Moments That Popped: No. 9 Kansas 82, No. 1 Arizona 78

There's a first time for everything and the way things set up heading into Monday night, there was going to be a first for sure at Allen Fieldhouse.

Either Bill Self would lose his first Big Monday game at home or Arizona would lose its first game of the season and KU won have a pretty significant first to add to a program so rich with tradition.

As it turned out, it was the Jayhawks' first win at Allen Fieldhouse over a team ranked No. 1 in the country that became a part of history.

In a game that will be replayed and talked about for ages, KU out-slugged, out-chugged and outlasted top-ranked Arizona, 82-78, despite leading for just 9:32 all night.

Bill Self-coached KU teams are now 40-0 all-time in Big Monday games at Allen Fieldhouse and Arizona heads home with its first loss of the season.

Flory Bidunga was a warrior and he finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds in 33 minutes, both of those paling big time in comparison to his most important stat of the night — 2 fouls.

Melvin Council Jr. added 23, including a bunch of clutch baskets late, while Bryson Tiller (18) and Jamari McDowell (10) also reached double digits, all of them by laying it all on the line and all of it, oh by the way, without star freshman Darryn Peterson, who missed the game with the flu.

Said Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd after the loss: "Kansas is a hell of a team. Let's not make this about Darryn Peterson. He didn't play because he was sick. They beat the No. 1 team in the country at home tonight. They did a hell of a job. Their coach did a hell of a job. That should be the story."

The refs let both teams battle. The game was tight most of the way. And Kansas never let up after taking its first lead midway through the second half. The Jayhawks were physical, fast, full of heart and found a way.

After the win, KU coach Bill Self spent a few minutes on the floor pumping both fists into the air while thousands in the Allen Fieldhouse stands stayed put, struggling to find that first step toward the exits.

KU now has wins over the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country this season — Iowa State was ranked 2nd when KU beat them earlier this season — which gives the Jayhawks arguably the two best wins by a single team in the entire country as we head into mid-February.

Next up, KU (19-5 overall, 9-2 Big 12) will head to No. 5 Iowa State on Saturday before traveling to Oklahoma State next Wednesday night.

Here's a look back at some of the action from KU's memorable and amazing Top-10 Big Monday battle.

LIKES

• Attack, attack, attack - The Jayhawks let it all hang out in the first half, refusing to give an inch and attacking with tempo and breakneck pace over and over after Arizona misses and turnovers. The Jayhawks were fearless from the start and they stayed that way for most of the night. Even in the moments when Arizona opened up leads of six or seven points or as many as 11 early in the 2nd half, the Jayhawks refused to stop attacking. Self credited the home crowd for some of that, saying it's hard to get tired when the building is pushing you and believing in you like that. Still, the Jayhawks stared down the No. 1 team in the country without their most talented player and wound up taking them down in impressive fashion. It helped being at home, but no one's going to apologize for any part of this win. Simply put, it was one of the best regular season wins in school history.

• Tiller's latest breakout game - There were bigger scorers and more clutch buckets, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that KU might've gotten run out of its own building if not for Tiller. The freshman forward was sensational early, playing aggressive on the offensive end from the jump on a night when the Jayhawks needed to know they could. Tiller was good inside. He was good outside. And he attacked downhill over and over again. Stop me if you've read this line before, but it was the latest progression in Tiller's sky-rocketing development, which has taken him from a nice piece with long-term potential to a key part of this team. Tiller finished the night with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting with 8 rebounds and 3 assists in a grueling 36 minutes of high-intensity hoops.

• Flory can fly - Remember last week, when KU big man Flory Bidunga played big in a win at Texas Tech, taking his game right to defending Big 12 Player of the Year JT Toppin? Well, that was nothing compared to this. And he did it in so many different ways in the process. He used brute strength and physicality. He used heart and fight. He used offense and defense. He used athleticism and timing. And he bundled it all into a nice little package that delivered the Jayhawks their first Allen Fieldhouse win over a team ranked No. 1 in the AP poll. Few moments were as big, nor as indicative of Flory's night, like the lob he finished over Arizona 7-footer Motiejus Krivas midway through the 2nd half. It came seconds after Krivas recorded one of his 6 blocks on the night. And it cut the Arizona lead to a single point, after Flory caught the lob with two hands and posterized Krivas who was backing into him to try to defend the play, which he finished with a vicious one-hand flush for the hoop and the foul. Bidunga hit the free throw to add to the momentum gained on the play, and KU soon had its first lead of the night.

