Moments That Popped: No. 19 Kansas 77, NC State 76 (OT)

It's safe to say that no one quite saw this game going like this... But the 19th-ranked Jayhawks will absolutely take it, leaving Raleigh, North Carolina with a 77-76 overtime win over NC State on a night that featured more than a few notable happenings.

Senior guard Melvin Council Jr. led the Jayhawks with 36 points on 9-of-15 shooting and also added a season-high 7 rebounds and 4 more assists.

KU needed every one of those points and 3-point makes, and, at times, it looked like Council saw the basket as big as a hula hoop. More on that below.

For now, though, let's give the Jayhawks (8-3) big time credit for finding a way to win in a tough road environment against a good team on a night when they didn't always have their best and didn't have star freshman Darryn Peterson down the stretch.

More on that below, too.

This one was tied at 30-30 at halftime and was back-and-forth from start to finish. Each possession was high-intensity stuff and every mistake was magnified because it felt like it could be the one that cost you.

Those games are fun. Those games create toughness. And those games build confidence. KU has plenty of all of those — with or without Peterson.

It's impossible to overstate how important Council going crazy was in this one. He shot 9-of-15 from 3-point range while the rest of the Jayhawks went 2-of-15. He scored 36 of the team's 77 points (46.7%). And he played a game-high 43 minutes.

We've reached the point where it looks like Self can barely afford to have him off the floor. Good thing for Self and the Jayhawks, Council would be willing to play 40+ any and every night.

Speaking of those 77 points, 75 of them came from KU's starting five. Unreal effort. Unreal win. Even if it wasn't all pretty.

Here's a look back and some more of Saturday's action from a gritty KU win in Raleigh, North Carolina.

LIKES

• Council goes crazy - Duke saw it firsthand when they couldn't stay in front of Melvin Council Jr. when the Jayhawks and Blue Devils played earlier this season. But clearly Jon Schyer and company didn't warn the Wolfpack. Forget the fact that Council exploded for 9 made 3-pointers and 36 points in 43 minutes. Both were sensational and absolutely needed. But it was the mere fact that Council, a career 27.5% 3-point shooter who had made 5 triples all season coming into Saturday, never hesitated to pull the trigger when he was open. He doesn't care what the numbers say. He doesn't care what people say. He doesn't even care what happens when the shots he misses clang off the rim. He's mentally tough enough to take the shots he should take and believe he's going to make them. When you operate like that, games like Saturday's are bound to happen. It's probably not wise to expect to see one like that again from Council. But don't count him out. And be damn glad he's a dawg mentally as much as he is physically. What a performance.

• Bidunga on the glass - He didn't have his best offensive night — though there were a couple big time buckets sprinkled among his 7 attempts — but the KU big man did come through on the glass, grabbing 11 total rebounds, including a couple of gotta-have-it boards late in the game. He also added a block, a steal, a couple of important shot-altering contests and finished with just 2 fouls in 32 minutes. This team is still figuring out life with Peterson back on the floor. And Bidunga has a little work to do in that area before he looks fully comfortable and effective again. But he still almost finished with a double-double and delivered at some crucial times.

• Turnovers way down - NC State coach Will Wade's past teams have been known for their defense. But the Jayhawks finished with just 8 turnovers total in a 45-minute, overtime win. That's pretty damn solid for a game with so much intensity and so many clutch possessions. What's more, KU managed to keep NC State from hurting them too much on the turnovers they did give away, with the Wolfpack finishing with just 7 points off of those 8 KU turnovers. Four of the eight came from Tre White, who had an off night shooting the ball and never fully looked in a rhythm. He's exactly the kind of player, though, who can find key ways to get those turnovers back. And he did exactly that, once by getting to the free throw line with a clutch take late. And another time by recording a tip-in of a KU miss that no one else could seem to get close to. White's a winner and a clutch performer who has a knack for finding ways to affect winning even when he doesn't have his best statistical night.

• A win that will matter? - We have no way of knowing yet if things are going to go this way, but you can't help but feel like that win — perhaps more than any other KU's had this season — will go a long way toward helping this team down the road. Particularly on the road. Winning in that environment is better than winning on a neutral floor in Vegas or against a bitter rival in KC. The Jayhawks have only had two other opportunities for wins like that, and they went 1-1 in them. And the one win came in an exhibition game at Louisville a couple of months ago. These guys now know they can win games like that in buildings like that. And when you play in the Big 12 Conference, all the proof of that you can muster can help you big time as you battle your way through another grueling season.

DISLIKES

• Ugly offense early - Part of the reason Council needed to go nuts was because no one else was. The Jayhawks were bad offensively in the early going, and, in many ways, for the entire first half. They settled for jumpers, had bad ball and body movement and looked lethargic in many things they did. In short, it looked a lot like they were just going through the motions. It all clicked eventually — sort of — and there were some good possessions even beyond what Council did. But it was clear early on that the Jayhawks were going to make it hard on themselves all the way to the end.

• NC State at the rim - The Wolfpack got so many buckets right at the rim or in the paint in this one, outscoring the Jayhawks 38-32 in points in the paint. Of those 38, nearly 30 of them had to come right at the rim. Early. Late. Didn't matter. KU got a couple of stops when they had to have them. None bigger than Flory Bidunga altering a potential game-winning floater on the final play of regulation. But there's no doubt that all of those buckets at point-blank range will be a topic of discussion during the Jayhawks' film session after this one.

• DP comes out again - He missed the end of regulation and all of overtime after coming out limping late in the game. It didn't take much to see how frustrated Peterson was by having to sit. But him coming out of this one has to leave you wondering what comes next. Are we looking at another prolonged break? Are we talking about something worse than that? Are we going to see him Tuesday night vs. Towson? Anything and everything is on the table again, and it's tough for this Kansas team, which absolutely needs him to reach its ceiling, to still be dealing with so much uncertainty heading into winter break. I know it’s popular to trash DP for missing time. But you won’t find that happening here. I mean, he was clearly limping. I feel bad for him for how this is all going, regardless of whether he could play or you think he should play. As for where it goes from here, don’t expect too many answers too soon. I'm guessing it'll be a day-to-day situation again for a while. Everyone’s favorite! If it's not day to day, that's probably bad news.

• Slow to close - It's tough to dog a guy who hit nine 3-pointers, but Council missed the front end of TWO one-and-one trips to the free throw line in the final seconds of overtime, which kept NC State alive all the way to the end. This was just about foul shots, but it's also worth noting that KU had 7-point leads in both the first and second halves and watched NC State erase them each time. It happens like that on the road. And if you can find a way to win a game like that, all the better. But extending those types of leads rather than letting them disappear so quickly certainly makes life on the road easier.

WHAT THE?

• Tiller +9 - He didn't do much, making just one shot all night and finishing with 4 rebounds in 29 minutes. And KU's absolutely going to need more from him as the season rolls on. More physicality. More offense. More toughness. More everything. But what freshman forward Bryson Tiller offered in this one was a big body who could match up with the NC State athletes. And that's why, despite his individual stats, he finished with the second-highest plus/minus number on the team on Saturday night. You wouldn't think that looking at the numbers he put up and the lack of production in them — hence the "What the?" — but he still played an important part in the win and he now knows what getting one like that feels like.

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