Kansas guard Elmarko Jackson (13) comes away with a loose ball as he pushes it up the court against TCU guard Jayden Pierre (1) during the second half, Thursday, March 12, 2026, at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Photo by Nick Krug

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas’ win over TCU on Thursday night was hardly a masterpiece.

But what it can be for the Jayhawks in the very near future, as they turn their attention to Houston on Friday, is a “stepping stone,” as senior forward Tre White put it.

“Houston kind of plays a similar way, creating havoc on defense, push it down your throat on offense, strong, tough, aggressive, and that was kind of how TCU played, so kudos to them,” White said.

Those traits have indeed been the hallmarks of Houston teams under head coach Kelvin Sampson. This year’s Cougars, the second-best team in the Big 12, have been the best scoring defense, No. 3 in the country, and prolific at forcing turnovers (12.7 per game) while maintaining possession of the ball themselves (a mere 7.6).

It’s all amounted to a top-five ranking for the Cougars, a 27-5 record on the season and most recently a hard-fought 73-66 victory over No. 10 seed BYU on Thursday night.

“They’re terrific defensively, they’re tough, their guards can get their own shots, and the biggest thing is they keep balls alive,” KU coach Bill Self said. “They don’t rebound all the balls cleanly, what they do (is) they do the best job of crashing and back-tapping and creating extra possessions that way. There’s a reason why they’ve been in the top five or seven every week of the season. They’re good, and of course they’re well drilled and extremely well coached.”

In short, they are the sort of team against which the Jayhawks will need to be a lot tougher.

“Just play even grittier, limit turnovers (and) offensive rebounds and just making the right adjustments on the fly,” Elmarko Jackson said.

KU’s guards, particularly Jackson and Darryn Peterson, were able to draw sufficient fouls in the second half against TCU to help the Jayhawks keep pace at the free-throw line. But at the other end of the floor, nearly everyone KU threw at the Horned Frogs’ hard-nosed forward David Punch (24 points, 10 rebounds) got outmuscled, many committing fouls of their own along the way.

That’s nearly everyone because Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Flory Bidunga excelled as usual: “He’s a monster amongst men, a monster on the boards,” Jackson said. “He makes the game really easy. He’s a strong back line on our defense. He’s a great anchor, and as you guys (have) seen, when he was on the court, he constantly affects the game in winning ways.”

But the Jayhawks had issues defending the paint whenever they went small — which they had to do more than they might have liked because Bidunga dealt with foul trouble all night.

Of course, as Self pointed out, they weren’t actually smaller than Punch, just less physical than they needed to be. Self said of the 6-foot-11 forward Bryson Tiller, “I don’t want to be negative, but that was not a physical game at all by him. He’ll be better tomorrow.”

“They played two bigs a lot, but it wasn’t (Xavier) Edmonds that hurt us, it was Punch,” Self added. “You say ‘smaller lineup’ — our standing height was the same as Punch regardless who was in the game. I just think those are kind of copouts, to be honest with you. There’s no reason why we can’t play more physical.”

As Self mentioned, and as multiple players reiterated, the Jayhawks can start by making big men catch the ball in less favorable positions.

“With certain lineups, we’ll have length but we won’t have strength, sometimes we’ll have strength and won’t have strength,” White said. “If we push the post players out, I feel like that’ll help our guards be able to dig more, be able to take more bumps and create more havoc to where they don’t just get an easy (layup). Sometimes we’ll be right there and then they’ll just shoot it over the top just because they’re bigger sometimes.”

Added redshirt sophomore guard Jamari McDowell: “If they catch it so deep, I mean, we’re only 6-5, they’re 6-10. That’s a lot of height. You’re giving up a lot of height and strength. So yeah, just be more physical.”

In any case, the TCU game wasn’t the first time KU saw its frontcourt depth tested with mixed results, and it won’t be the last. Houston has different sorts of players in its two-big lineup with stretch forward Chris Cenac Jr. (9.4 points, 7.4 rebounds per game) and defensive stalwart Joseph Tugler (8.0 points, 5.2 rebounds), but there are two of them with plenty of length and strength all the same.

The biggest offensive threats for the Cougars, however, are their guards, led by highly touted freshman Kingston Flemings, who paced his team with 17 points in the win over BYU.

KU guard Melvin Council Jr. said the Jayhawks need “energy, and it starts with me.”

“My personality, it wasn’t the best today,” said Council, who scored just seven points on 3-for-12 shooting and played less of a central role on defense. “I think I was in my head too much, missed the easy floaters that I normally make, and not really pressuring the ball like I usually do.”

The Jayhawks had plenty of energy when they locked down Flemings, Emanuel Sharp, Milos Uzan and the rest in a 69-56 victory at Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 23, a game in which KU held Houston to 31.8% shooting and 20.8% from beyond the arc.

“That game doesn’t really mean anything,” Self said. “I think, moving forward, I’m sure Kelvin wanted to play Kansas. I would if I were him. And we love the opportunity to play the best in our league, and they certainly have been the best or right there over the last three years in which they’ve been in the league.

“So we’ll be excited. We’ll get back and have dinner around 12:30 and start the scout tomorrow. But tomorrow’s game, I don’t know if it will be as much about scouting as it will be, you know, who wants the ball more.”