After an extremely disappointing loss against West Virginia in the first game of Big 12 play, the Kansas Jayhawks needed a bounce back in a huge way and boy did they deliver. On the road, Hunter Dickinson and the Crimson and Blue blew out the UCF Knights 99-48 in a game that was never really a contest.
Kansas had its best overall performance of the season, getting out to a quick 23-11 start halfway through the first half and never looked back. KU outscored UCF by an insane margin of 62-10 in the paint… yes, 62-10. The final score also represented the largest lead of the game at a jaw-dropping 51 points, which was over 9x the initial -5.5 KU spread entering the game.
Kansas shot well from beyond the arc, going 9-for-23 (39.1%) and Hunter Dickinson at times in the second half had almost as many points by himself as UCF did as a team, ultimately finishing with 27 points. While the offense today was boomin’, the defense was even more impressive. KU allowed UCF to make a mere 14-of-68 shots (20.6%) in the game, adding 12 blocks too.
What other notable records did this 51-point beatdown secure for KU Hoops?
The 51-point win margin obliterated the Jayhawks previous record for a Big 12 road game (35) that was set in 2012 against Texas Tech when they demolished them 81-46. It is also KU’s largest win margin in a road game of any kind since 1990, when they beat Hawaii by 53.
Additionally, this mark is the largest win in any Big 12 game, home or away since Kansas beat Texas Tech by 58 in 2008 in Allen Fieldhouse. It is also the largest road win in Big 12 history and the largest win in any “Power 6” conference road game since 2017 where Louisville beat Pittsburgh by 55.
This performance truly could not have come at a better time for a struggling Kansas team that can use this massive win as momentum entering the rest of conference play in January. Hunter Dickinson looked like a man on a mission today, the team as a whole appeared to be locked in from the tip off, and Flory Bidunga had an eye-opening 12-point, 5-rebound, 6-block game.
Kansas now heads home to face off with Arizona State in Allen Fieldhouse on Wednesday night, following by back-to-back difficult road games against No. 16 ranked Cincinnati and No. 3 ranked Iowa State.