photo by: AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. reacts after scoring four straight points against Colorado in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Boulder, Colo.

After a couple of down years for the program, the 2025-26 Kansas basketball season certainly delivered its fair share of iconic moments.

Fans will likely think back first to the biggest play in KU’s biggest win, which would be Flory Bidunga’s game-sealing block on Brayden Burries to help the Jayhawks beat No. 1 Arizona, or the uncommonly exuberant celebration from head coach Bill Self afterward. Or the most impressive individual performance, when Melvin Council Jr. simply couldn’t miss from beyond the 3-point line against N.C. State and finished with 36 points in what Self called potentially the best road showing of his 23-year tenure as head coach.

Then, Darryn Peterson gets his own category, for his back-to-back 3s in the final minutes to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat at United Supermarkets Arena, his fearsome dunk over two BYU players or really just about anything he did in the first half against either BYU or Baylor, helping KU earn two of the victories in its eight-game winning streak.

And finally, KU certainly asserted its dominance over its rivals, with plays like Council’s dunk in the final seconds of a 20-point win over Missouri at the T-Mobile Center and his series of lobs to Bidunga at Kansas State as a four-point slugfest turned into a 24-point blowout.

There were of course some painful moments for KU too, as in any regular season. Alex Karaban’s solo 7-0 run for UConn, as part of a 14-4 stretch for the Huskies, wrested control of that game from KU, and the Jayhawks never went back ahead. Milan Momcilovic’s fading 3-pointer from the left corner at the shot-clock buzzer, part of a barrage early in the second half, made it clear there was no way KU was making it close at Hilton Coliseum.

This article isn’t about any of the above, however. Below are some of the moments in the margins — those that made as much of an impact, positive or negative, as any for the Jayhawks this year but might get neglected in future recollections of the season because they aren’t nearly as salient.

photo by: AP Photo/Eric Gay

Kansas center Paul Mbiya (34) and guard Jamari McDowell (11) celebrate with teammates after their win over Tennessee in an NCAA college basketball game in the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025.

Nov. 17: Paul Mbiya scoops up loose ball for clumsy but pivotal go-ahead bucket

The Jayhawks’ win over Tennessee for a $300,000 prize at the Players Era tournament was, by any measure, Elmarko Jackson’s game. The redshirt sophomore scored a then-career-high 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half (including an 8-0 run when KU trailed by 12), and, boosted by some timely drives by Council, played as much of a role as anyone in giving KU the lead in one of its most cathartic wins of the season.

The actual play that gave the Jayhawks the lead, though, their first of the second half, came from a highly unlikely source: Paul Mbiya.

The freshman big man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a 7-footer with a 7-foot-8 wingspan, clearly has all the measurables but lacks polish, to the point that his playing time throughout the season has largely come in moments of foul trouble for his veteran teammates. One of the more surprising elements of KU’s comeback against Tennessee was that it came with Tre White largely sidelined by unnecessary fouls. White fouled out altogether with 8:24 to go and Bryson Tiller committed his fourth foul three seconds later, so in came Mbiya.

His moment arrived a few minutes later when Council tried to wedge himself between his man, freshman forward Nate Ament, and Mbiya’s man, the screener Felix Okpara. The ball squirted free toward the basket and into the hands of Mbiya, who took a few lumbering steps for a layup to put KU ahead 66-64.

That was the first field goal of his career. He also helped clear space a moment later for arguably the game’s top overall play, an acrobatic reverse layup by Jackson after he crossed over Ament.

Dec. 2: KU misses two potential go-ahead 3s after getting within a point of UConn

As much as Karaban’s run shifted the balance of power in this game — and was particularly pivotal given that neither team could score effectively at all — it didn’t by any means knock out the Jayhawks.

But for all the time that they spent playing without Peterson during the regular season, they perhaps never missed him as much as in the final minutes against the Huskies.

KU trailed 55-49, which turned out to be its largest deficit of the game, after a straight-on 3-pointer by Solo Ball. But Council tossed a lob to Bidunga and then made a 3 of his own, at the time just his fifth of the season, to cut the margin to one point.

For the remainder of the game, the Jayhawks were as stagnant as at any point this season. Tiller guarded Karaban well in the post for one stop, and then Jamari McDowell got stuck with the ball in his hands for 10 consecutive seconds on the next possession before missing a pull-up 3. Mullins missed from the corner, and then Karaban cheated too far off Tiller on the left wing, but the freshman forward missed an open look (part of his streak of 16 consecutive missed 3s over the course of a month).

