The Kansas Jayhawks have played a tough stretch of games the past few weeks, and freshman star Darryn Peterson has been absent for all of those games due to a hamstring injury. In fact, the last time Peterson suited up was in an 87-74 loss at North Carolina back on November 7th.
In that time frame over the past month, the Jayhawks went 5-2. Those two losses came to top-five teams in the country, Duke and UCONN, and KU was competitive in both of those games. In that month span, the Jayhawks also took Las Vegas by storm, going undefeated in the Players Era Festival. Kansas beat Notre Dame and Syracuse by double-digits before taking down a top 15 Tennessee squad 81-76 in their final game of the tournament.
While Peterson sat out to fully heal, the rest of the Kansas team worked to figure things out without their leading scorer. Led by young big men sophomore Flory Bidunga and freshman Bryson Tiller, along with experienced senior transfers in Melvin Council Jr. and Tre White, the Jayhawks found a core group of players who can step up in big moments at times. The sweep in Vegas showed a team camaraderie that hasn’t been seen since the Jayhawks won the National Championship in 2022.
Against UCONN, there were scoring flaws that were magnified in the second half of that game. The Jayhawks went several minutes at a time between buckets in stretches, and in the final five minutes of the game, they couldn’t hit a clutch shot despite being within one possession late in the game. That is a spot where they missed Peterson and where the result likely would have been different if he had been playing.
That brings us to Sunday’s 80-60 win for Kansas over old Border War rival Missouri. Peterson started the scoring for the Jayhawks to get things going early and sparked a 23-3 run that spanned from the end of the first half to the start of the second half. Peterson finished with 17 points in 23 minutes of play in his return. His minutes will only increase from here as long as he can stay healthy, and that bodes well for a Jayhawks team that showed they are capable of winning big games with Peterson on the bench.
The Jayhawks have one more tough non-conference game coming up on Saturday, December 13th, at North Carolina State before wrapping up the non-con with Towson and Davidson at Allen Fieldhouse ahead of an extended holiday break before Big 12 play begins.
While no Big 12 game is ever easy, the Jayhawks caught a bit of a “break” at the start of conference play. They will face UCF, TCU, and West Virginia to begin the Big 12 slate. They’ll get Iowa State, who could very well be a top-five team in the nation (if not the No. 1 team) by the time that matchup rolls around on Tuesday, January 13th. KU will host the Cyclones in that Big Tuesday matchup. They get three more teams that are currently unranked between Baylor, Colorado, and Kansas State before hosting BYU, a top 10 team in the nation.
So January will consist of six non-ranked Big 12 opponents and getting their two ranked Big 12 opponents at home in that stretch of games. I guess you could say it is luck of the draw as far as the schedule goes and who is ranked and unranked early on in the conference schedule, but the Jayhawks can get off to a good start to Big 12 play, especially if Peterson is healthy and ready to go.
Getting off to a hot start in conference play will be critical for the Jayhawks, who have a tough stretch in February. Kansas head coach Bill Self likely took this into consideration when waiting to bring Peterson back when he was 100% healthy.
Now the Jayhawks have a deeper squad and their best player to attack the schedule. Without Peterson, the Jayhawks showed they are a very good, but not great, team. With Peterson, the Jayhawks can be a Big 12 title contender. If you’re a Big 12 title contender, that makes you a national title contender. That’s the ceiling Peterson brings to the Jayhawks.
We’ll see if he can stay healthy, but the Big 12 will certainly be more exciting this season with Peterson and the Jayhawks playing at the top of their game.
