KU basketball suffers Big 12 road loss at West Virginia: Here are 3 takeaways
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas’ loss leaves KU 1-2 in Big 12, matching worst league start since 2006.
- Darryn Peterson led scoring but cooled in second half and exited late.
- KU defense and 3-point shooting faltered; West Virginia hit 42% from deep.
This Kansas men’s basketball team is breaking longtime program records.
Just not the ones the Jayhawks want to break.
West Virginia upset No. 22 Kansas 86-75 on Saturday afternoon in Hope Coliseum. The Jayhawks (11-5) are 1-2 in Big 12 play for the first time since the 2005-06 season.
Save for a miraculous comeback against TCU, the Jayhawks would be starting league play 0-3. It’s extremely concerning considering the schedule doesn’t get any easier. The Jayhawks still have seven top-15 games the rest of the way.
In Saturday’s effort, Darryn Peterson led the Jayhawks with 23 points and six rebounds. Tre White added 18 points and five rebounds.
Peterson, who’s dealt with cramping issues in recent weeks, played 31 minutes, including 13 in the second half. He checked out for good with KU down seven and 1:28 to play.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair where neither team seemed to gain much separation. The Jayhawks went into the half leading 43-39 after Peterson made a 3-pointer before the buzzer.
KU raced to a 59-51 lead by the 14:55 mark of the second half, but it didn’t last long. From that point on, WVU outscored the Jayhawks 35-16.
West Virginia led for the final 11:06.
Up next for KU: The Jayhawks face No. 3 Iowa State on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Until then, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game:
Darryn Peterson shined early, struggled late
Peterson is a generational talent, or at the very least a generational scorer.
It’s hard to explain, but his ability to end up with 15 or so points in each first half — no matter how he starts — is remarkable.
Similar to his last game, Peterson started off very slow. At one point, he was shooting 1-for-6 from the field and had two points. And he still finished the first period Saturday with 16 points on 5-for-11 shooting, staying in rhythm of the offense without hunting his shot.
Peterson simply took what the defense gave him and somehow turned it into another quality first half.
The second half wasn’t as pretty for Peterson. He scored only seven points on 1-for-6 shooting from the floor. He finished the game shooting 6-for-17 from the field.
Peterson and his teammates are still learning how to play together, but Tre White was complimentary of the freshman postgame.
“It’s been fun, (he’s) a gifted player,” White said. “His gravity on the court is crazy. He can attract two (defenders), attract three at any moment. It’s just being in the right spots when he’s in attack mode and stuff like that ... It’s been a seamless fit with him.”
KU’s defense is having real problems
All throughout nonconference play, the Jayhawks had one of the best defenses in the nation.
That certainly hasn’t been the case since Big 12 play started. KU entered Saturday ranked No. 14 in the conference in adjusted defensive efficiency (116.1) through two games of league play.
Adjusted defensive efficiency measures the number of points allowed per 100 possessions.
Kansas coach Bill Self has repeatedly stressed that his squad needs to improve its overall defense and communication on that end. But it still wasn’t great Saturday.
West Virginia shot 50% from the floor and close to 43% from 3 in the first half. Those numbers only slightly cooled in the second half, as the Mountaineers finished the game shooting 48.2% from the field, 42.3% from 3.
The Mountaineers committed only nine turnovers for the game.
“We were very poor,” Self said of the second-half defense. “They backed us down, our guards down, in the post and we didn’t give much resistance at all. They took advantage of that, and then we didn’t obviously score on the other end. They were tougher. We never stopped them the whole night.”
KU’s shooting couldn’t keep up
One of the biggest issues coming into the season was the Jayhawks’ 3-point shooting. They have some players who can make shots, but not necessarily at a great volume.
For most of the season, the Jayhawks have managed. White and Melvin Council have stepped up while Peterson has provided an additional scoring lift.
But 3-point shooting is still not a strength of this KU team, which shot 8-for-27 (29.6%) from 3 in the defeat. The aforementioned trio went 6-for-19 (31.6%).
The Mountaineers outscored the Jayhawks by nine from distance, making 11 of their 26 3-point attempts.
“Their support players kept them in the game that first half, and we kind of bit the bullet there, I guess, in that second half,” KU guard Elmarko Jackson said. “Honor (Huff) started to get hot, and (Treysen) Eaglestaff kind of started to get rolling a little bit as well.”
It’s hard to win games when you allow opposing teams to shoot that well from deep.
This story was originally published January 10, 2026 at 1:38 PM with the headline "KU basketball suffers Big 12 road loss at West Virginia: Here are 3 takeaways."
