photo by: AP Photo/Ben McKeown

Kansas's Melvin Council Jr. (14) attempts a three-pointer over North Carolina State's Quadir Copeland during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.

Raleigh, N.C. — Amid Melvin Council Jr.’s slow start to the season from beyond the arc — 5-for-27, 18.5% from beyond the arc through 10 games — he had no shortage of eminently qualified voices telling him not to lose faith.

His best friend, Denver Nuggets guard Jalen Pickett, a 40% 3-point shooter in the NBA this year: “Keep shooting.”

Former KU guard Mario Chalmers, who knows a thing or two about making significant shots: “Be aggressive. Shoot the ball.”

Council heeded that advice to a far greater extent than anyone could have anticipated on Saturday night, when he went off for nine 3s, the second-most ever by a Jayhawk, and scored 36 points in total, all of which KU needed to slip past its host N.C. State 77-76 in overtime.

Head coach Bill Self called him “probably the best performer that I think that I’ve had on the road in my 23 years at Kansas.”

“He was unbelievable and made hard shots,” Self said. “They dared him to shoot, and then when he made a couple, he started looking at a big basket, and then he was unbelievable, got downhill, played.”

Council’s big day began out of necessity. KU couldn’t score with any regularity or develop any sort of offensive rhythm in the first half, as players other than Council made seven field goals, none of which were from beyond the arc. Indeed, the highest-quality shots the Jayhawks could reliably generate were 3-point attempts for Council, because Wolfpack defenders were practically back at the free-throw line when he had the ball on the perimeter. He said afterward that the scout team plays off him at times in practice, so he’s used to it.

“We were guarding in the paint to start the game,” N.C. State coach Will Wade said. “And then, we adjusted after he made his third 3. That was kind of our line of demarcation. When he hit that, we were going to adjust.”

That key point didn’t actually come incredibly quickly, because Council wasn’t hitting them at an insane clip. Three-pointers by Council accounted for KU’s first two buckets of the game, but he opened 2-for-6 beyond the arc before his third arrived 12 minutes in.

By the end of the game, he had made six more.

“It’s life,” Council said. “I’m a human being. You’re going to make some, you’re going to miss some. That’s how I preach it now.”

Self said it was a reasonable plan in theory for the Wolfpack to dare Council to shoot.

“I didn’t anticipate it,” Self said. “I think it’s pretty sound. I don’t think anybody would say it’s not sound philosophy based on his numbers up until this point. But you look at his stroke, his stroke isn’t broke. He’s got a good-looking stroke, it just hadn’t gone in.

“The thing about it is with shooters, even though he didn’t shoot it well the first half, but shooters don’t remember their misses, they only remember their makes.”

Council was remembering makes that weren’t even from Saturday’s game. While N.C. State’s defensive strategy — which, by the way, mattered less and less as Council became increasingly audacious late in the game, and took the Wolfpack off the dribble for a few 2-pointers as well — may have provided the impetus for his offensive explosion, he felt it coming at shootaround the night before.

“I was missing, but I wasn’t missing that much,” he said. “So I (knew) today was going to be a good day.”

Wade suggested Council will tell his grandkids about the game. In the immediate present, the reaction from his own teammates was one of awe: “Goodness gracious, he’s gifted,” Jamari McDowell said.

“First half, it was like early, he had 13, I was like ‘Damn, he kind of hooping,'” McDowell said. “I look back up in OT, he has 30, and I’m like, ‘What the…?’ But yeah, people shouldn’t do what they did. Don’t go under.”

“We have a dog right here with us,” Bidunga said, a nod to Council’s dog-food catchphrase that has caught on with KU fans. “He’s incredible, he puts the team on his back … That’s a bad man right here. I’m really impressed.”

A pair of miscues late in overtime nearly spoiled the memorable day, when Council missed a pair of front ends of one-and-one opportunities.

“I wasn’t tired,” he said postgame. “I don’t know why I missed those free throws. I got to do better. But I could play another 40 right now.”

Bidunga chimed in: “You said 40?” (In fact, Council played 43 of a possible 45 on the night.)

“Another overtime game, five minutes, whatever it is,” Council said.