KU basketball held a players-only meeting before blasting No. 2 Iowa State
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- Seniors held a players-only meeting; KU responded with an 84-63 rout.
- KU used a shortened rotation; four players scored in double digits.
- Team focused on playing aggressive next to Darryn Peterson; aggressiveness opened shots.
Appalled at Kansas’ 1-2 start in Big 12 Conference play, the KU basketball seniors called a players-only meeting in their Allen Fieldhouse locker room in the aftermath of the Jayhawks’ deflating 86-75 loss at West Virginia on Saturday.
“I had no idea,” KU coach Bill Self said of the players’ meeting-of-the-minds with a season teetering on the brink — and undefeated Iowa State coming to town Tuesday.
“If they had a players-only meeting, the coaches shouldn’t know,” Self added. “... They should meet more often.”
The result? Unranked KU routed the No. 2 Cyclones 84-63 on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks led by as many as 26 points with 2:16 left in the first half and never saw the lead dip below 11 points. The well-timed rout suggests the players-only meeting might have been what was needed to shake up the squad.
“It was kind of reiterating the key things we want to identify ourselves as this year,” senior Tre White said when asked about the meeting. He hit a career-high five 3s and scored 19 points with 10 rebounds in 35 minutes.
White was one of seven players used by Self in a trimmed rotation that resulted in four players in double-digit scoring and three players with eight points each.
“I feel like the internal conversation … I feel like it made us more focused on everything that we do,” White added.
He did not wish to delve in specifics regarding the meeting.
“I don’t want to give everything away that we said, but it definitely made us more connected,” White said.
Part of the message at the team meeting was apparently the need for the squad to play better together when freshman sensation Darryn Peterson (16 points, five rebounds, 27 minutes) was in the game.
“Darryn is such a great player. His magnitude on the court is crazy. He can attract two, three players sometimes,” White said. “So in the meeting we definitely made it a point to be more aggressive to make it easier on him. And I feel like tonight we did a good job of that, and we could definitely do a better job. But he’s all for (us) getting him open and stuff like that, because he’s so good with the ball in his hands.”
The players spoke among themselves in the locker room. Self also spoke to the team a lot since Saturday’s loss in Morgantown, Peterson joking that “we get a speech probably out of seven days a week … six.”
“All week … it’s only been one practice,” Self said, noting Sunday “wasn’t really a day (for intense practice after returning from the road game). I think it was, ‘We screwed it up. How are we going to unscrew it?’ ...
“Maybe I didn’t use those words exactly, but I think the whole thing is, ‘Hey, this is the situation. And, you know, there’s a lot of season left.’ And I used the football analogy, too ... ‘There’s time to catch up. But we have dug ourself a situation where we don’t have much more time to wait. The margin for error has is less and less as we move forward.’”
KU improved to 12-5, 2-2 in Big 12 games Tuesday night.
Against Iowa State, KU tied a season high with 12 made 3s in 24 attempts. (ISU went 9-for-27). White made five 3s on seven attempts. Peterson was 2-for-7 from 3.
Melvin Council Jr. had 15 points and seven rebounds. Flory Bidunga had 10 points, four blocks and two steals. Bryson Tiller added eight points and four rebounds and Jamari McDowell scored eight points (2-of-3 from 3) with six assists versus no turnovers.
Elmarko Jackson had eight points and four steals.
“We shortened the rotation, obviously. And I think that helped us tonight, because guys got rhythm,” Self said. “Jamari got a rhythm (in his 24 minutes). I would say the one thing that comes to mind more than anything else, we were aggressive with Darryn in the game. And that’s the first time that’s happened this year.”
KU will next meet Baylor at 7 p.m. Friday in Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published January 14, 2026 at 12:13 AM with the headline "KU basketball held a players-only meeting before blasting No. 2 Iowa State."
