Coming off home loss, Kansas set to host Houston on Monday
Playing host to unranked Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon, No. 8 Kansas fell to the Bearcats, 84-68. On a day when the Jayhawks trailed by as many as 19 points, Flory Bidunga (18), Darryn Peterson (17), and Tre White (11) led the way offensively for Bill Self’s squad.
While Kansas shot 27-of-61 (44.3%) from the field and 10-of-13 (76.9%) from the free-throw line, the Jayhawks, on Saturday afternoon, converted just 4-of-18 (22.2%) shots from behind the arc.
As a team, Cincinnati hit 31-of-64 (48.4%) of its field goals, 12-of-31 (38.7%) of its shots from behind the arc, and 10-of-15 (66.7%) of its free throws.
Bill Self, after the game, talked about KU’s effort on the defensive side of the ball.
“We were just awful today defensively, and then they were great,” said Self. “They played great. Their bigs dominated, and their guards, we didn’t pressure them. They got where they wanted to. It was a combination of defensive rebounding, their guards basically getting where they wanted to go, but their bigs, they destroyed us.”
Heading into the game, much attention was placed on Darryn Peterson, the 6-foot-6, 205-pound guard from Canton, Ohio. Peterson, in 32 minutes, scored 17 points, pulled down four rebounds, dished out one assist, and was credited with one steal. Overall, Peterson shot 7-of-17 from the field, 1-of-7 from behind the arc, and was 2-of-3 from the free-throw line.
“I didn’t think anybody played well today,” said Self after the game. “I’d certainly include all our players with that. We can chop it up however much we want to, but the defensive intensity from everybody was lacking. And sometimes we look at guys to see how effective they are based on their offensive numbers. And I didn’t think that we did anything to cause any type of rhythm adjustments, or anything like that that ever made them feel uncomfortable.”
Kansas will now prepare to face a Houston team that is 23-4 on the season and 11-3 in the Big 12. However, the Cougars will arrive in Allen Fieldhouse on Monday night riding a two-game losing streak.
“We’ll meet tomorrow at two, and go over,” said Self. “Things happen, and we got to stay together. I think that we will, without question, they’re great kids. But we weren’t competitive today. And the message is, ‘If you can’t make other people play poorly, no matter where you’re playing, it could be a long afternoon or evening,’ and that’s exactly what happened. We didn’t do anything to get them out of rhythm.”
