Bill Self’s best coaching decision had nothing to do with X’s and O’s Wednesday night.

According to his players, it had to do with his making a fashion statement — bringing Kansas University’s red uniforms out of mothballs — for what turned out to be a slump-busting 74-54 victory over Baylor at Allen Fieldhouse.

“How smart is coach? Brilliant,” freshman guard J.R. Giddens said of Self, who had the home team wear red for the first time in fieldhouse history.

The Jayhawks, who wore red on the road once this year in a victory over Cal-Santa Barbara, regularly wore red at Hoch Auditorium.

“Now we can go back to blue and white and get it done,” Giddens added after scoring 15 points — including eight in a 21-6 run that boosted a 39-37 second-half lead to 60-43.

Self said the Jayhawks (16-6 overall, 8-3 Big 12 Conference) wore red not because he and his players were red-faced after two straight losses.

“I thought it’d give the guys something to look forward to when I know spirits haven’t been as high as I’d hoped they’d be coming off of two bad losses,” Self said of a 20-point loss to Oklahoma State and 19-point loss to Nebraska.

He said he thought his players, who managed to win on a night the Jayhawks cashed just three of 16 threes, maintained a good attitude since Sunday’s loss at NU.

“This is a unique place,” Self said. “Everybody here has experienced so much success. People are used to seeing certain things and (are) spoiled. Granted, the players are used to seeing the same things.

Kansas University's J.R. Giddens, center, bends around Baylor's R.T. Guinn for a shot in the first half of KU's 74-54 victory. The Jayhawks snapped a two-game losing streak with the win Wednesday in Allen Fieldhouse.

“But what we went through this past week is what 98 percent of college basketball goes through at some point in time during the year. They just haven’t experienced it the last two years. There’s five to six elite teams every year, and Kansas has been one of those the last two years.”

KU certainly looked like an elite team Wednesday — especially in the second half. After a close first half, the Jayhawks hit 53.3 percent of their second-half shots to bury the outmanned Bears.

“Everybody goes through stuff,” Self said. “This team hasn’t gone through much stuff at all. I think this is all good. This is when players should play and coaches should coach.

“It’s a big deal to us, a huge deal to the players. We don’t like what’s happening, but you’ve got to deal with it. …It’ll definitely help them as people. They’ll be able to draw from this experience if we grow from it, later in life when things don’t go well.”

Things didn’t go well for more than a half Wednesday.

Jayhawks better off red Woodling: Giddens fuels win for KU Langford riled by ‘ugly’ half Bears appreciate fans’ reaction 6Sports video: Jayhawks back on track Hear Bill: KU-Baylor postgame comments See the photos: KU-OSU Get the stats: KU-Baylor box score

The Jayhawks led the Bears (7-17, 2-9) by just a bucket — 39-37 — with 12:34 to play.

That’s when KU took off on its 21-6 surge.

Wayne Simien, who hit 11 of 14 shots and scored 24 points, opened the run with a basket. Jeff Graves, who returned after a one-game absence, then hit a layup off a feed from Keith Langford, who had six assists.

Giddens nailed two straight threes, and it was off to the races.

Simien hit a bucket, and Langford, who scored 19 points with seven rebounds, tallied three straight baskets.

“I thought the key tonight was the way Keith was aggressive, attacking,” said Miles, who had eight assists and six points. “His aggressiveness opened it up for J.R., who hit some big shots. Keith was the reason it all opened up.”

Kansas University players, from left, Jeff Hawkins, Michael Lee, Aaron Miles and Nick Bahe, celebrate the Jayhawks' 74-54 victory over Baylor. Kansas pulled away from the Bears on Wednesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.

Langford, who was sporting a new close-cropped haircut, hit seven of 16 shots; the Jayhawks canned 49.9 percent to Baylor’s 41.9 percent.

The Bears, who were led by Terrance Thomas and Harvey Thomas, who had 15 and 13 points respectively, took a mere 14 shots the first half, icing nine, including three of five threes.

Baylor, which has just six scholarship players, played deliberately, a strategy that kept BU in the game a long, long time.

“We didn’t play poorly. We shot it miserably from the arc,” Self said. “They play a style that is hard to watch and hard to defend. They’re not going to play until 12 seconds are left on the shot clock. We did a decent job of taking them out of some things.

“We tried a lot of things defensively to hound them early in the shot clock.”

Self said he was amazed BU had just 14 shots at the break, when KU led, 33-28.

“That’s unbelievable,” he said. “We dominated the first half, but didn’t make any perimeter shots. We came back the second half and played well. I thought our three juniors responded well tonight.”

The juniors were patient waiting for the chance finally to bust open the game against the patient Bears.

“We started getting some stops, forcing turnovers. We started to make some plays,” Simien said. “The game was so stale the first half. They were holding the ball the entire shot clock and staying in the zone. Their time of possession was so much longer than ours. It says a lot we were able to get a spark the second half and make things happen.”

The Jayhawks next will meet Iowa State at 3 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“If we beat Iowa State, then it’d be a good recovery,” Giddens said.