Men’s Basketball
Houston forward Chris Cenac Jr. (5) pulls up for a three against Kansas forward Bryson Tiller (15) during the first half, Friday, March 13, 2026, at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Photo by Nick Krug
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas coach Bill Self said on Thursday that he wasn’t trying to be negative when describing Bryson Tiller’s performance against TCU as “not a physical game at all by him.” He said Tiller would be better the following day against Houston.
But when the first half against the Cougars rolled around on Friday night, the freshman from Atlanta managed just two points on 1-for-5 shooting with two rebounds.
Then he never left the bench in the second as guard Elmarko Jackson took his place in the starting lineup.
Tiller, who matched a season low with 14 minutes played in what had been his 29th start in 33 games played, didn’t have much to say in the locker room postgame about the subject. He said he didn’t speak to Self at halftime and added, “I’m not really sure (what happened). I don’t really have an answer for you. On to the next game.”
Self said that sitting Tiller for the second half was a coach’s decision.
“My message is rebound and play competitive,” Self added. “That’s it. Be physical, rebound, play competitive. So that’s been the message for a long time.”
Tiller’s ongoing evolution as a player has been one of the defining storylines of KU’s season. The Jayhawks’ 23rd-year head coach has emphasized all season that Tiller and fellow forward Flory Bidunga need to play to their size to give KU the best chance of success. When the 6-foot-11 freshman, perhaps naturally or at least by inclination more of a stretch forward than a traditional big man on the interior, was playing at his best during the Jayhawks’ eight-game winning streak, he was earning praise from Self for playing like “an inside-out guy that is skilled, as opposed to a perimeter player that’s got a little bit of power.”
Over the course of the year, Tiller has come through and demonstrated that play style in some of KU’s most significant games of the year, with 21 points and seven rebounds against BYU on Jan. 31, 18 and eight against Arizona to help sustain the Jayhawks early on Feb. 9 and the first two double-doubles of his career more recently.
But Tiller largely vanished as he scored just six combined points in three games against Arizona, Arizona State and Kansas State, with Self describing him after the K-State game as “the only one we got to get going as of today.”
His numbers were better against TCU with 13 points and eight boards, but the same physicality concerns returned to the forefront as he struggled defensively and on the glass against the Horned Frogs’ David Punch. And Self clearly didn’t like what he saw on Friday night either.
“Obviously I could have played a little harder, got more rebounds, but nothing I can do about it now,” Tiller said of his first-half display. “Just got to chalk it up and move on.”
Bidunga, his partner in the post, reiterated that he still feels Tiller has “more to show, and obviously tonight wasn’t his game” as he made mistakes against the Cougars.
“But I feel like coming up in March, he is a really great factor and we’ll need him,” Bidunga added. “And obviously, he needs to do a better job and we need to do a better job as well.”
Bidunga excelled on Thursday. He experienced a bit of a downturn of his own on Friday with five points on 1-for-4 shooting, but he did haul in 12 rebounds, three times the total of any other Jayhawk.
Guard Melvin Council Jr., for his part, said that he told Tiller, “Next game. It’s going to be OK.”
The rest of the Jayhawks might need to hear that sort of message as well after the grim result against the Cougars, which dropped them to 23-10 on the year.
“We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs on this team with various situations,” Tiller said. “I don’t feel like this is a setback that we can’t come back from.”
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Written By Henry Greenstein
