photo by: Nathan Friedman/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas forward Flory Bidunga works against his defender in the paint during the game against Arizona State on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

TEMPE, Ariz. — The Kansas men’s basketball team cut a 20-point deficit down to two with four minutes remaining on Tuesday night, but couldn’t finish the deal.

Arizona State guard Pig Johnson’s late-clock 3-pointer with 3:38 to go kicked off an 11-0 run, and ASU finished off a 70-60 upset win over the 14th-ranked Jayhawks after which its fans stormed the court at Desert Financial Arena.

That KU even made the game close late was completely improbable considering that the Jayhawks had endured a nightmare first half with 21.1% shooting on the offensive end, not to mention a combined three technical fouls against KU coaches, two of which resulted in the second ejection in the 23-year career of head coach Bill Self.

KU improved enough on offense to place ASU under some game pressure, but not enough to ever take a lead in the game.

“Even with bad offense, there’s still an opportunity for us to win if we could just get key stops, and we didn’t do that,” Self said postgame.

Moe Odum led all scorers with 23 points, including five 3-pointers. Center Massamba Diop set the tone early for ASU and finished with 19 and nine rebounds.

The Jayhawks hauled in a whopping 25 offensive boards but converted them into just six second-chance points, thanks in large part to their 6-for-22 showing on layups. Flory Bidunga (14 points, 13 rebounds), Darryn Peterson (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Tre White (16 points, 14 rebounds) all recorded double-doubles. Peterson shot just 3-for-18 from the field.

“Once again, we didn’t rebound the ball defensively the whole night,” Self said. “We did offensively, just didn’t get anything from it. I didn’t think we played very well, and I didn’t think we were obviously as prepared to play as what I’d hoped that we could have got them, and that’s on the coaches.”

Diop banked in a 3-pointer to open the scoring and then scored twice more before White finally put KU on the board with a 3 of his own to make it 7-3. The Jayhawks opened 1-for-8 from the field and committed four turnovers and allowed three offensive rebounds within the first five minutes of the game.

KU turned it over again and fell behind 11-3 before White knocked down another jumper from the free-throw line. Diop responded with another 3-pointer; he had just six on the season prior to Tuesday.

The Jayhawks got back within three points after a rare road 3 by Jamari McDowell and a layup by Bryson Tiller before McDowell fouled Bryce Ford on an attempt from deep that led to three free throws.

ASU’s offense cooled off for a time, but the Jayhawks had no response other than to miss five straight shots.

With KU trailing 23-16 and 6:07 to go, Peterson got called for an offensive foul trying to fight through contact from Ford. Self got whistled for two technical fouls — he said postgame he argued the call and left the coach’s box, then got a second tech for not returning to the box quickly enough — and ejected for the first time since Feb. 12, 2024. Jacque Vaughn took over as acting head coach for the remainder of the night.

Odum made three of the ensuing four technical free throws as ASU took its largest lead of the night to that point at 26-16.

The Jayhawks were down 11 when Peterson, 0-for-5 on the night, got on the board for the first time with two free throws to end a scoring drought of 4:37.

ASU went up 14 points with just under three minutes left in the half when Odum knocked down a deep 3 from way beyond the arc. He then connected on another after Council got called for traveling.

KU only spiraled further as halftime approached. Bidunga got on the board for the first time, but Vaughn got assessed a technical foul of his own in the final minute. ASU went up 40-20 after two free throws by Odum and two by Ford, and White, who led KU with just five points at halftime, missed two open looks from beyond the arc on the Jayhawks’ final possession.

KU entered the break with some truly inconceivable numbers. The Jayhawks were shooting 8-for-38 from the field, including 3-for-12 on layups, with Peterson 0-for-7, Council 1-for-7 and Bidunga and White 2-for-8 each. ASU had also attempted 19 free throws to KU’s two.

“Really just couldn’t buy a bucket,” White said. “They were hitting everything. That’s pretty much what it was. Like I say every game, we just got to play to our principles. Rebound, play fast and create for each other. Sometimes shots are going to fall, sometimes they’re not, but we got to play defense, and tonight they were hitting shots, and that’s how the game went.”

KU emerged from halftime with, if not better shooting, significantly improved intensity on the offensive end that helped them grab a couple of offensive rebounds as part of an 8-0 run. ASU coach Bobby Hurley called timeout after Bidunga finished an alley-oop from Peterson and made it 42-30.

The Jayhawks used 3-pointers by White and Peterson (twice) to get the margin all the way down to four points, but the long-silent Diop scored between Bidunga and Tiller despite a foul. Peterson missed an off-balance attempt and Johnson added two free throws to make it 47-39.

With KU trailing 49-42, Allen Mukeba stole the ball and got out on a fast break. Elmarko Jackson fouled him hard as he was going to the basket, which resulted in a minor skirmish under the ASU basket between Jayhawks and Sun Devils. In the next unusual turn of the night, KU assistant coach Tony Bland attempted to stop White from running out to join the fray and the two exchanged words at midcourt.

“I think the team thought that I was coming off the bench to go run over there,” White said, “but I really ran to the corner, and then when I turned back around, seen something happen … so I tried to just go run to help my teammates, and the coaches probably thought I was on the bench so they just tried to make sure I didn’t get a tech. That was all.”

Mukeba was injured on the play. Jackson’s foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1, and Odum sank two free throws. He then made a deep 3 from the left wing to put ASU back up a dozen.

The Jayhawks proceeded to score eight in a row again, using a dunk by Bidunga to make it 54-50. But Johnson managed to snag two offensive rebounds on the next possession, which after the under-eight timeout produced a 3-pointer by Odum.

Council went coast to coast to make it a three-point game with five minutes to go, but Bidunga missed an open shot at the rim with a chance to get even closer. After Ford fouled out, Council added one free throw to get the Jayhawks as close as they had been all night.

Johnson, a transfer from the University of the Cumberlands, then played the role of hero on his senior night with five straight points.

“I think there was opportunities for us to actually put ourselves in a real position to have a chance to win,” Self said, “and we just didn’t make enough plays, but I thought our effort was pretty good the second half.”

Peterson stepped out of bounds attempting to drive on the baseline with 1:13 to go, essentially bringing the game to an end.

“We definitely can learn from this,” White said. “I would say starting off the game’s a key for us, because we came back plenty of times, but just when you got that much of a deficit, you got to be kind of perfect to complete that run.”

The Jayhawks, who fell to 21-9 and 11-6 in Big 12 play, will host Kansas State for their senior day at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“Use it as fuel, add it to the fire,” White said. “We know our goal is still the same thing in mind. This one definitely hurt, but we got another game in front of us, so just on with this one, on to the next one, we got to play even more tougher for this next game.”

KU can still clinch a double bye in the Big 12 tournament as at least the No. 4 seed if it finishes the regular season with a win.

“It didn’t cost us a league championship,” Self said of the loss, “it didn’t cost us this, now it cost us seeding, it’ll cost us at least a seed line in the NCAA Tournament, and certainly could cost us seeding in the Big 12 or whatever, but everything is still in front of us to play for. I hope that’s how we look at it.”

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