• Real 6th man stuff here - We've grown accustomed to listening to KU fans complain about their teams in recent years. And even this year with the whole Darryn Peterson experience/saga. But give the crowd credit on Monday night. They brought it. From the jump. And you could really sense in the building that they believed that they could make up for at least some of what the Jayhawks were missing with Peterson out. That's nothing new, of course. Allen Fieldhouse has been one of the best home-court advantages in all of basketball for decades. But this felt different. That was cool. Self went wild about the crowd after the game, saying that he knows he's biased but that there's no better crowd/environment than the one Kansas has. "But I shouldn't say that because I don't know what everyone else has," Self said. "But I can guarantee you there's no place better than this place."

• "Paul M-Biya" - You might've had an inkling that the KU big man could get some minutes in this one, simply because of Arizona's big, physical front line and the Jayhawks' need to stay out of foul trouble. And Mbiya did get a couple of key first-half minutes. But who had him impacting the game — at least at the time — in enough of a meaningful way to draw the "Paul M-Biya" chants from the crowd. Good for him. He went in, did his job, picked up a couple of fouls and sat back down. Hard to ask for much more than that from a guy who entered the game with just 9 minutes of Big 12 basketball under his belt.

DISLIKES

• No Peterson - It was a wild situation, just like it has been all season, but Kansas coach Bill Self said he didn't know that Peterson was out for this one until he came downstairs to address the team in the locker room before the game. As for why Peterson did not appear on the Big 12's availability report, Self said it was simple. They thought he'd play. "Thought adrenaline would kick in," Self noted. Monday's absence marked the 11th game that Peterson has missed this season, for a variety of reasons from flu-like symptoms to hamstring woes and cramps. It's certainly not ideal for Kansas to not have him, but boy have they shown, on more than one occasion, that they can still find a way to get it done even when they don't.

• Sluggish starts - KU struggled in the early going, giving up 6 straight points and forcing Bill Self to call a timeout barely 90 seconds into the game. But they figured it out from there and settled in, found their flow and fought for the rest of the half, trailing by just three at the break. But then the second half started and KU was equally as sloppy to open the second 20 minutes. That allowed Arizona to build an 11-point lead (55-44) less than 3 minutes into the second half, but KU somehow found a way to crawl out of that hole as well. Call it fight, like Council did. Call it pride, like Tiller did. Whatever it was, it worked. You just don't want to make a habit of having to go to that well too often.

• Jayhawks win with 6 - Yes, Paul Mbiya and Kohl Rosario technically played, but neither played much and the Jayhawks, who normally just play 7 guys, took down the No. 1 team in the country with just six players. Jayden Dawson did not play. And Elmarko Jackson was the only sub to play double-digit minutes, logging 23 and some pretty important buckets and assists. This might seem like it belongs in the "Likes" section here. And you could certainly argue that. But it falls here because these games are taking so much out of KU's first five that you can't help but wonder what the long-term ramifications might be. Heck, even the short-term issues could be a problem. The Jayhawks will have the rest of the week to take it easy, but following up Monday's game, which took absolutely everything KU had, with a road trip to Ames, Iowa, isn't exactly a smooth landing. We'll probably be saying this the rest of the year. And we'll probably be saying it because it's not likely to happen: But it's amazing what even a slightly deeper bench could do for this team as the postseason draws near.

WHAT THE?

• Flory Messi? - During a scrum under the Arizona basket after a Wildcats' miss midway through the 2nd half, KU big man Flory Bidunga sat on his butt and seemed to flip the ball up into the air with one of his feet. That allowed the Jayhawks to gain to control and push the ball up the floor for another transition basket that cut the Arizona lead to 62-58 with around 12 minutes to play. U of A coach Tommy Lloyd pleaded with the officials for the kick call but it never came. Wild sequence. Heady play by Bidunga.

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