Why KU basketball’s loss at Arizona State went beyond Darryn Peterson’s cold spell
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KU basketball shot 29.2% overall and 25.9% from 3 in 70-60 loss at ASU.
- Darryn Peterson shot 3-for-18 (2-for-11 3PT), with 10 rebounds, 5 steals and 4 assists.
- Coach Bill Self blamed execution in key moments; KU must improve its offense.
Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson’s 3-of-18 shooting performance, which followed a chilly 8-of-21 outing Saturday against Arizona, certainly contributed to the No. 14-ranked Jayhawks’ 70-60 loss to unranked Arizona State on Tuesday night at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona.
However, it was far from the only eyesore on the stat sheet.
The eight Jayhawks who played combined to hit an abysmal 29.2% of their floor shots — 25.9% of their 3s — in KU’s second-lowest scoring output of the 2025-26 season.
KU players outside of Peterson shot 33.3% from the field, 31.3% from 3.
“You can say Darryn, but it was the whole team. It was the whole team,” KU coach Bill Self said after the Jayhawks dropped their second double-digit setback in the state of Arizona in four days.
Arizona defeated KU by 23 points Saturday in Tucson.
“I think if he continues to work at full speed he’ll make shots,” Self added after Peterson went 2-of-11 from 3 and 7-of-8 from the line en route to 15 points in 34 minutes. “The thing about it is, when you work and practice, it’s got to be at game speed and game tempo. And sometimes we as a group, in my opinion — when I say we have to practice, I’m not talking about just being out there and being together. I’m talking about when we’re all on the same page and doing things at the speed that you have to do it at when real guys are trying to stop you and guard you.”
In KU’s last four games, which have included losses to ASU, Arizona and Cincinnati to go with a win over Houston, Peterson is 23-of-70 (32.9%) from the field and 8-of-33 (24.2%) from 3.
For the season he is now a 44.5% shooter, 38.5% from 3.
“Him missing shots, that didn’t bother me,” Self said after his team fell to 21-9 overall and 11-6 in the league; ASU is 16-14, 7-10. “It’s my fault. I’m telling him, ‘Shoot it.’ But I do think from a standpoint of what would happen if of the eight really great looks he got you come away making three?
“They said on TV at one time, we were 5-of-17 on layups. What happens if you’re able to finish around the rim? Of course, Diop had a lot to do with that. He’s a presence in there and we didn’t play as big.”
Freshman 7-footer Massamba Diop scored 19 points with nine rebounds and three blocks. Self watched most of the game on his computer in the locker room after picking up two technical fouls in the first half.
On the positive side of the stat ledger … Peterson had 10 rebounds with five steals and four assists and once again did not suffer any cramps in his 34 minutes.
The problems were many offensively as KU struggled to score 20 points in the first half in digging a 20-point hole (40-20) at the break.
Tre White, who had 14 rebounds and 16 points in 37 minutes, was 6-of-17 shooting, 4-of-9 from 3. Melvin Council Jr. scored seven points on 3-of-11 shooting with eight rebounds and four of KU’s 17 turnovers.
Bryson Tiller hit 1 of 5 shots and scored three points with five rebounds and three turnovers. Flory Bidunga was 6-of-14 shooting, scoring 14 points with 13 rebounds. KU’s bench (Jamari McDowell, Kohl Rosario, Elmarko Jackson) scored five points combined on 2-of-7 shooting (1-of-4 from 3).
The Jayhawks had 25 offensive rebounds turn into just six second-chance points.
“I don’t know. That’s hard,” Self said, asked how that could possibly occur. “That’s hard because usually off of offensive rebounds, defenses are in scramble mode. I know we are, and we didn’t take advantage of that whatsoever.”
Asked about the team’s offensive struggles as a whole, Self said: “I still think the ball needs to have energy. If you just take our individual pieces, we can labor offensively unless we actually play really well together. Tre needs to be able to make stationary 3s off other people’s plays. Flory needs to be able to get an angle on guys and go around them. That didn’t happen at all in the first half. And obviously Melvin needs to be able to get paint touches and play behind that.
“There are some things that I don’t think that we individually play to our strengths near as well as what we were playing to a month ago. I really believe that, but even playing bad offense — what’d we shoot, 29% tonight — they shot 32%. Even with bad offense there’s still an opportunity for us to win if we could just get key stops, and we didn’t do that.”
Self did like the fact the Jayhawks cut the 20-point deficit to two. Of course, the score went from 57-55 ASU with 4:04 left to 68-55 with little over a minute left following an 11-0 run.
“I thought we tried. But whenever you put yourself in that big a hole, your mistakes are magnified a lot more than what they are if you’re playing within striking range all the time,” Self said.
“We did a lot of good things. We cut it to two. But there were some things that happened and then the law of percentages prevailed. I think there were opportunities for us to actually put ourselves in a real position to have a chance to win, and we just didn’t make enough plays.”
KU will close out the regular season in a 1 p.m. senior day tip against K-State on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse..
“The bottom line is, it’s early March,” Self said. “The way that we should look at it is it’s a game. It didn’t cost us a league championship. It’ll cost us at least a seed line in the NCAA Tournament, and certainly could cost us a seed line in the Big 12 or whatever, but everything is still in front of us to play for. I hope that’s how we look at it.”
