BYU’s win over Kansas leaves elite blue blood smoldering

Spanking a blue blood.

It doesn’t get any better than that. It happened in the Marriott Center in high fashion when BYU throttled No. 23 Kansas 91-57 Tuesday night in Provo. This was the worst loss in the Bill Self era and the most disastrous outcome for a ranked Kansas team against an unranked opponent since the AP Poll began in 1948.

Kansas.

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It was Kansas.

Not Santa Clara or Loyola Marymount. Kansas.

Wilt Chamberlain is spinning in his grave.

Danny Manning turned off ESPN, and flipped to “Severance.”

Bill Self, well, had a tough time being himself.

He used his final timeout with 14 minutes left, down by 31.

That’s never happened.

The 34-point BYU win left folks wondering what had happened to Duke killer Kansas. Not enough were asking what exactly had gotten into BYU.

Well, point guard Dallin Hall put it this way, “We are hitting our stride and trying to put the country on notice.”

On a night when 20 NBA scouts were perched in the arena, a lot of notebooks were filled with this historic performance.

Kansas wins. They do lose at times, but Kansas rarely if ever gets flattened like road kill carrion. BYU is the first team in seven seasons to lead Kansas by more than 35.

Andy Katz, a national basketball voice whom I remember during his first days in the business at the Albuquerque Journal and Fresno Bee covering the WAC, declared people are reminded how tough it is to play Utah and BYU on the road.

Kansas State and Kansas came to the Beehive State and left 0-4. If they’d gone to Logan on this swing, I’d argue they’d leave 0-6. K-State was the hottest team in the country and Kansas was the preseason league favorite. Again.

The Big 12 definitely found out the 45-mile stretch between the Huntsman Center and the Marriott Center could be a black hole.

There’s little doubt Kansas is struggling. The Jayhawks offense is stagnant and not aligned and the defense lacks the intensity and passion of the earlier season.

But that’s not BYU’s fault.

You bring that to the Marriott Center in front of the ROC when Kevin Young has his team engaged and on and you trip into a woodchipper.

Self said his streaking team needed to take their slaughterhouse experience and regroup — even get away from one another for a day or so.

Healing from a loss like this takes counseling, as Jayhawks fans are not kind.

One Kansas fan, Jayhawk Lasso, popular on X posted: “I wish we were still the only ones paying players.”

As of Wednesday morning, 31,000 had viewed his post.

The win lifted BYU to No. 31 in NET and 45 in KPI rankings. ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt said, “The fact that there’s not a number by BYU’s name is just dumb.”

Wins like this one don’t just hatch out of thin air.

BYU rebounded like banshees and shot lights out, making 14 threes. All 15 BYU field goals in the first half came on assists.

Keba Keita had his swatter out. Richie Saunders displayed his atomic energy. Trevin Knell checked in and bombed away. Mawot Mag continued to stick on shooters and buried some of his own from distance.

Dallin Hall is back.

Head coach Kevin Young, a rookie college coach who’d worked so hard to make his Cougar team mesh and labored in so many ways to keep everybody happy, has settled on a rare 11-man rotation. And it appears to be working with attitude, chemistry and energy, three reasons for the slaughter as he continued late in the game to tell his guys to push the ball as hard as they could up the court.

Young had 4,551-foot altitude on his side and he wasn’t going to waste any of Kansas’ oxygen deprivation on this night.

His team is finding a little swagger.

Up 30 on Kansas? He kept surfing.

You can measure it in chemistry, rotations, roles being established and aggressiveness. But what stood out in wins over K-State and Kansas is confidence. His guys are believing.

In what appeared to be such a surprise for BYU hoops in Year 1 in the Big 12 when Mark Pope had his team finishing with a No. 5 seed with remarkable 3-point shooting, spacing and offense, Young is repeating that formula sans Aly Khalifa and Jaxson Robinson.

Last year Pope had the Cougars shooting 46% from the field and 34.8% from 3-point land. Today, Young’s Cougars are 48% from the field and 36.6% from beyond the arc. His guys are more accurate.

“This three-game stretch has been the most dialed-in we’ve been,” said Young.

They’ll now take a three-game win streak to No. 19 Arizona in Tucson on Saturday. The 18-8, 9-6 Cougars are all alone at fifth in the Big 12 standings. The win all but placed Young’s squad into the NCAA Tournament.

Will it hold up?

It will be fun to find out.

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