The 25th-ranked Kansas basketball team returned home from a rough second half in North Carolina over the weekend and did everything it all kinds of things it needed to do to get back on track.
The Jayhawks played fast, physical and with a purpose and out-athleted Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 77-46, on Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
It wasn’t all perfect. Far from it. But it was the feel-good kind of game the Jayhawks (2-1) needed to get past the tough loss to the Tar Heels.
The fact that this latest win came without Darryn Peterson in uniform, while disappointing for the 15,000 fans in attendance, might have also been a good thing in the long run.
This team has to figure out ways to succeed when Peterson is not on the floor. And they have to find reliable and consistent second and third options when he is. Playing without him, though never ideal, is only going to aid their quest for finding those things. And there’s absolutely no worry whatsoever about not doing it with him in the flow because Peterson can play with anyone and fit himself and his game into anything.
More on his absence below.
Next up, the Jayhawks will play host to Princeton at 1 p.m. Saturday before heading east to New York City to take on the Duke Blue Devils at this year’s Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden.
Here’s a look back at some of the highlights from Tuesday night.
LIKES
• Early emphasis on defensive glass – Corpus Christi is no North Carolina, but good habits are built in games just like this one. And the Jayhawks showed from the outset of this one that they were willing to put a huge emphasis on cleaning up the defensive glass. Opponents have feasted on Kansas on the offensive glass in the early going of the season, and Self has talked about his team getting tougher and competing harder on that end, even when they’re out-sized. They weren’t against the Islanders on Tuesday night, but they acted like it and played like it and the numbers showed it. The Islanders had just 2 offensive rebounds in the first half and finished the game with 6.
• Tre White’s rebounds – It’s not a line that’s going to wow you, but 11 points and 6 rebounds in 22 minutes — with almost all of his points coming in the paint — is a really nice line for KU forward Tre White and a good sign that he’s been paying attention to what his coaches want from him — to play and be bigger. Add 4 assists to that line and you’re talking about an all-around solid night from one of KU’s most important and least-heralded players. It’s great to see him do that against anybody, but now he needs to carry over that momentum into games against the big boys. White had just 2 rebounds and 0 assists in the recent loss at North Carolina.
• Great start by Rosario – He put the ball in the basket, scored 8 quick points and had 11 at the break. On his way to a 16-point night. Without the mustache, by the way. But it wasn’t just Kohl Rosario’s scoring that stood out in this one as much as it was how he scored that did. Rather than starting from the outside and hoping to knock down a few jumpers to get going, Rosario started by scoring right at the rim and then took that confidence into the outside shot. It’s a brilliant strategy, should be a point of emphasis for him and the team and should deliver more consistent scoring nights from the freshman who should still be in high school. White finished the night 6-of-10 from the floor and 2-of-6 from 3-point range.
• Tiller looked more aggressive – Bryson Tiller again knocked in a shot from 3-point range, but Kansas coach Bill Self said that the best play Tiller made in this one was when he did not shoot it. The reason? Because on that particular play, Tiller put the ball down and drove to the rim instead, finishing with a monster dunk. Self said Tiller is so strong, athletic and versatile that this team wants — and maybe even needs — him to get downhill and drive to the rim as often as possible. The more they play and the more comfortable Tiller gets being out there, the more I think we'll see that be the norm, or at least what he regularly tries to do. But the shot does look good from the outside. So, at this point, a best-case scenario exists where Tiller's man is on his heels guessing and the KU freshman can punish him however he sees fit on any given possession.
DISLIKES
• No DP — again – Self said after Tuesday's win that Peterson did not play for, what he hoped were, precautionary reasons, after the star freshman felt his hamstring tighten up on him following Tuesday morning's shoot-around. "It's a long season, guys. And he's too valuable to put out there & create a situation out of something that shouldn't be a situation," Self said. Peterson practiced Tuesday morning after full-gos on both Sunday and Monday. But Self said it was noticeable near the end of Tuesday's session that something wasn't quite right. So, on the advisement of team doctors, Self and Peterson made the decision to shut him down for the night. The hope is for him to return to practice Thursday and for the Jayhawks to have gained something from playing without him. There were moments when that looked to be the case and the full value of not having him will show itself as the season progresses.
• Run, Flory, run? – He obviously can’t fire up a dead sprint every trip down the floor. But I think he could go a little more often than he does, especially when the Jayhawks are full of fast fliers who want to get up and down the floor with him and look for him on the finishing end of transition lobs. It’s a bit of a nitpick for a guy who probably needs to be on the floor for 30+, but keep an eye on it in upcoming games and see if it looks any different against the Dukes and UConns of the world. It might. But it doesn’t have to.
• Council’s 3-point shot – I love Melvin Council’s aggressiveness pretty much everywhere on the floor. Just maybe not at the 3-point line. He’s open and I’m sure they’ve told him to take those shots when they’re there. If he doesn’t, other teams can play off of him and clog the paint and that’s not good for anybody. But if he doesn’t start making them, they’ll do that anyway, and leave him to shoot it, which might add a bit of a mental weight to the problem of his 3-point shots not going in. Still, even when they do leave him, I think there are times when he should pull the trigger — late clock, ball reversals, etc. — and others when he should still do what he does best. Especially early in the shot clock. Drive it. Dish it. Move it. No need to shoot it until the shot starts to look a little better and fall a little more often.
WHAT THE?
• Lobs picked off – At least twice, and maybe one other time, a couple of KU lobs in the paint were deflected or intercepted by Corpus Christi defenders, who may have been beaten on the play but read it in time to get a hand on the pass in mid-air. That doesn’t happen if the lob is thrown higher. And, given the athleticism of the Jayhawks who are generally being thrown lobs, there really isn’t a mark that’s too high.
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