Moments That Popped: Kansas vs. Baylor

The big question entering Friday's game against Baylor at Allen Fieldhouse was whether Kansas could give the same kind of effort in gave in rocking No. 2 Iowa State on Tuesday night or if there would be some kind of letdown.

The answer turned out to be a little of both during Friday's impressive 80-62 KU victory over the Bears.

KU was great right out of the gate, racing out to a 19-4 lead behind 13 early points from freshman guard Darryn Peterson. And the building was on fire, responding to KU's effort, defensive intensity and breakneck pace with roars of approval.

But the Bears never quit and refused to go away. In fact, a 33-17 run by Baylor turned that 19-4 KU advantage into a 37-36 Baylor lead late in the first half. KU closed the first half on a 7-0 run, to reclaim a 43-37 lead at the break.

From there, the Jayhawks extended that run to 22-3 to claim a 58-40 lead early in the second half. There was no Baylor answer this time and Kansas cruised to its second straight home conference win.

Darryn Peterson led the Jayhawks with another big night of 26 points in 23 minutes. It looked like DP easily could've gone for 40+ if the game had been closer and he had to play more.

KU shot 51% from the floor and held Baylor to 36% shooting.

You don't have to look hard to see it. These Jayhawks are starting to click and gain a little confidence as a complete package. There's still room to grow and things they have to improve, but if they keep growing at the rate they have in the past week, this could become a pretty damn good team pretty quickly.

Next up, KU (13-5 overall, 3-2 Big 12) will look to make it three straight wins in conference play when they travel to Boulder, Colorado to take on the Buffs on Tuesday night. Tipoff is slated for 10 p.m. (central) on ESPN.

Here's a look back at some of Friday night's action.

LIKES

• DP goes nuclear - You've seen, even in limited time/action, just how talented Darryn Peterson is. But he's really starting to show even more than we knew now that he's feeling comfortable and finding his legs again. Nothing illustrated that better than the first 5:35 of Friday's game, during which DP hit Baylor for 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting to help the Jayhawks race out to that 19-4 lead. He should've had 15 in that stretch, but he missed two free throws. We've seen Peterson put up some pretty big point totals and in limited minutes, too. But there was something different about this one because it came right after the jump and Baylor looked helpless to stop it while DP just kept gaining confidence and looking for his shots. He finished the night 11-of-13 overall for 26 points in 23 minutes. He sat a good chunk of the 2nd half in large part because of the lopsided score.

• Stellar start, in more ways than one - Not only did the Jayhawks race out to leads of 9-0 and 13-4 in this one — the encore to Tuesday night's home win over No. 2 Iowa State — but they also brought incredible energy right out of the gate for the second straight game. That was just one way they started strong. Another featured KU's offense showing that it learned a thing or two from a couple of games ago when Self was frustrated about their inability to throw the ball inside to Flory Bidunga. On the game's first possession, that's exactly where they went and Bidunga made it count with an easy dunk for a 2-0 lead. Beyond that, the Jayhawks were turned up on defense, hounding Baylor's guards and playing right underneath them at all five spots for most of the BU possessions in the game's first 5 minutes. Those two things — energy and intensity — also helped KU play fast, turning defense into offense and not giving Baylor a moment to blink. It's how Self would want his teams to start every game. And the Jayhawks have now done it in two consecutive games.

• Get the ball inside - We mentioned this above, but it's important to highlight it because the Jayhawks opened the 2nd half of Friday night's game by looking to throw the ball to Bidunga in the paint, much in the same way they started the game trying to feed the big fella down low. That's been a staple of Bill Self basketball for decades. And while it's not critical that they throw it into him every trip down, it is important to have that be part of what they do, both so KU can get easy buckets and get Bidunga engaged in the game early and to create space and room to roam for the KU wings and guards on the perimeter.

