KU faces Notre Dame Monday: Peterson’s injury prevents battle of top point guards
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Three quick takeaways: KU will sit freshman Darryn Peterson with hamstring strain.
- Notre Dame uses Markus Burton's scoring and Towt's rebounding to pressure KU.
- Players Era matchup in Las Vegas shapes KU's path; Syracuse is KU’s game two foe
Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson’s lingering hamstring strain has prevented a much-anticipated one-on-one matchup between two of the 20 candidates for college basketball’s Bob Cousy point guard of the year award.
Peterson, who has missed the last three games after averaging 21.5 points in KU’s first two contests, will watch from the bench as Markus Burton leads Notre Dame (4-1) onto the MGM Grand Garden Arena court in Las Vegas for Monday’s first-round Players Era tournament game versus KU (3-2).
Tipoff is set for 2:30 p.m. Central with a live telecast on TNT.
Burton, a 6-foot-0, 190-pound junior from Mishawaka, Indiana, has averaged 19.4 points a game on 47.8% shooting this season. He has made 6 of 17 3s for 35.3% and 27 of 30 free throws for 90%. Burton as scored over 20 points in three of the Irish’s five games.
In addition, Burton has 11 assists to 12 turnovers as well as eight steals combined in wins over Bellarmine (86-79), Eastern Illinois (78-58), Detroit Mercy (102-70) and Long Island (89-67) as well as a loss to Ohio State (64-63).
Burton, who earned second-team all-ACC honors as a sophomore after finishing the season as the country’s No. 5 leading scorer (21.5 ppg), scored 25 points with four assists in Wednesday’s 86-79 win over Bellarmine and 24 points in the opener against LIU. Against Ohio State he had 14 points on 3-of-14 shooting with one assist against four turnovers.
“I’ve never played with a player like that ever,” Notre Dame freshman guard Jalen Haralson, a 2025 McDonald’s All-American, said of Burton in an interview with the South Bend Tribune. “He’s really good. That’s my guy. I want him to push me every day.”
Burton scored a career-high 43 points last season in a four-overtime victory over Cal. It was most points scored by an Irish player in an ACC game and most by an Irish player in a game since Adrian Dantley went for 49 points against Air Force on Feb. 10, 1975. Burton last year also had 32 points in a double-overtime win against Boston College and 30 points in a loss at Clemson.
ESPN in late October ranked Burton the 46th best player in college basketball for the 2025-26 season.
“The only reason Burton isn’t ranked higher,” ESPN analyst Myron Medcalf wrote, “is because his team hasn’t won enough. He was a second-team All-ACC selection last season, but Notre Dame has amassed a 28-38 record during his two seasons with the Fighting Irish. You can’t put that solely on him, but it’s possible that Burton could again have a great season that goes largely unnoticed if his team’s struggles continue.”
KU coach Bill Self knows all about Burton as well as 6-7 Haralson (12.5 ppg) and 6-8, 250-pound senior Carson Towt, a Northern Arizona transfer who has averaged 12.6 rebounds a game to go with 7.6 points per contest.
“They’ve got nice personnel, there’s no doubt about that,” Self said. “Those two guys (Burton, Towt) and coach’s son (Braeden Shrewsberry, 6-4 son of third-year coach Micah Shrewsberry) scores the ball, too (15-of-26 from 3 for 57.7%).
“So I think they’ve got two really good perimeter scores, and they’ve got a big guy that looks like he could be a tight end type or a defensive end type in the NFL. He’s a strong, powerful dude and a great screener and a great rebounder,” Self added.
Of Towt, coach Shrewsberry said recently: “Carson is just max effort. He plays really hard. His effort on the glass on both ends, his physicality. He’s a big brother to these dudes. He’s feeding their belief because of the energy and the confidence that he gives them. He’s energy personified. There have been a ton of transfers that transferred up, and their scoring output doesn’t necessarily follow. Rebounding translates at every level. It’s heart, and it’s effort. That’s what he does.”
Burton, who had no interest in entering the transfer portal after last year’s 15-18 season, is committed to a resurgence of Notre Dame hoops.
“I’m blessed with the talent we have,” Burton told the South Bend Tribune, referring to this year’s Irish team. “We have a really good group of guys that are good basketball players and human beings. I’m excited to go compete with these guys.”
Notre Dame leads the all-time series vs. KU 9-3. The two teams last met in the 1987-88 nonconference season. Notre Dame prevailed in South Bend 80-76.
“Notre Dame, it’s a great game, regardless of when you play it, because of name recognition, and they’ve been good over time and all those things” Self said. “And, of course, they’re very well coached and well drilled and come from an NBA background, so they know what they’re doing without question. So it’ll be a hard game.”
Shrewsberry was an assistant for the Boston Celtics from 2013-19, helping the Celtics to five playoff appearances, including back-to-back Eastern Conference finals. He also was an assistant at Butler University and was part of the program’s back-to-back NCAA runner-up teams.
KU will meet Syracuse at 2:30 p.m. Central on Tuesday in a second-round Players Era game in Vegas, then learn its third tourney opponent and time for Game 3, which will be Wednesday or Thursday.
“I just can’t wait to go out there with a new team and first time in Vegas with new guys. We all can’t wait to go,” senior guard Melvin Council Jr., a transfer from St. Bonaventure, said.
Council said on this trip he’s most looking forward to “being together. We were talking more in practice today (Friday). We said this might be like an AAU tournament. You know, we all played AAU back then. We’d have three games in one day and stuff like that. So we can’t wait to go out there to Vegas.”
