Despite Duke Loss, Kansas Shows They Have the Pieces to Support Darryn Peterson

The Kansas Jayhawks fell to the Duke Blue Devils 78-66 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City on Tuesday night, but the team may have discovered some good in the loss.

Playing without star freshman Darryn Peterson for the third consecutive game, the team showed a lot of fight – keeping the game within single digits until late in the second half. That in itself should be a confidence boost for the team moving forward knowing that they can compete with one of the best teams in the country without having their key playmaker on the court.

“We're a makeshift team right now, but I thought we did some good things,” head coach Bill Self said after the loss. “I thought we competed hard. I thought we ‘uglied’ the game up pretty well.”

In addition to showing their toughness and resolve, the most encouraging takeaway from the game was that KU does appear to have the pieces to support Peterson when he returns – which shouldn’t be much longer according to Self.

Senior transfer Tre White had his best game in a Kansas uniform thus far, scoring 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 from three-point range. He also grabbed nine rebounds and had four assists and two steals in the loss.

That shooting prowess is a big reason why White was brought in from Illinois, and if he can continue to be that shooting threat – especially from deep – that’s going to be a huge advantage for this KU offense and will take some of the pressure off of Peterson to score every time. It should also open things up for players like Peterson and Melvin Council Jr. to drive the lane.

Council had a promising game too in Peterson’s absence, showing good control of the offense and playing nearly the entire game (38 minutes). He scored 15 points and had six assists on the night.

He and Peterson could form a great one-two punch in the backcourt with Flory Bidunga holding things down in the frontcourt. He’s reached double digits in four out of five games this season, including scoring 14 points against the Blue Devils on Tuesday night on 7-of-10 shooting (70%) from the field.

If the trio of Bidunga, White, and Council can play consistently like they did against Duke – and if younger players such as Bryson Tiller and Kohl Rosario continue to grow their games – KU will be in great shape once Peterson returns to the rotation and this team has more time to gel.