Eric Reibe slipped away from Tiller, Council missed a contested layup and the Jayhawks ended up scoring just two points in the final 4:37 and losing by five.

Council later said after the Jayhawks beat Arizona that he had been fueled by the memory of the UConn game, where he felt he should have done more. So perhaps in some sense this loss prepared the Jayhawks for what was to come.

photo by: AP Photo/John Raoux

Central Florida fans storm the court after defeating Kansas in an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Orlando, Fla.

Jan. 3: Council fouls Riley Kugel on drive as UCF restores two-possession lead

As has already become quite apparent, Council has found himself at the center of nearly every late-game situation for KU this season. He spent much of the year as one of the nation’s highest-usage players in crunch time, and generally that has worked out pretty well for the Jayhawks. He did, however, make one key error at Addition Financial Arena.

Much has been made of the Jayhawks’ 1-2 start to league play and how they could easily have been 0-3 if not for the miracle win over TCU. On the other hand, though, they had a solid chance to beat UCF and squandered it.

Council had quite a lot to do with KU’s return to contention against the Knights. At a time when the Jayhawks were even less accustomed to playing with Peterson than they were by the end of the season, Council went scoreless in the first half and then scored 20 in the second as Peterson battled cramps. His layup with 3:02 to go completed a 9-0 run to tie the game, and he evened things up again at 72 with 1:16 remaining. Then Jordan Burks got loose for a corner 3 and White missed at the other end.

That could have been it for the Jayhawks — and Burks’ dagger could have made this list too — but KU had a chance late after Themus Fulks went 1-for-2 at the line and White drew a foul from Kugel on a 3-point attempt and made all three from the stripe.

The Knights broke KU’s press, and Kugel was headed in for a layup, but Council fouled him on the way up. The result was a three-point play that made it a four-point game, preventing the Jayhawks from having a chance to tie on their final offensive possession, and UCF won 81-75.

Jan. 20: Council goes two-for-one, aided by missed call, at Colorado

The Jayhawks had not been an especially good road team when they made the trip to CU Events Center under unfavorable circumstances: without their head coach, who was hospitalized due to dehydration (and had experienced atrial fibrillation). There was no guarantee they would take down, at altitude, even a seemingly lesser team.

With Jacque Vaughn at the helm, KU maintained a narrow advantage much of the night but missed numerous opportunities to build any sort of distance from the opportunistic Buffaloes. That nearly came back to haunt them when Alon Michaeli knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the Jayhawks’ lead to 60-59, and then CU took off running after Tiller and Peterson botched a dribble handoff. However, Sebastian Rancik missed badly on a transition layup and Tiller blocked Michaeli.

That’s when Council demonstrated one of his best qualities by pushing the pace on the fast break. He wiggled around Isaiah Johnson for a quick layup, then stuck his arms out by chance as Rancik was attempting to inbound the ball immediately, leading to a steal. As three Buffaloes protested to the officials, suggesting (probably rightly) that Council was out of bounds when he made the deflection, the senior guard slipped between them for another layup to make it 64-59.

Those buckets staved off the persistent Buffaloes and jump-started an 11-1 run that put CU away.

photo by: AP Photo/Annie Rice

From left to right: Texas Tech teammates forward Leon Horner, forward Lejuan Watts and forward Josiah Moseley react after the team’s loss against Kansas after an NCAA college basketball game, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas.

Feb. 2: Texas Tech commits inexplicable turnover after successful challenge, setting up Peterson’s heroics

Everyone remembers that Peterson, who was not having a particularly strong game on Feb. 2 in Lubbock, Texas, tied the game with one 3-pointer with 1:20 to go, then, aided by Bidunga and Tiller’s strong defense at the other end, was able to give KU the lead with another 36 seconds left to complete a double-digit comeback and shock the Red Raiders.

What Peterson’s late-game heroics obscured somewhat was the bizarre circumstance that allowed KU to get the ball down three points to begin with.

The Jayhawks lost a replay challenge at 2:32 when they were down 59-56, as the officials ruled a ball had gone out off Peterson rather than LeJuan Watts. Then, when Tiller missed a jumper from the free-throw line with KU down 61-58, Texas Tech won its own replay challenge when officials determined the rebound went out off Bidunga, not Jaylen Petty.

So Tech would have taken over with 1:32 to go … except that after Watts threw in the ball to JT Toppin, Toppin immediately tried to get it over to Petty, but Watts was in between them trying to set a screen on Council. The ball hit Watts in the back and went out of bounds, rendering the challenge moot.

KU set up a play for Peterson to come off a flare screen from Bidunga, and the rest was history.