NC State dared KU Jayhawks’ Melvin Council to shoot. Here’s how he made them pay
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- Melvin Council Jr. hit nine 3s, scored 36 and pushed Kansas to a 77-76 OT win.
- Council finished 13-of-27 shooting with seven rebounds, four assists and no turnovers.
- Coach Bill Self credited Council’s road performance for securing the tight victory.
Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. entered Saturday’s nonconference men’s basketball thriller against North Carolina State a dismal 5-of-27 from 3.
That calculates to 18.5%.
Left open via the game plan of North Carolina State coach Will Wade, KU’s senior transfer from St. Bonaventure knocked down nine 3s — second-most treys by a Jayhawk ever in a game — and scored a career-high 36 points in KU’s 77-76 overtime victory before 19,119 fans at Lenovo Center.
The 36 points were most scored in a game by a Jayhawk since Jalen Wilson tallied 38 in an overtime loss to Kansas State on Jan. 17, 2023 in Manhattan.
“We had one guy that was probably the best performer I think that I’ve had on the road in my 23 years at Kansas,” KU coach Bill Self said of Council. He was five points off Andrew Wiggins’ 41-point outing against West Virginia in 2014, which is the most by a KU player in the Self era.
His nine 3s were surpassed at KU only by Terry Brown, who hit 11 against the same foe, N.C. State, on Jan. 5, 1991, at Allen Fieldhouse.
“He was unbelievable and made hard shots. They dared him to shoot. And then when he made a couple, he started looking at a big basket, and then he was unbelievable,” Self added. “If you look at his entire stat line, nine 3s, seven rebounds, four assists, no turnovers, play 43 minutes. That’s a pretty good stat line. He put us on his back tonight.”
Council became the first Kansas player with at least 30 points in a true road game in their first year at KU since Dedric Lawson at Arizona State on Dec. 22, 2018 (30 points). His 36-point performance marked KU’s first 30-point game since Hunter Dickinson scored 33 points against Arizona on March 8, 2025.
“Melvin Council … holy ‘granoli,’” KU sophomore guard Jamari McDowell said with a smile. He and soph guard Elmarko Jackson played down the stretch and almost the entire overtime with freshman Darryn Peterson taking himself out of the game with two minutes to play.
Self said he believed Peterson had tightness in the hamstring, which according to Self “has bothered him every game.”
McDowell added of Council: “I don’t even know how to explain him. That’s a dog. We needed him. People shouldn’t do what they did. Don’t go under (and leave him wide open).”
Council entered the game with confidence despite his 5-of-27 marksmanship through KU’s first 10 games.
“My scout team … they do that to me in practice,” said Council, used to firing up unguarded 3s. “My guys and coaches are just telling me just be confident in your shot and just take it.”
He spoke with a former acclaimed KU 3-point shooter about continuing to shoot when open.
“I talked to Mario Chalmers a couple weeks ago, and he was telling me to be aggressive, shoot the ball. So that’s what I just tried to do today,” Council said.
Council also spoke to his “best friend, Jalen Pickett from the Denver Nuggets,” about shooting recently.
“He was telling me, ‘Keep shooting,’” Council said. “To me, I’ll be having (my) confidence (back) when I see one of them going in. Then I stop shooting. But it’s life. I’m a human being. You’re going to make some and you are going to miss some.”
Council finished 13-of-27 shooting (9-of-15 from 3) for his career-high mark of 36 points. He had Kansas’ last 13 points of regulation and also fed Flory Bidunga for a go-ahead dunk with 51.9 seconds left in OT.
Council was asked if he felt he needed to take over late with Peterson (17 points, five rebounds, four assists in 31 minutes) seated at the end of the bench receiving treatment.
“Got to get D.P back,” Council said. “That’s it. It’s the last (non)conference away game. We got two more games left (Towson Tuesday and Davidson on Dec. 22 at home), so we’re just trying to go in Christmas break 10-3. That’s it.”
Council missed the front end of a pair of 1-and-1s with 19 seconds left and three seconds to play and KU up 77-76.
“Oh, I wasn’t tired. I don’t know why I missed those free throws. I’ve got to do better, but I can play another 40 right now,” Council stated, smiling.
Because of the misses, N.C. State had a final possession to try to win it. First, they advanced the ball past halfcourt, calling timeout with 1.1 seconds left.
Self inserted 7-footer Paul Mbiya into the game to harass the inbounds pass. The ball was fed to Williams, who guarded by Jackson, missed a long 3 that looked like it would have counted had it connected.
Williams’ shot missed and KU had the victory.
“Hopefully it doesn’t go in,” Council said of his thoughts as former Texas Tech wing Williams (17 points, 10 rebounds) launched the final shot.
“Paul did a good job. It was almost a five-second count. Elmarko played good defense and didn’t foul him,” Council added.
Of the defense on the final shot by N.C. State (7-4), Self said: “I just put Paul in to try to make it hard to throw a lob pass and we didn’t switch. We don’t switch out of bounds. We’ll switch once it gets in bounds, but we don’t switch out of bounds. And I don’t know that we guarded it well, but we guarded it good enough that they had to take an off-balance long one.”
This game was all about Council and his explosive offensive performance, made possible in part by the Wolfpack’s defensive strategy.
“I didn’t anticipate it,” Self said of the strategy. “I think it’s pretty sound. I don’t think anybody would say it’s not a sound philosophy based on his numbers up until this point. You look at his stroke, his stroke isn’t broke. He’s got a good-looking stroke. It just hadn’t gone in.
“And you know, the thing about it is, with shooters, even though he didn’t shoot it well the first half, shooters don’t remember their misses. They only remember their makes. And so in his mind, he’s thinking he’s looking at a big basket, which was probably good for us, really good for us. “
This story was originally published December 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM.
