Don’t sleep on KU Jayhawks’ Bryson Tiller. He, too, is having a fine hoops season
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tiller posted his first career double-double: 10 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists.
- Tiller averages 9.0 points and 6.2 rebounds; 31 assists vs. 47 turnovers.
- Coach Bill Self highlighted Tiller among the Big 12's deep freshman class.
Versatile Kansas Jayhawks freshman forward Bryson Tiller was unaware that he nearly recorded the fifth official triple-double in KU basketball history Wednesday night against Oklahoma State.
“I didn’t know until after the game,” said Tiller, a versatile 6-foot-11, 240-pound Atlanta native.
Tiller scored 10 points while grabbing a career-high 11 rebounds and dishing a career-best seven assists in an 81-69 victory over OSU at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
“I like getting my teammates involved,” added Tiller, who didn’t seem surprised that he finished with seven assists. (His previous high was four against Utah and Texas Tech.) “I’ve been able to pass for a long time now. I feel like I have pretty good vision.
“We know that a lot of teams are going to double. So cut and make the right reads in those situations.”
Had Tiller completed the triple-double on Wednesday, he would have joined a club that includes New York Knicks guard/forward Kevin McCullar — who had two as a Jayhawk —Jeff Withey and Cole Aldrich (who had one apiece).
It’s believed Wilt Chamberlain had numerous triple-doubles in an era before blocks were an official stat.
Tiller did record the first double-double of his KU career. Several of his assists Wednesday were inside feeds to fellow big man Flory Bidunga, who scored eight points on 4-of-10 shooting.
“I feel we’re one of the best front courts in the country,” Tiller said. “It’s trusting each other’s abilities, working on it in practice. It doesn’t just come on game day. So I feel like we just know what each other is going to do, and we execute pretty well.”
Tiller has averaged 9.0 points (on 47.8% shooting) and 6.2 rebounds in 26.6 minutes per game during his freshman season. He has 31 assists to 47 turnovers.
“He’s special,” said KU sophomore guard Elmarko Jackson. “Whenever he’s dominant and playing like that with Flory (Bidunga), one of the best bigs in the country. ... They’re both so talented, so skilled. It makes it easy on me and other players because they’re creating double teams every play. We need them to be aggressive,” Jackson added.
Jackson — he had a big game vs. the Cowboys, with 14 points, four assists and two steals in 28 minutes — said of Tiller: “That’s kind of normal for him. Whenever he puts his foot on the gas it’s just louder like this. We see it every day in practice. He’s 6-11 and skilled. He can do anything with both hands. So I feel like whenever he and Flory, all of us keep our foot on the gas it makes it easier for everybody else.”
KU coach Bill Self said folks should not forget about Tiller when discussing the league and country’s many outstanding freshmen.
“Oh, it’s the best. It’s not even close,” Self said of the freshman class in the Big 12 being its best yet. Some of the standouts: KU’s Darryn Peterson, plus AJ Dybantsa (BYU), Kingston Flemings (Houston), Tounde Yessoufou (Baylor), Brayden Burries and Koa Peat (Arizona).
“I mean we’ve had good players at Kansas,” Self said, “and our players at Kansas that we’ve had, even the ones that are one-and-done, would be in that group. But they didn’t go one or two in the draft. I’d be shocked if that’s not the case in our league, and the league’s fantastic, but the freshmen in the league are … different.
“We started thinking about this … Bryson Tiller has had a great year for us, and nobody even talks about him. And he’s a freshman but not talked about because of everybody else, and there are others that way too.
“Tounde Yessoufou is really good. And most years, he’d be considered one of the best one or two, three freshmen in our league. People don’t talk about him as much because of the other dudes. The years that Burries and Koa and then, of course, AJ and Kingston and, you know, Darryn and his potential. You can make a case those would be the best five players going into any league. You obviously have the two in the ACC with Caleb (Wilson, North Carolina) and Cam (Boozer, Duke). This is as good a recruiting job as our league has ever done.”
Now 20-6 overall and 10-3 in the league, KU will play host to Cincinnati at noon Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Don’t sleep on KU Jayhawks’ Bryson Tiller. He, too, is having a fine hoops season."
