Kansas basketball has started to play some of its best basketball as the season has gone along, but Darryn Peterson's health and availability has been the biggest story of the season for the Jayhawks. The potential No. 1 overall pick has dealt with a number of issues this season, including hamstring and ankle injuries as well as cramping.
On Saturday, Kansas did not bring their best basketball in a shocking 84-68 loss at home to unranked Cincinnati. The Bearcats have struggled all season and are not heading to the NCAA Tournament, so it was a surprise to see them come into one of the toughest places to play in the country and get a convincing win against a top 10 team.
Despite the loss, Peterson played 32 minutes in the loss, well above his season average coming into the game. After the defeat, head coach Bill Self took that as a positive moving forward, via Jack Ritter of 247 Sports.
“If we're going to grab a positive out of this today, yeah, let's go with that,” Self said of Peterson's minutes load. “I actually thought that, that, for the most part, he moved pretty well. But to me, playing is did we pressure? I think he was out there, and I think that was great, but that's still not what I'm looking for from an entire team. When you're playing well, everything is connected. And we weren't connected today, as far as doing what we can do.
“Rebounders didn't rebound. How many balls were in our hands, two hands, and they come away with it? How many times did that happen? Five? And they come away points after we have the ball? It just wasn't a very tough team today, like we're capable being. So we'll get that, hopefully, mindset corrected real soon.”
Even though Peterson was out there a lot on Saturday, especially coming off of a win against Oklahoma State earlier in the week where he played just 18 minutes, he wasn't quite himself as a scorer. The star freshman scored 17 points on 7-for-17 shooting and 1-for-7 from 3-point range.
This loss will hurt for Kansas, but the Jayhawks are well inside protected seed range in the NCAA Tournament at the moment as a No. 3 seed in the selection committee's early reveal on Saturday morning. If Peterson can continue to be healthy and play a full minutes load like he did on Saturday, Kansas will still be a tough out when March rolls around.
