Elmarko Jackson all followed with six points themselves.
The Jayhawks notched a clean 50% mark and had already created 12 assists on the day, giving fans a taste of what a fully functional team could look like.
The only other time Kansas had looked so efficient was when they took down the Davidson Wildcats in a 90-61 win, but even that was met with speculation as Kansas was facing a non-power opponent
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