BYU Does What Few Teams Have Ever Done to Kansas

When one thinks of College Basketball, they envision the “blue bloods”.

The elite of the elite, teams like Duke, North Carolina, UConn, UCLA all top the charts on the historic power rankings.

Among them are the Kansas Jayhawks, the team that just surpassed Kentucky as the most winningest team in college hoops in 2023.

Kansas has 4 championships under their belt, the last coming in 2022, with 52 NCAA tournament appearances, 16 final fours and 64 conference championships.

History states that Kansas has historically been a force to be reckoned with.

History would also tell tell you that Kansas has rarely ever played the BYU Cougars in Provo, Utah.

Why does that matter?

Because after visiting Provo for only the 2^nd time in school history and the first time since 1960, the Jayhawks are 0-2 in Utah County after yesterday’s 91-57 drubbing at the hands of the Cougars.

When BYU joined the Big 12 in 2023, many fans were excited about swapping Santa Clara, Portland and Pepperdine for Kansas, Houston and Iowa State.

Still, many from the past would be shocked to know that BYU is undefeated through two games in conference play against Kansas, winning once in Lawrence and once in Provo now dating back to last season.

In only their second ever Big 12 matchup, BYU not only played KU off the floor but set multiple new benchmarks, accomplishing rare feats that Kansas wasn’t accustomed too nor had ever seen the likes of.

If you are a BYU fan, here’s some juicy tidbits from this game you are going to want to remember, especially when it comes to beefing up your taunting arsenal the next time Kansas and BYU square off.

1. Most of the Kansas Turnovers were a byproduct of the Cougars themselves:

2. It was the worst loss the Jayhawks have ever suffered while being ranked (#23) when playing an unranked team.

3. In the last 7 seasons Kansas had never trailed by more than 35 points at any given time, that happened against BYU on Tuesday with the Cougars largest lead of 38.

4. BYU led for 39 minutes and 34 seconds, Kansas never led.

5. Utah fans, get in on this on. Kansas has not led through the last 80 minutes of play, thanks to a 74-67 Utes win in Salt Lake City only days ago.

6. Since Bill Self has led the team dating back to 2003, this is only the 2^nd Big 12 loss by more than 30 points that Kansas has ever suffered.

7. BYU’s 34 point butt whooping was the largest win they have ever had over any ranked team on the hardwood.

8. With the win, BYU is three games above .500 in conference play for the first time in their short Big 12 tenure. (9-6)

9. The Kansas defense allowing 91 points was the most they have allowed all year in regulation.

10. The Cougars first 15 buckets all came off a BYU assist. Unofficially, I am pretty positive the first 16 made field goals for BYU were all assisted before Egor Demin hit a layup off the dribble drive to snap the streak.

11. BYU was averaging just shy of 10 three pointers made a game in Big 12 play before sniping 10 three’s all before half. They would finish with 14. BYU remains undefeated (7-0) when converting at least 14 three’s. They are 14-3 when getting to 10 made triples.

12. Lastly, to piggyback off of #2, since the AP Poll began in 1948, this was the first time Kansas had fallen to an unranked opponent by more than 30 points.

The cherry on top for BYU is that Kansas was the last Division 1 school that had never suffered a fate such as that one.

BYU made it so, ensuring that every team ever ranked at the D1 level has now lost at least a game by 30 plus points to an unranked school.

With the Jayhawks going down, up go the Cougars In the Big 12 standings, currently in control of the #5 conference spot.

Hopefully these tidbits paint a picture on not only how good BYU looked in this win, but how uncharacteristic play like this is for a program as notorious as KU.

Kansas doesn’t just happen to play poorly by accident, or at least historically they haven’t.

Thus, Credit is well deserved all throughout, whether it be given to Coach Young, the rebounding effort, the defensive effort or to the ball movement.

BYU did to Kansas what few or no teams ever have, and that’s worth being excited about in Provo.

Kansas will look to rebound when they host Oklahoma State this Saturday, the 22^nd.

That same day, BYU will get a massive test out in Tucson when they take on #19 Arizona.