• Points in the paint - Baylor is big and long and Kansas absolutely did not care. The Jayhawks dominated the points in the paint stat, outscoring BU 42-18 in the blue area to give KU a huge edge in the win. It wasn't just the 24-point advantage that mattered here, it was also the tone it set for the entire game. KU was in attack mode from the jump and Baylor never quite recovered. Several of those points came on dunks at the rim and more than a few of them were the result of lobs that Baylor was a step slow to read and react to. Bidunga played big in this one, finishing with a monster double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds to go along with 5 blocks and 2 steals in 31 minutes. Said Baylor coach Scott Drew after the loss: "You're not gonna win any games (getting) outscored 42-18 in the paint."

• "Boooo!" - It was light and it didn't matter much to the outcome of the game, but the KU crowd once again showed its elite knowledge of all things basketball when it booed Baylor big man James Nnaji when he checked into the game for the first time early in the first half. Nnaji, you might know, joined the Bears midway through the season despite having been drafted in the 2nd round of the 2023 NBA Draft (No. 31 overall) by Detroit. The native Nigerian and his new team have taken advantage of new rules — or is it no rules — that allow college programs to add players who are still within the 5-year window of their college eligibility even if they've been drafted into pro leagues. It's a complicated story and it has set off all kinds of debates about what's right and wrong and what should be allowed. That's a story for another day. Or perhaps year. Tonight, we're sending out a quick hat tip to the KU fans for letting their thoughts be known. Nnaji, the 7-foot 21-year-old who is a bit of an innocent victim in all of this, finished the night scoreless with 4 rebounds in 15 minutes.

DISLIKES

• 3-point defense - One of the biggest factors in the Bears' run that got them the lead late in the first half was their lights-out 3-point shooting. Some of that is owed to the Baylor players making shots. And we knew coming in that these guys could score. But some of it was also on KU's defense on the arc. The Bears stepped into a bunch of open 3-point looks in the first half, finishing 6-of-14 from 3-point range in the first half after hitting 6 of their first 12 attempts. Many of them were deep, but many of those deep looks were also wide open. Baylor cooled off in the second half and Kansas did a much better job of contesting the Bears' 3-point looks. So, maybe this isn't as much a reason to panic as it is a bit of a momentary lapse.

• Little things - Late in the first half, KU ran a sideline out of bounds play to get an open lob for Bidunga with no one around him in the paint. But the pass from Elmarko Jackson in front of the Baylor bench sailed high and Bidunga could not bring it in. KU was hit with just its second turnover of the night and a quick look toward Self on the bench showed that he would've preferred Jackson to snap the ball with two hands over his head instead of passing from below his neck. Little details matter. Self sees them all. And they tend to matter. This one didn't in the long run, but you know it'll be addressed in film sessions. And not just to Jackson but to the entire team as a reminder of what's important, when and why.

• More minutes for the deep bench? - The Jayhawks dominated the 2nd half on Friday night and there's no doubt that KU coach Bill Self could've mixed in a few more minutes for reserves like Kohl Rosario and even Paul Mbiya and Samis Calderon if he believed the Jayhawks could've kept control. The easiest way would've been to stagger them on the floor. But instead of going to them throughout the final quarter of the game, Self waited until the final 2 minutes to put them in. We're nit-picking here. And it's hard to blame him based on how quickly the Bears hit KU with that first-half run. But there's a chance KU's going to need one or two of those guys down the road and getting them in earlier so they could feel the flow of a dominant Big 12 win while the game was still somewhat in question might've been worth it. I'll be over here playing 2K the rest of the night instead of second-guessing the Hall of Famer, though.

WHAT THE?

• So unselfish - The other night against Iowa State, the play of the game was a hustle play by Elmarko Jackson that led to a 3-pointer by Tre White. In this one, it was defense turning to offense thanks to a combo steal by Bidunga and Melvin Council Jr. and Council's awareness and willingness to throw a reverse lob to Bidunga on the fastbreak that followed. Council easily could've gone to the rim himself and probably at least gotten fouled. But he knew Flory was trailing and chose to throw it up backwards near the front of the rim to get the highlight lob that ignited the crowd. Bidunga was fouled on the flush and came back after the media timeout to cash the free throw for the three-point play. That put Kansas up 58-40 early in the 2nd half and capped a 22-3 KU run that gave the home team control again.

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