Bill Self’s take — and many reasons — why KU Jayhawks lost at home to Cincinnati
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas lost 84-68; Cincinnati dominated defense and rebounding (40-29).
- Cincinnati hit 12 of 31 3s; Moustapha Thiam (28) and Baba Miller (18) led scoring.
- Bill Self blamed lack of defensive intensity, rebounding and weak ball movement.
In Bill Self’s eyes, there are reasons — many reasons — that Kansas trailed by 19 points with one minute to play and ultimately fell to an unranked Cincinnati team 84-68 on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
“We were just awful today defensively, and they were great,” KU coach Self said after the Bearcats (15-12, 7-7) handed No. 8-ranked KU (20-7, 10-4) the fourth-worst home loss in the 23-year Self era. It tied for the 12th worst loss in the history of the tradition-rich building
Cincinnati, which was led by the career-high 28-point outing of big man Moustapha Thiam (who celebrated his 20th birthday Saturday) and 18 point, eight-assist, seven rebound effort from forward Baba Miller, knocked down 12 3s on 31 attempts to KU’s 4 in 18 tries.
“Their bigs dominated and their guards ... we didn’t pressure them. They got where they wanted to,” Self assessed.
Self, whose team entered with a 12-1 home record that included six wins against no losses in conference play, was dismayed by the Bearcats’ 40-29 rebound advantage.
KU big man Flory Bidunga had 18 points and 12 rebounds (also four turnovers), while Bryson Tiller contributed four points and two rebounds.
“I’d say they were more aggressive. They were more physical, and we played soft,” Self said, noting this game reminded him of KU’s uninspiring 71-59 home win over Utah on Feb. 2.
“I didn’t think anybody played well today. We weren’t competitive today,” Self added. “The bottom line is we didn’t bring it as a unit. I didn’t think that our bigs — Flory got some rebounds — but I didn’t think our bigs played very big today.
“The defensive intensity from everybody was lacking. I didn’t think that we did anything to cause any type of rhythm adjustments, or anything like that that ever made them feel uncomfortable.”
Meanwhile, Cincinnati’s defense “was great,” Self said. “Their length … they protect the rim. You know, those shots that Melvin (Council Jr., seven points, 3-of-13 shooting) makes a lot of times, it’s a little different shooting over 7-foot-2 and 6-11 like that.
“They did a good job on Darryn (Peterson, 17 points, 7-of-17 shooting, 1-of-7 from 3) and our ball and body movement and things like that weren’t very good. They did a really good job of switches. They didn’t switch defenses, but they gave a different look out of timeouts. Even though it’s still man to man, they made it look like it was a zone. And we didn’t handle that very well, even though we said, ‘Just run what we tell you.’”
Self noted KU “could have done a much better job out of timeouts, too.”
KU freshman Peterson had no cramping issues and played 32 minutes.
“Yeah, if we are going to grab a positive out of this today, let’s go with that,” Self said jokingly. “I actually thought that for the most part he moved pretty well, but, to me, playing is: Did we pressure? Did we do anything other than … I mean he was out there, and I think that was great, but that’s still not what I’m looking for from an entire team, because when you’re playing well, everything is connected. And we weren’t connected today.”
As far as the historical significance of the game, the 16-point home defeat was only surpassed (in the Self era) by a 25-point loss to Texas in 2021, 23-point loss to TCU in 2023 and 18-point loss to Kentucky in 2022.
KU will next meet Houston at 8 p.m. Monday at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks have not lost two in a row in Allen since the 1988-89 season, Roy Williams’ first at KU.
This story was originally published February 21, 2026 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Bill Self’s take — and many reasons — why KU Jayhawks lost at home to Cincinnati."
