Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. (14) pops his jersey as he celebrates the Jayhawks’ 80-60 win over Missouri on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025 at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Photo by Nick Krug

The Kansas faithful, at Allen Fieldhouse, T-Mobile Center and wherever else, have begun to bark their approval at Melvin Council Jr. whenever the fifth-year guard does just about anything on the basketball court.

It’s a reference to the “If you’re not a dog, you’re dog food” catchphrase which Council already had in his back pocket upon his arrival in Lawrence — and it underlines how quickly the fans have taken to the senior from Rochester, New York.

“The thing that makes him cool is you guys can tell when he plays, he plays with joy,” KU coach Bill Self said on his “Hawk Talk” radio show on Monday. “… To me he’s fun to support, and enjoy watching him, because he does have this exuberance about himself that’s very naive, which is attractive, and is very humble, and ‘Hey, just tell me what to do and I’ll try to do it.’ I love that about him.”

Council’s adaptability has been on full display to this point in the season. He’s gotten acclimated to a higher level of competition after working his way up from the JUCO ranks to Wagner to St. Bonaventure. And he’s negotiated different roles as a primary ball handler in Darryn Peterson’s absence and an auxiliary option when KU has had Peterson at its disposal — including in Sunday’s blowout win over Missouri, when Tre White lit up the stat sheet but Self said Council might have been the best player in the second half because he “created all the pace when we kind of distanced ourselves a little bit.”

Whoever may have earned the title of best player of the final 20 minutes on Sunday, Self has a concrete idea of who has filled that role through KU’s first 10 games of the year: “Melvin Council has been our MVP so far, hands down.”

That’s high praise for a player who may not post the gaudiest scoring numbers — 10.7 points on an inefficient 34.8% shooting — but runs the floor, facilitates the offense and serves as the head of the snake on defense.

“Now does he know what he’s doing all the time? Maybe not,” Self said. “Has he shot the ball well? Not like he’s capable of shooting the basketball. But folks, he plays 38 minutes a game, he guards the other team’s point guard and best player, he hawks them all over the place and he gets his feet in the paint. And when you get your feet in the paint, you can play behind that.”

Council hasn’t played below 36 minutes since Nov. 15 against Princeton. He often seems to even improve over the course of games, like when he finished strong at the rim repeatedly against Duke and hit a clutch 3 to will the Jayhawks back into contention in their eventual loss to the Blue Devils in New York.

“He had the Garden going for about four minutes in the second half against Duke,” Self said. “I mean, he had them going when he said, ‘OK, I can do this, I’m good enough to do this.'”

KU may not need or want Council out on the court for 40 minutes, like he was for 15 separate games at St. Bonaventure last year. In fact, the Jayhawks need that even less now that Peterson’s back — though Self described the freshman’s absence as an “initiation by fire” for Council.

Now the duo that in preseason was trying to brand itself as “Batman and Robin” (or at least Council was trying to position himself as the Robin to Peterson’s Batman) is reunited.

“Those two could be pretty good together before it’s all said and done, I think,” Self said.

Self added that he tells Council every day, “Gosh, man, I’m glad I got you, or glad we got you.”

“Because he’s a winner in my eyes,” he said.