photo by: AP Photo/Annie Rice

Kansas head coach Bill Self yells instructions during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Texas Tech, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas.

With Utah coming to town on Saturday afternoon for Kansas’ 10th game of Big 12 play, the Jayhawks have officially crossed the midway point of the conference season.

“As I was talking to my mom — I’ve been looking at my apps, on my tickets — I’m telling her, ‘The season’s about to end soon,'” KU guard Melvin Council Jr. said. “These games (are) coming sooner than I think … I just want the season to keep going.”

It’s hard to blame him with the way the Jayhawks are playing right now. A six-game winning streak has catapulted KU into the upper echelon of the Big 12 after it struggled in the early stages of conference play with two road losses.

“I wish we could play the first 10 days over, but we can’t,” head coach Bill Self said. “But we’ve done about as well as you could do based on the hand we dealt ourselves after three games. Could we be better than 7-2? Yes. We could also be worse than 7-2 as well. Are we in the mix? I think we’re just outside of it, but hopefully can play our way into the mix.”

Doing so will require that KU take care of business against Utah in order to set up a showdown with unbeaten No. 1 Arizona on Monday night. It’s the latest in a series of brutal Saturday-Monday stretches the Jayhawks will experience this season, which entail preparing for the likes of Texas Tech, Arizona and Houston with minimal turnaround time.

“I’m going to believe that adrenaline will take over and we can get through it, because we’re not going to sacrifice Saturday to rest people for Monday,” Self said. “I’m believing that we’re going to play to win exactly how we need to play to win — at least in our opinion — on Saturday, and then worry about Monday when Saturday’s over.”

The Runnin’ Utes, as they are known, have struggled since joining the Big 12 and are now in their first year under head coach Alex Jensen, a former Dallas Mavericks assistant who was part of the 1998 Utah team that reached the national title game.

Utah opened the season 5-0 — entirely in home games against mid-majors — but a loss to Cal Poly (KenPom No. 247) in Salt Lake City served as a bit of a rude awakening, and the Utes have only won four games since, including their lone conference victory, 82-79 over TCU on Jan. 17.

At 1-8 in league play, they are tied for last with Kansas State, and their KenPom ranking of No. 124 is 33 spots lower than the next closest Big 12 team (the Wildcats). Since beating the Horned Frogs, the Utes have lost four straight, including a 71-63 defeat at home to Arizona State on Wednesday night when their comeback fell short.

The Sun Devils only played seven players and relied heavily on zone defense in that game, but it was enough to limit Terrence Brown to six points on 2-for-16 shooting. Brown has otherwise been one of the top scorers in the nation this season — KU has endured a series of those of late with K-State’s P.J. Haggerty, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and Texas Tech’s JT Toppin.

A 6-foot-3 guard who transferred from Fairleigh Dickinson, Brown is averaging 21.4 points and 4.0 assists per game. He’s not a high-volume 3-point shooter, but does make 35.8% of his attempts from deep. He gets to the foul line frequently, with 6.8 attempts per game.

“To me, Brown is a natural scorer,” Self said. “He can score off the catch and he’s got range, but he still drives the ball, and he’s got a good in-between game. You’re going to have to guard him, you’re going to have to guard ball screens certain ways with him and (Don) McHenry for sure, because they can definitely score behind it.”

The other primary weapon in the backcourt for the Runnin’ Utes is, indeed, the lefty sharpshooter McHenry, playing at the fourth school of his collegiate career, who posted one of his best performances in league play with 23 points and four 3s against Arizona State.

“How many twosomes in our league are averaging 40 points?” Self said. “I mean, you just don’t see that very often.”

Keanu Dawes is the only returning contributor of note from the Utah team that beat KU last season at the Jon M. Huntsman Center, a bulky 6-foot-9 forward who is one of the league’s top rebounders and averages 12.1 points per game.

That trio gives Utah most of its offensive production. Forwards Seydou Traore and James Okonkwo join Dawes in the frontcourt.

The big issue for the Utes is on defense. They are allowing 84.7 points per game in league play, a fraction of a point better than ASU, which has the worst mark in the conference. Opposing teams shoot 49.3% from the field and 36.4% from beyond the arc. Their No. 231 mark on defense in KenPom places them among the likes of Nicholls and Ohio.

Also, despite Dawes’ activity on the glass and an additional 6.6 boards per game from Okonkwo in league play, no one else is grabbing more than the 6-foot-2 McHenry’s 3.1 rebounds. Utah is minus-5.6 in average rebounding margin for conference games.

This will be the first meeting between the new conference foes in Allen Fieldhouse.

NO. 11 KANSAS JAYHAWKS (17-5, 7-2 BIG 12) vs. UTAH UTES (9-13, 1-8 BIG 12)

• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, 1:30 p.m.

• Broadcast: Fox

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9 / KMXN FM 92.9)

KEEP AN EYE OUT

Up in the air: Rotational guard Elmarko Jackson’s status is uncertain for Saturday. He hurt his knee against BYU last weekend (after missing all of the 2024-25 season due to a torn patellar tendon) but was able to play against Texas Tech. However, Self said he didn’t practice on Wednesday and was likely to be “limited at best” on Thursday, meaning his availability on Friday would go a long way toward determining his status for Utah. If he’s not able to go, Jayden Dawson and Kohl Rosario, who have been on the fringes of the rotation, will be in line for increased action.

Keep it up: Flory Bidunga turned in such a strong defensive performance against Texas Tech that both Self and teammate Darryn Peterson called him the best defender in the country. In the meantime, he still posted 14 points and nine rebounds. Bidunga is developing into a vastly more consistent player on both ends, and Self attributed it to his aggressive play style: “He’s making more plays for himself offensively, just like taking it off the bounce from the perimeter and driving it … but the biggest thing is, I think, defensively, he’s guarding everybody, and he’s really improved his perimeter defense by not lunging and gambling.”

Two in a row: Soon after the conclusion of the KU-Utah game is a KU-Cincinnati women’s basketball game, set for 4:30 p.m. It’s a doubleheader of the sort that KU Athletics does not do very often: Those who hold tickets for the men’s game will be able to attend the women’s game. The last two days on which both men’s and women’s games took place at Allen Fieldhouse were Jan. 13, 2024, and Feb. 12, 2022, and on each of those occasions the tip times were further apart. KU women’s coach Brandon Schneider described the doubleheader as “something we’ve worked on for many, many years” and urged fans to stick around after the men’s game. Self said he’d “love to see people stay and support Brandon and the women’s program.”

OFF-KILTER OBSERVATION

Traore once put up 16 points and eight rebounds for Manhattan at Allen Fieldhouse. He spent last season at Iowa before moving to Utah.