Kansas made two key adjustments that paid big dividends in its 84-63 statement win over No. 2 Iowa State on Tuesday night - and both tweaks speak volumes about how this team is evolving, especially on offense.
Let’s start with the elephant in the gym: Darryn Peterson. The freshman phenom has been the engine of the Jayhawks’ offense all season, and that’s not just eye test - the numbers back it up.
His usage rate sits at 33.5%, which is at least 10 percentage points higher than anyone else on the roster. When he’s on the floor, the ball typically finds its way into his hands.
That’s been both a blessing and a challenge for KU.
There have been stretches this season, like the Missouri game, where the offense leaned a little too heavily on Peterson. Teammates sometimes took a backseat, watching instead of attacking. Head coach Bill Self has been vocal about the need for balance - not just Peterson learning how to play within the team, but the team learning how to play with Peterson.
Against Iowa State, KU flipped the script.
Rather than having Peterson bring the ball up and initiate every possession, Self handed the keys - at least to start possessions - to Melvin Council Jr. It was a subtle shift, but a significant one.
With Iowa State’s Killyan Toure putting the clamps on Peterson early, Council took over lead guard duties. That spacing and redistribution of responsibility helped KU get off to its best offensive start in conference play so far.
“I actually think that needs to be an adjustment for us,” Self said postgame. “The way Iowa State guarded Darryn is probably going to be consistent with how a lot of people guard him.
I also think that Melvin and Darryn splitting time on the ball is better than Darryn being on the ball and Melvin [being off]... We have to find that balance.”
The numbers back up that shift. Of the 39 offensive possessions Council and Peterson shared on the floor Tuesday, Council brought the ball up 23 times - nearly 60% of the time.
Peterson initiated eight half-court possessions, and three more came in transition. Tre White and Elmarko Jackson accounted for the rest.
It wasn’t just about who was dribbling the ball up the court - it was about flow, rhythm, and spacing. With Council setting the table, Peterson was able to pick his spots more effectively.
The result? One of KU’s most balanced and efficient offensive performances of the season.
It’s a clear sign of growth for a team that’s learning how to diversify its attack without minimizing its star freshman’s impact.
Defensively, Kansas made another smart adjustment - this time in how it handled ball screens.
Earlier in the season, KU was switching one through five across the board, even in its first two conference games. That strategy had mixed results. While it gave teams like UConn some trouble early in games, it also put Kansas in some tough mismatches - especially against teams like UCF and TCU, who exploited the switches to create favorable matchups.
Against Iowa State, KU dialed back the switching. Instead of switching everything, the Jayhawks stuck to switching one through three, keeping big men Flory Bidunga and Bryson Tiller anchored in the paint. That allowed them to stay home, protect the rim, and avoid getting pulled out to the perimeter.
“Basically, it’s been a lot of a scout report,” Self explained. “Are they playing two bigs?
Is their four-man a shooter? What do they run at the end of the clock?
There’s a lot of things that go into that. To your point, we didn’t switch near as much.”
The impact was immediate. Bidunga was a force inside, disrupting Iowa State’s rhythm, altering shots, and blowing up possessions. Tiller, tasked with guarding one of the Cyclones’ bigger forwards, held his own and stayed disciplined.
More importantly, the defense looked connected - and that’s not just about schemes. It’s about communication. It’s about trust.
“I feel like we’re just more connected as a team right now, from earlier on,” Tiller said. “Communicating is a big part of defense, so we obviously stepped that up. We just got to be able to trust each other on the court.”
That trust showed up in how they rotated, how they fought through screens, and how they closed out on shooters. It wasn’t perfect, but it was cohesive - and that’s a big step forward for a team that’s still figuring out how all the pieces fit.
Tuesday night’s win wasn’t just a big one in the standings. It was a blueprint - a look at what this Kansas team can be when it finds the right balance on both ends of the floor. If they can keep building on that, the Jayhawks could be a real problem come March.