photo by: AP Photo/John Raoux
Kansas head coach Bill Self, right, discusses a a call with an official during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Central Florida, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Orlando, Fla.
The Kansas men’s basketball team, which features just three players who had played Big 12 minutes prior to this season, has already gotten a taste of just how difficult it can be to win in the conference.
The Jayhawks’ league opener at UCF on Saturday didn’t go according to plan, as star guard Darryn Peterson carried KU through the first half but spent most of the second on the bench — which head coach Bill Self asserted on Monday was not because of a minutes restriction but a result of his ongoing leg issues. Melvin Council Jr. did his best to bring his team back, but the Jayhawks never put it together on defense and as such will start out their conference slate playing from behind at 0-1 after the upset loss to the Knights.
“Our communication defensively was poor,” Self said on Monday. “We didn’t guard the ball at all. We didn’t do a lot of things well the other day. Granted, they got a nice team, and they can score the ball, and we let them get comfortable, but certainly I think that without just putting one thing on it, I thought it was certainly an effort that isn’t worthy of winning games on the road against quality competition.”
Now they have a chance to get back on course when they return home to face TCU at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
TCU is one of the more puzzling teams in the Big 12 at this point. The Horned Frogs lost their season opener to New Orleans, which had finished last season 4-27 and had not beaten a power-conference foe since 2017; TCU later struggled to surmount another Southland opponent, Incarnate Word, and also lost at home in overtime to an increasingly suspect Notre Dame.
On the other hand, the Frogs beat defending national champion Florida at a neutral site and played within four points of a second-ranked Michigan team that has beaten every opponent by at least 25 since its Nov. 14 date with TCU.
“They’ve got some good wins,” Self said. “They play extremely hard.”
TCU, unlike KU, opened Big 12 play on a positive note by beating rival Baylor 69-63 on Saturday at Schollmaier Arena. It was a well-rounded effort as per usual from the Horned Frogs, who surrendered a 13-3 run late to make things a bit uneasy but got the stops they needed to seal the result. Micah Robinson, a sophomore forward who is TCU’s top bench scorer, led the way with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double, while Xavier Edmonds, Liutauras Lelevicius and David Punch all reached double figures in scoring.
Punch is the primary connective tissue to the 2024-25 team as the lone returning starter. The strong, athletic forward has taken a predictable leap forward from his first season with the Frogs and averages 14.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and a league-leading 2.4 blocks. (TCU and KU are the most prolific shot-blocking teams in the Big 12.) He is also now shooting 70.4% from the free-throw line compared to 52.9% last year.
TCU has been playing a rather small starting lineup with the 6-foot-7 Punch and the 6-foot-8 Edmonds, a high-ranked JUCO product posting 10.6 points and 4.2 rebounds, as forwards. The backcourt includes a high-level distributor in Brock Harding, a former Iowa point guard averaging 5.9 assists per game, and Jayden Pierre, a Providence transfer who shoots 41.5% from deep. The final starter is the Lithuanian wing Lelevicius, and the Frogs don’t rotate all that much — Robinson and off guards Jace Posey and Tanner Toolson are the main bench contributors, as no one else has played in more than eight of TCU’s 14 games.
The Frogs have had some injury issues in the post. Starting center Malick Diallo tore his ACL after playing in one game, and Vianney Salatchoum has not played since Dec. 7. He had been a game-time decision on Saturday.
“They’re not as big, maybe, as what they have been some other years in the past as far as standing height,” Self said. “But they play hard and they switch a lot and they deny and they make it really hard to score. Their defensive efficiency is really up there and really high and they’ve always been a team that plays fast, so we’ll have to do a good job guarding the ball and especially in transition.
“But, you know, Jamie (Dixon) and his staff, they’ve done a good job. They’ve got a really nice team.”
KU has its own injury intrigue, of course, with Peterson, who only played five minutes in the second half of the loss to UCF. Self said he’s not sure how he will approach Peterson’s minutes this time around, but added, “The one thing I would say: Playing him less in the first half is something that we haven’t done. So if we haven’t done it, would that possibly impact the second half? So, don’t know, but I’ll wait and see how he feels.”
Self also classified both Peterson and Elmarko Jackson, who was battling a knee injury against UCF, as probable for Tuesday’s game.
No. 22 Kansas Jayhawks (10-4, 0-1 Big 12) vs. TCU Horned Frogs (11-3, 1-0 Big 12)
• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, 8 p.m.
• Broadcast: ESPN
• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9 / KMXN FM 92.9)
Keep an eye out
Big-man bounce-back: Handling Edmonds and Punch at both ends will present a challenge for KU’s Flory Bidunga and Bryson Tiller, who are in great need of a redemptive performance on Tuesday. Bidunga had a hard time getting involved against UCF, while Tiller did find quite a few open looks but didn’t convert any of them. Neither had a memorable day on the defensive end, either, and Tiller is still trying to get acclimated to the manner in which KU’s defense switches all five players. Self said perimeter players can look to get them more involved, but the post players can also demand the ball more. Both forwards will attempt to build confidence before the Jayhawks get too deep into their Big 12 schedule.
More to come?: Brazilian freshman Samis Calderon is on the outside of the rotation, but he didn’t seem out of place stepping in for a struggling Tiller in crunch time against UCF. Self clearly made a conscious effort to incorporate him more extensively late in nonconference play, and he’s flashed high-level athleticism on both ends of the court, even if he hasn’t put up notable numbers; indeed, Self said Calderon made an appearance as KU was trying to “scramble” to put its most athletic players on the court. Whether he gets in against TCU could give an indication of his overall standing at this point in the season.
Secondary concern: In a two-game stretch during nonconference play, Jackson averaged 14 points per game, and was the primary reason KU beat Tennessee to earn third place in the Players Era tournament in arguably its best team win of the season to this point. He looked more decisive on offense than he has at any point in his career, pre- or post-torn patellar tendon. But in the last month, despite playing sizable quantities of minutes, he has more closely resembled his freshman-year self and has seven combined points. Jackson, dealing with the aforementioned knee injury, played just 11 minutes on Saturday in Peterson’s return; if Peterson’s availability remains erratic, KU will likely need more from Jackson.
Off-kilter observation
TCU’s athletic trainer for basketball, Matt Herrill, spent five years as the trainer for KU football from 2012 to 2016.
