After a rocky 3-2 start, the Kansas Jayhawks have been able to ring off three straight wins during their week at the Players Era in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The week started with a 71-61 win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, before the Jayhawks took down the Syracuse Orange in a 71-60 win, before being subjected to the competition’s third-place match and a come-from-behind 81-76 win over the No. 17 Tennessee Volunteers pushed Kansas over the finish line and completed what was a pretty strong tournament considering the Jayhawks were missing out on five-star freshman Darryn Peterson due to hamstring tightness, and guard Jayden Dawson. Dawson missed out thanks to a wrist injury while warming up before Kansas’ first game.
Last week’s AP Top 25 poll represented an interesting dilemma that Kansas fans have not faced in a very long time. The Jayhawks were removed from the Top-25. Now, with the season still so early on this was not a massive shock. The Jayhawks’ two early-season losses came against very strong opposition in the No. 16 UNC Tar Heels (87-74) and the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils (78-66).
So, combining that with its wins over Green Bay, Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, and Princeton, and you can see why the already fringe side was taken out of the nation’s elite list.
Yet after Kansas’ strong weekend in the southwest, the Jayhawks were pushed back up Kyle Boone’s CBS Sports power rankings.
“Reports of Kansas' death were premature, as it turns out. Despite playing without Darryn Peterson this week, the Jayhawks won three games in three days, culminating with an impressive 81-76 win over Tennessee. The backcourt duo of Melvin Council and Tre White have stepped up in a big way in Peterson's absence.”
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White contributed scorelines of 16,15, and 14 points during the three-game trip with a massive 25 rebounds to add to his dominant scoring. Council added 12, 14, and 17 points with a nice 18 rebounds and 13 assists to fill the gap left by Peterson’s absence.
With the future of Peterson still unknown, the Jayhawks will next take on the No. 5 UConn Huskies. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. CT with streaming available on ESPN 2.
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