KU basketball’s eight-game win streak ends at Iowa State. Here are the takeaways
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- Iowa State ended Kansas’ eight-game streak with a 74-56 win in Ames.
- KU struggled offensively, with many turnovers and 31% shooting in 2nd half.
- Loss drops Kansas into a tie for third in Big 12, hurting title hopes.
One look at the faces of the Kansas men’s basketball players sitting on the bench in Hilton Coliseum told the story.
In a word, they looked despondent.
A number of players wore blank expressions. Others stared straight down. There was none of the usual jovial energy of this KU team, which entered Saturday riding an eight-game winning streak. Those looks were replaced with expressions of exhaustion and defeat.
Even the typically animated Bill Self seemed to understand where this game was heading.
No. 5 Iowa State defeated No. 9 Kansas 74-56 on Saturday. The Jayhawks (19-6, 9-3) saw their eight-game win streak end at a place they haven’t won since 2022.
“It was bound to happen,” KU guard Melvin Council Jr. said. “We wasn’t really prepared like that. But it’s OK that we’ve got more games left, and hopefully we come back and start our winning streak back up again.”
There wasn’t much for the KU players to get fired up about late, save for chants of “(expletive) KU” from the packed crowd in Ames, Iowa. The Cyclones earned some revenge for an 84-63 loss at Kansas that started the Jayhawks’ run of Big 12 wins.
Council led the Jayhawks on Saturday, scoring 15 points with five rebounds. Big man Flory Bidunga added 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Freshman Darryn Peterson returned to action after missing KU’s last game due to illness. He played 24 minutes and finished with a KU-career low 10 points on 3-for-10 shooting.
Iowa State’s Milan Momcilovic hit four 3s and finished with 18 points. Five Cyclones scored in double figures.
The Jayhawks struggled to hang with the Cyclones all afternoon. Iowa State took a 10-point lead into the half and had extended that advantage to 20 points by the 17-minute mark.
The Cyclones (22-3, 9-3 Big 12) led by as many as 24 points.
Up next for KU: The Jayhawks travel to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to play Oklahoma State on Wednesday.
Until then, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game
Iowa State swarmed KU’s offense
It’s hard to remember a time when KU’s offense looked this bad. It certainly hadn’t happened amid the Jayhawks’ eight-game winning streak.
From tipoff, the Cyclones’ defense had KU’s offense looking discombobulated. They swarmed KU, trapping the ball handler on screens, clogging the paint and paying extra attention to Peterson when he had the ball.
It led to 10 KU turnovers in the first half alone, which the Cyclones turned into 11 points.
Although KU shot 45.5% from the field in the first half, that number was almost deceiving. Between the turnovers and Kansas getting outrebounded 8-1 on the offensive glass, the Jayhawks only shot the ball 22 times compared to Iowa State’s 36 in that time.
It’s why the Cyclones went into halftime with a 10-point lead.
“They pressured the crap out of us,” Self said. “They strung out and trapped us on ball screens and we didn’t handle that well at all. Our ability to move the ball and drive gaps to force help was pretty weak the entire first half.”
The second half wasn’t much better. Although Kansas cut down its turnovers, the Jayhawks couldn’t buy a bucket. KU shot 31% from the field, including 12.5% on 3-pointers in the period.
The Jayhawks never solved Iowa State’s No. 5-ranked defense. And they never managed to get easy baskets, finishing with 0 fast-break points.
Three-point shooting was a huge difference
The Cyclones entered this matchup ranked No. 4 nationally in 3-point percentage (40%). Momcilovic was leading the way in that area, shooting 52% from 3.
In the first half, Kansas kept Iowa State’s shooters in check. The Cyclones were 3-for-16 (18.8%) from 3. Momcilovic was 0-for-4 himself.
But those numbers did not hold. And Iowa State began the second half making seven of its first eight 3-point attempts. A number of those shots were wide open, but several were also heavily contested.
“That would be a formula for disaster wherever you’re playing away from home,” Self said of Iowa State’s hot start to the second half.
Momcilovic went 4-for-5 from 3 in the second half. Iowa State, as a team, shot 57.1% from 3 in the second period.
Iowa State made 11 3s (36.7% shooting) for the game. KU made six (33.3%).
KU’s Big 12 title dreams got tougher
Not only did KU’s eight-game winning streak end Saturday afternoon, but any dreams of winning a Big 12 title just got a lot more difficult.
Kansas entered Saturday ranked third in the Big 12 behind Arizona and Houston, who both only had one loss in league play.
After the loss, the Jayhawks are tied with Iowa State for third in the conference, but they’re two games back in the loss column.
KU still plays Houston at home and Arizona on the road, so the Jayhawks can help themselves inch closer to the top of the standings. But they will need some luck to break their way, too, even if they win both contests.
This story was originally published February 14, 2026 at 2:30 PM.
