Kansas head coach Bill Self gets his players’ attention during the second half on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

From the opening minutes on Tuesday night, it was clear that Kansas had emerged onto James Naismith Court on a mission.

The Jayhawks jumped ahead of No. 2 Iowa State early while displaying a level of intensity on both ends of the court that simply hadn’t been present for much of the previous 125 minutes of Big 12 basketball they had played this season (at least outside of their miraculous final few against TCU). They then, even more importantly, replicated it for almost the entirety of their matchup with the Cyclones, reviving it late in the game after they had conceded a big run, and came away with a dominant 84-63 victory in the process.

“I do think the secret sauce isn’t that secret,” KU coach Bill Self said on Thursday. “Energy goes a long way in this game when everybody’s turned up on the same page.”

The key now is for the Jayhawks to channel that energy as much as possible throughout the remainder of their conference schedule, beginning on Friday night against Baylor.

“I do think it was a great confidence boost for us, and certainly, hopefully, will play a factor in us picking up some momentum, for sure,” Self added.

They’ll play the second of back-to-back home games — one of just three times they’ll get the chance to do so in league play — in front of what should be another lively crowd at Allen Fieldhouse.

“That’s what I came to Kansas for,” freshman forward Bryson Tiller said. “Other reasons as well, but I love playing in environments like this. You know, you have 15,000 screaming. It feels good to have them supporting you every night.”

After several early losses, Baylor is on the board with both its first conference win and first road win after beating Oklahoma State 94-79 at Gallagher-Iba Arena on Tuesday night. True freshman and future first-round NBA Draft pick Tounde Yessoufou, a 6-foot-5 guard originally from Benin, led the way with 23 points to break the Bears out of a sluggish start to league play.

“(They) shot the ball ridiculously well and played well,” KU coach Bill Self said. “They’ve got a good team, and their conference record isn’t what it would normally be. That’s a pretty hard start to conference, too (with TCU, Houston and Iowa State).”

Yessoufou is one of several key players at the core of an entirely new roster for the Bears — without exaggeration. Between NBA Draft departures, graduations and transfers, Baylor did not return a single minute of production from the 2024-25 team, which lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Its new acquisitions have delivered to varying degrees to this point: Cameron Carr, who had barely played at Tennessee, has been a breakout star with 20.3 points, 41.9% shooting from deep, and 5.1 rebounds per game, while point guard Obi Agbim (Wyoming) and forward Michael Rataj (Oregon State), for example, have not quite matched their production from prior seasons.

The final regular starter is Cincinnati transfer guard Dan Skillings Jr., a familiar face at this point for KU fans, who hurt his knee against Houston on Jan. 10 and missed the OSU game (he had been listed as doubtful beforehand), so it’s not clear if he’ll be back Friday.

In all, it’s been a quite tight and rather undersized rotation for Baylor with the 6-foot-8 Rataj and 6-foot-9 Rice transfer Caden Powell as the tallest players — at least until recently. That’s in large part because of a season-ending injury to High Point transfer Juslin Bodo Bodo, which necessitated the controversial midseason addition of former NBA Draft pick James Nnaji, a 7-footer who has played professionally overseas. Nnaji, for the record, is averaging 2.5 points and 4.3 rebounds in 14 minutes per game since his arrival.

The Bears’ offense has been quite potent, with all five starters and rotational guard Isaac Williams IV scoring in double figures. Baylor’s 88.7 points per game rank 19th in the country, and its offensive efficiency is 14th on KenPom. The Bears have two highly reliable 3-point shooters in Carr and Agbim, and in fact Agbim is Baylor’s only regular contributor shooting below 45% from the field in total.

“We really got to defend the perimeter,” Self said.

KU’s defensive rebounding, a bit of a sore subject of late, will be challenged once again by a group that grabs 13.9 offensive boards per game; Powell, Rataj, Skillings and Yessoufou all contribute in that area.

At the other end of the floor, Baylor is not quite as distinguished. The Bears haven’t let an opponent score in the 80s since Dec. 2, a sign they’re trending in the right direction, but they still rank just 98th defensively on KenPom. They only force 11.8 turnovers per game (which, granted, is still about two better than KU).

“We got to be locked in defensively, move the ball on offense and we’ll get what we want,” Tiller said.

Baylor’s 11-5 record, 1-3 in league play, reflects the results of a challenging schedule to this point. It won’t get any easier for the Bears in Lawrence as they run into a KU team looking to build on Tuesday’s emphatic victory.

“I feel like there’s no bad teams in our conference, honestly,” Tiller said. “Every game is losable but every game is winnable as well. We just got to keep stacking days and getting better.”

KANSAS JAYHAWKS (12-5, 2-2 BIG 12) vs. BAYLOR BEARS (11-5, 1-3 BIG 12)

• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, 7 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

Tiller’s touches: The freshman forward scored the first two buckets of the game on Tuesday, setting the tone in the early going. He said on Thursday that his teammates have been encouraging him to play more aggressively: “Offensively and defensively, I feel like we all know that I can help the team win in multiple ways.” The Baylor game will provide an indication of just how much progress Tiller has made after an erratic start to Big 12 play.

Packing it in: Baylor has long been known as a zone team. They still may run their 1-1-3 matchup zone on Friday, Self suggested, after they had recruited to it extensively in years past, but the Bears have become more frequent users of man-to-man defense. Their new associate head coach, Ron Sanchez, coached under Tony Bennett at Virginia and became a proponent of the Cavaliers’ pack line defense, which is essentially a man variant that has all defenders who are currently playing off the ball sag well off their assigned players in order to protect the paint. Whatever Baylor opts to use, chances are it will present a unique offensive challenge for KU.

Off and on: KU guard Darryn Peterson didn’t have his most distinguished statistical performance on Tuesday, with 16 points on 15 shots, but he still certainly hit some big ones and it felt like the offense was more cohesive than in the past when he was on the floor. Self said he felt it was the first time the Jayhawks had been aggressive with Peterson in the game. One significant part of that might have been the fact that Melvin Council Jr. still ran the point much of the time, giving Peterson opportunities to play off the ball. Self said, “I actually think that needs to be an adjustment for us because I think the way Iowa State guarded Darryn will probably be consistent with how a lot of people will guard him.” He added that for Council to demonstrate his skills as a player, he needs to have the ball in his hands and drive downhill at times.

OFF-KILTER OBSERVATION

Carr didn’t play against KU in 2023 when he was at Tennessee, nor did James Goodis when he was at Indiana, nor did Will Kuykendall at Arizona. That means Skillings is the only Bear with a previous game against KU (and he’s faced the Jayhawks three times).