Kansas guard David Coit (8) releases a 3 over Oklahoma State guard Brandon Newman (6) during the first half on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

On the day Kansas retired Naismith Hall of Famer Dutch Lonborg’s jersey, Lynn Lonborg Loveland told reporters a story from her grandfather’s coaching career.

One day Lonborg’s charges escaped a dramatic game with a triple-overtime victory, and Loveland asked her grandfather what he had told his players to help them get through it.

Lonborg’s response: “I said, ‘Team, I’m out of options. Just go out there and win.'”

The modern-day KU men’s basketball team found itself out of options after a disastrous road trip to Utah sank the Jayhawks to 8-7 in league play, plunging them lower in national rankings and bracket projections than they’ve been at any point under Bill Self.

On Saturday, though, they went out and won. By the time KU unveiled Lonborg’s No. 7 in the rafters, the Jayhawks had jumped on Oklahoma State, making eight 3-pointers and forcing 11 turnovers in the first half to build a 29-point lead at the break. They extended it further in the second half and put the finishing touches on a 96-64 victory.

“I thought that we were a very focused, very energetic, very together team today,” Self said, “whereas in Utah I thought our intentions were good but we were more or less on islands as opposed to together.”

Added guard David Coit: “The biggest difference is the first five came ready to play, our leaders were leaders and everybody had the same goal, we were on the same page across the board.”

Center Hunter Dickinson dominated early on his way to a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Zeke Mayo and Coit each scored 15 with five 3-pointers apiece. On the whole, the Jayhawks shot 14-for-30 from beyond the arc.

Point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. scored 14 of his own with six steals.

“I don’t know the last time I can remember a guy getting six steals in a half, and also being pretty good except for a wide-right shot to start the game,” Self said of Harris. “I thought Juan was really on point today and I thought KJ (Adams) was great. And then it’s contagious. And then Hunter plays and runs through a pass and does some stuff, and it becomes fun and everybody’s enthusiastic.”

Former Jayhawk Bryce Thompson led the Cowboys with 21.

The Jayhawks improved to 18-9 overall and 9-7 in Big 12 play — though 1-0 since Self declared it was a “new season” for his team.

“We’re 1-0. That’s what we are,” he reiterated after the game. “And that’s what we’re talking about, and everybody’s stat sheet and what we’re averaging this year is exactly what happened today.”

KU and OSU combined for seven turnovers by the under-16 timeout. The Jayhawks went up 12-7 on a one-handed putback slam by Adams and had a chance to extend even further, but Mayo missed a transition 3-pointer at one end and Thompson hit his second 3 at the end of the shot clock for the Cowboys.

Coit came off the bench and connected from deep thrice in quick succession, and KU earned an additional advantage by drawing a second foul on OSU center Abou Ousmane, but still couldn’t build much distance at first as the Cowboys got good offensive minutes off the bench from Brandon Newman.

The Cowboys committed their eighth team foul with seven minutes and 45 seconds remaining in the first half, setting up a one-and-one for Adams; he missed, but Dickinson tipped out the rebound and Mayo made his first field goal of the day, giving KU its first double-digit lead.

Adams forced a timeout by OSU when he flew in for another dunk to make it 36-21, and back-to-back steals by Harris, who had six in the first 16 minutes, resulted in additional buckets for Adams and Dickinson, bringing the Allen Fieldhouse crowd to its feet.

Mayo made back-to-back 3s, one from long distance, then he found Dickinson inside with an extra pass for an open layup.

“To be honest, when we have played well this year, that’s how we play,” Self said.

With a minute left in the half, Dickinson slapped away a pass by Marchelus Avery, grabbed it himself and lumbered all the way down the court for a dunk, avoiding an attempt at a steal by Robert Jennings II, to make it 52-23.

“I was like, what’d coach Self say?” wing Rylan Griffen said. “He messed up ’cause now he got to do that all the time.”

That score stood entering halftime after a couple of misses by Mayo. Dickinson went into the break leading the Jayhawks with 14 points and eight rebounds.

In a departure from most of its recent action, KU came out strong from the halftime break, allowing one field goal but then scoring nine straight points. A block by Newman and errant pass by Dickinson, though, halted the Jayhawks’ early charge, and Avery made a pair of left-wing 3-pointers.

AJ Storr added his name to the stat sheet with a three-point play that made it 73-38 out of the under-12 timeout.

With the margin out of reach and Dickinson on the bench for an extended stretch, Flory Bidunga began to rack up the rebounds, and he finished with 16, the most by a KU freshman since Andrew Wiggins in 2014.

“I think I was really trying to do something obviously defensive-wise, grab those rebounds,” he said, “because I think that’s kind of been a weakness, is the boards.”

With three minutes to go, he got called for goaltending on a close-range shot by Andrija Vukovic that cut OSU’s deficit to 30 points for the first time since early in the second half, after the Jayhawks had led by as many as 39.

KU walk-ons Patrick Cassidy, Wilder Evers and Dillon Wilhite entered in the final minutes, and Wilhite and Evers scored twice apiece.

The Jayhawks will travel to face Colorado on Monday at 10 p.m. Central Time, after previously beating the Buffaloes 71-59 in Lawrence on Feb. 11.

“They beat Baylor today, a team that obviously we held to 60 in a half,” Self deadpanned. “So I think they’re probably as confident and they’ll be as fired up as ever.”

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