They can't always be pretty. The Kansas basketball team pulled off an unlikely, ugly, but beautiful comeback against TCU on Tuesday inside the raucous Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks (11-4, 1-1) were down 14 with 3:10 on the clock and down nine with 1:14 to go, yet somehow forced the game to overtime, where they outlasted TCU (11-4, 1-1) for the 104-100 win.
It was a game of runs as Kansas finished the first half on a 9-0 run to lead by five. TCU bounced back in the second half and, at one point, went on an impressive 18-1 run in less than four minutes. Then there were the final minutes of the game, where KU steamrolled the Horned Frogs with a 20-6 run.
Positives and negatives during the Kansas basketball comeback victory
One of the biggest positives is that seldom-available Darryn Peterson played 32 minutes. The bad news is that once again, at the end, in the middle of the frantic comeback, he pulled himself out of the game with two and a half minutes left.
A positive was he checked in briefly at the end, just long enough to take a last-ditch three-pointer, get fouled, and sink the three free throws to tie the game and to launch a game-winning attempt with less than two seconds. It missed, but at least he was in the game when it mattered. Then, of course, he sat out the overtime.
When he was in there, Peterson scored 32 points, but at times the offense looked forced. He hasn't played enough for his teammates to gel with him on the floor. Hopefully, he can play enough moving forward that he and his teammates will figure out the chemistry part.
One big negative was the defense, which barely existed during the first 17 minutes of the second half. Not counting overtime, KU surrendered 51 points after the intermission, many of them on wide-open threes or barely contested shots in the lane. It was as bad of a defensive performance as you'll likely see for a while.
Another big issue for the Jayhawks was their inability to rebound. They made up some ground late, during the comeback, but TCU still out-rebounded KU 43-38.
Melvin Councill Jr. once again provided the spark during the comeback, especially once Peterson took himself out of the game. Council scored three points in the first half but finished with 18 on the night, many of them coming down the stretch.
Of course, the biggest positive was the fact that Kansas never gave up. They scrapped and fought those last few minutes, displaying the toughness head coach Bill Self always wants in his teams. It's not a good thing for KU to be down so far so late in a game in the Phog, but it was awesome to watch the comeback.
KU had not gone 0-2 to start conference play since the 1990-91 season, way back in the Big 8 days, but it definitely appeared as if that streak was going to end. It did not. The Allen Fieldhouse magic and the gut-check the Jayhawks gave themselves saved the day and the game.
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