Darryn Peterson's minute distribution in Jayhawks' loss vs TCU is malpractice

After experiencing hamstring tightness in the December 13th 77-76 overtime win over NC State, Darryn Peterson understandably missed games against Towson and Davidson. He returned to the court on Saturday in Kansas’ 81-75 loss in Orlando against UCF, but did not see the court for the final 10:55 of the game. Instead, he played 18 minutes in the 1st half and just 5 minutes in the 2nd half:

It was unclear as to why exactly he only played five minutes after the break, but one thing is clear: Coach Bill Self must adjust his approach to Peterson’s minutes. Many are arguing that it was a minute restriction, while others state that it was likely the freshman dealing with more tightness in his hamstring yet again. In either scenario, an adjustment to the approach would make sense.

Self confirmed after the game that the coaching staff’s goal entering this game was to have him on a minutes restriction of around 24 minutes. Common sense says that if you want to ease him back into playing with 20-24 minutes, you would balance that out with 10-12 minutes in each half, allowing him to have some shorter stints and ample time to rest in between court time.

Playing him nearly the entire first half makes little sense, but as Self mentioned, KU needed him to stay within arm's length of UCF in the 1st half, and Peterson’s legs started to bother him. It seems like Self got caught up in the moment and overplayed him in the first half. Moving forward, it would be nice to see Peterson with limited minutes in the 1st half rather than the 2nd half.

The Jayhawks ceiling remains the same with Peterson on the court

Luckily, when the freshman guard was on the court, he looked fantastic. In the 1st half alone, he poured in 23 points, including four made three-pointers, pulled down 5 rebounds, and even had 2 blocks. A truly special performance, speaking to why he is a projected top 3 NBA pick in the upcoming draft:

Sadly, with Peterson barely playing in the 2nd half, he added just 3 points and 1 rebound, and Melvin Council Jr. had to lead the show, recording all of his 20 points in the 2nd half to keep Kansas in it until the final seconds of the game. Without Peterson, and with the Jayhawks bigs not playing well (combining to shoot 3/10 on FGS and 4/8 on FTs), the offense became one-dimensional.

There are still so many indicators that the Jayhawks are a top 10 team in the nation when Peterson is in the mix, but it is seeming more and more unlikely that will be the case based on his lack of availability thus-far. With Kansas facing TCU in just three days, it is not yet confirmed if the young phenom will even be suiting up in the next game in crimson and blue.

If he does, look for Self and the coaching staff to ease him into the game and learn from their mistake against UCF. If they don’t, expect to see another game with Peterson on the bench in the clutch.

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