What Cal Baptist Coach And Players Said About Kansas Before NCAA Tournament

No. 4 seed Kansas begins the NCAA Tournament Friday against No. 13 seed Cal Baptist at 8:45 p.m. CT at Viejas Arena in San Diego, Calif.

The winner advances to the Round of 32, where they'll face either No. 5 seed St. John's or No. 12 seed Northern Iowa.

Ahead of Friday's game, Cal Baptist coach Rick Croy and leading scorer Dominique Daniels spoke about their matchup against the Jayhawks. Here's what they said.

On coaching against Bill Self and the game plan against Kansas...

Croy: "First thing is, when the draw came out everyone –– or I should say many people –– have suggested, well Kansas has been up and down or Jekyll and Hyde. And I told our team right away, this is one of the great college basketball coaches of all time. He's gonna have his boys ready to compete. I mean, the best version of Kansas will be here in San Diego, and that's what we're preparing for."

"So there's so many things that they do well. But I think one of the things that can help us compete is staying assignment-driven. Our group's been great, elite with preparation, and I think you can eliminate some of the pressure if you're just constantly talking about what you gotta get done. And against Kansas, there's so many things you have to do."

"Starting with Council on the outlets, he's as fast at that spot as we've competed against. So we've got our hands full, but it's a great challenge and when there are great challenges, that's when great things can happen as well and great opportunities are born from great challenges. So we're excited. Obviously we have full respect for Kansas basketball, for coach Self, for their players. But we couldn't be more excited about the opportunity."

On whether he'd consider beating Kansas an upset...

Croy: "Well, I'd put it like this. Our group's been great at preparation. I would say elite. We talk about this all the time, be elite with our preparation and be elite in competition. We're trying to out-compete Kansas. We're not trying to shock anybody. We're trying to out-compete them. There's things that we have to do. They present tremendous challenges."

"But yeah, on paper, it's an upset. And we know that there are things that are put on paper, but then you gotta go on court and compete. We have a confident team. We've worked through some storms. We've tried to learn from our experience. I mean, we got smacked around at the Delta Center pretty good by BYU, so we've been in some big scraps. Obviously this is a bigger stage, but we have a confident team. But there's a lot of things we have to do well."

On Darryn Peterson...

Croy: "Amazing player. I mean, I think players that are in that rare air that have been identified at such a young age as being guys who can be top-10 picks –– and we went against Dybantsa at BYU –– I think there's always been a lot of pressure on those guys, but I don't think there's ever been more pressure than there is today in 2026."

"And obviously he's had some physical struggles that the only people that really know the details of that are –– it's gonna be kept internally at Kansas. But when you watch him on film and he's healthy and he's playing, you can see quickly why he's been identified as a No. 1 pick. I mean, he's a very, very skilled player. Obviously he's a tremendous athlete, but I just have so much respect for those guys."

"You can tell, we believe in the 10,000-hour theory. This guy has put in 10,000 hours on his game because when he's open, he makes shot. And when you force him to put it down on the deck, he can make a lot of plays. So he's an elite player. We think we're gonna see the best version of Darryn Peterson, and we're gonna have to be really switched on to make things tough for him."

Cal Baptist guard Dominique Daniels Jr. (1) speaks at a press conference before playing Kansas in the 2026 NCAA Tournament at Viejas Arena. | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

On how he'll attack Kansas...

Daniels: "Just playing the way I know how to play, playing well with my guys, finding my open teammates. Because I'm not the only guy that can score on the team. We got pretty good guys up here next to me in Jayden Jackson and Martel Williams. So just being able to figure out the game in real time, and just being able to play the we play and hunt singles as we always do."