Kansas Basketball Building a Defensive Identity as Big 12 Play Looms
When Melvin Council Jr. transferred to Kansas this past offseason, he arrived with a clear mission: learn what matters most to Bill Self - and fast. The fifth-year guard, who’s taken the long road through Monroe College, Wagner, and St. Bonaventure, stepped into Lawrence with eyes wide open and ears tuned in.
“He was preaching in the summertime about how his best teams were his defensive teams,” Council said recently. “Defense wins championships.
And you know, we don’t have a lot of offense. So I try to picture that - if we get stops, our offense can be great.”
That mindset is starting to take root.
Through 13 games, this Kansas team - ranked No. 17 in the country - is carving out a defensive identity that might not be flashy, but it's effective. The Jayhawks are sitting at 10-3 heading into the holiday break, and while they aren’t lighting up the scoreboard (75.8 points per game, which ranks 15th in the Big 12 and 227th nationally), they’re doing real damage on the other end.
Kansas currently ranks fourth in the Big 12 and tied for 13th nationally in points allowed per game (63.3). That’s the kind of stat line that doesn’t just happen - it’s earned through effort, discipline, and a commitment to Self’s defensive principles. For context, only Houston (60.0), West Virginia (60.2), and Iowa State (63.0) are stingier within the conference.
And it gets better when you look at shooting percentages. Kansas leads the Big 12 - and ranks sixth nationally - in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to just 36.6%.
That’s not just good; that’s elite. Houston is next in the league at 38.2%, and they’ve built their brand on suffocating defense.
But the real standout number? Three-point defense.
Kansas is locking down the arc, allowing opponents to shoot just 25.2% from deep - third-best in the country. Only UT Arlington (24.1%) and Louisiana Tech (24.3%) are better.
In today’s game, where spacing and perimeter shooting are everything, that’s a massive edge.
“We think our identity is really in the defense, and that leads to offense as well,” said freshman wing Kohl Rosario.
He’s not wrong. Kansas has held nine opponents to 61 points or fewer so far, a testament to their ability to grind games down and control tempo.
But it’s not all perfect. For all the defensive stops, KU still ranks last in the Big 12 in steals (5.4 per game) and forced turnovers (9.5 per game).
That’s a gap Self and his players know they need to close.
“Practice … we’ve got to do it in practice,” Council said. He leads the team with 13 steals through 13 games, with only one other player - Tre White - hitting double digits with 11.
“Talk more, use our arms, because we are long,” Council added. “We don’t really take advantage of that.
Keep doing it in practice and then in games it should become easier for us. I love it.
I like to pick up 94 feet. It’s something I need to do for the next level, just play a role, and if I can do it, my teammates will piggyback off me and then we’ll get stops.”
That mindset is starting to show. In their final game before the holiday break - a 90-61 win over Davidson at Allen Fieldhouse - KU tied a season high with 13 steals and forced 16 turnovers overall. That’s the kind of defensive disruption Self has been waiting to see.
“We haven’t been forcing any [turnovers], but I did think our hands were more active and we got our hands on more basketballs, which led to some transition points,” Self said after the Davidson win. “You look at forcing 16 turnovers, but even a bigger stat to me would be 13 steals out of 16 turnovers because we only average about five steals.”
That’s a leap in the right direction, and it’s giving Self some optimism heading into conference play. Still, he knows there’s work to do - especially on the glass.
“I’ll go home thinking our first-shot defense is getting better. We just don’t rebound the ball the way we’re capable of rebounding the ball.”
The numbers back that up. Kansas ranks No. 56 nationally and fifth in the Big 12 in rebounds per game (40.2), but they’re allowing opponents to grab 35.0 per game - 14th in the league. That’s a margin that could come back to bite them against more physical conference foes.
Even so, Self sees the potential.
“I do think we have a chance to be a really good defensive team,” he said. “I don’t think we are yet, but when we get all our pieces out there and have some time to play together, I see the thing coming together in a way we haven’t seen yet.”
Offensively, Kansas is still searching for its rhythm. Only Cincinnati is scoring fewer points per game in the Big 12. But the Jayhawks believe that when the defense is clicking, the offense will follow.
“I’ve been saying it all year. We’re the most versatile team in the country,” said senior wing Tre White.
“I feel we’re the most dangerous team in the country when everybody is being aggressive. I felt like [against Davidson] everybody was being selfless while being aggressive.”
Council agrees - and he’s not just looking at the box score to judge this team’s ceiling.
“The first part of the season was fun,” he said. “Coach preaches that we should play for the front, not the back of our jersey, and that’s what we do every game.”
Kansas returns to campus Saturday night to begin preparations for their Big 12 opener at UCF on January 3. And if the defense continues to trend the way it has, the Jayhawks could be a problem once the conference grind begins.