Kansas suffers Big 12 road loss at West Virginia: Here are 3 takeaways

Shreyas Laddha, The Kansas City Star on Jan 10, 2026

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — This Kansas men’s basketball team is breaking longtime program records.

Just not the ones the Jayhawks want to break.

West Virginia upset No. 22 Kansas, 86-75, on Saturday afternoon in Hope Coliseum. The Jayhawks (11-5) are 1-2 in Big 12 play for the first time since the 2005-06 season.

Save for a miraculous comeback against TCU, the Jayhawks would be starting league play 0-3. It’s extremely concerning considering the schedule doesn’t get any easier. The Jayhawks still have seven top-15 games the rest of the way.

In Saturday’s effort, Darryn Peterson led the Jayhawks with 23 points and six rebounds. Tre White added 18 points and five rebounds.

Peterson, who’s dealt with cramping issues in recent weeks, played 31 minutes, including 13 in the second half. He checked out for good with KU down seven and 1:28 to play.

The first half was a back-and-forth affair where neither team seemed to gain much separation. The Jayhawks went into the half leading 43-39 after Peterson made a 3-pointer before the buzzer.

KU raced to a 59-51 lead by the 14:55 mark of the second half, but it didn’t last long. From that point on, WVU outscored the Jayhawks 35-16. West Virginia led for the final 11:06.

Up next for KU: The Jayhawks face No. 3 Iowa State on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Until then, here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game:

Peterson shined early, struggled late

Peterson is a generational talent, or at the very least a generational scorer.

It’s hard to explain, but his ability to end up with 15 or so points in each first half — no matter how he starts — is remarkable.

Similar to his last game, Peterson started off very slow. At one point, he was shooting 1 for 6 from the field and had two points. And he still finished the first period Saturday with 16 points on 5-for-11 shooting, staying in rhythm of the offense without hunting his shot.

Peterson simply took what the defense gave him and somehow turned it into another quality first half.

The second half wasn’t as pretty for Peterson. He scored only seven points on 1-for-6 shooting from the floor. He finished the game 6 for 17 from the field.

KU’s defense is having real problems

All throughout nonconference play, the Jayhawks had one of the best defenses in the nation.

That certainly hasn’t been the case since Big 12 play started. KU entered Saturday ranked No. 14 in the conference in adjusted defensive efficiency (116.1) through two games of league play.

Adjusted defensive efficiency measures the number of points allowed per 100 possessions.

Kansas coach Bill Self has repeatedly stressed that his squad needs to improve its overall defense and communication on that end. But it still wasn’t great Saturday.

West Virginia shot 50% from the floor and close to 43% from 3 in the first half. Those numbers only slightly cooled in the second half, as the Mountaineers finished the game shooting 48.2% from the field, 42.3% from 3.

The Mountaineers committed only nine turnovers for the game.

KU’s shooting couldn’t keep up

One of the biggest issues coming into the season was the Jayhawks’ 3-point shooting. They have some players who can make shots, but not necessarily at a great volume.

For most of the season, the Jayhawks have managed. White and Melvin Council have stepped up while Peterson has provided an additional scoring lift.

But 3-point shooting is still not a strength of this KU team, which shot 8 for 27 (29.6%) from 3 in the defeat. The aforementioned trio went 6 for 19 (31.6%).

The Mountaineers outscored the Jayhawks by nine from distance, making 11 of their 26 3-point attempts.

It’s hard to win games when you allow opposing teams to shoot that well from deep.