Is this just how it’s going to be with Kansas? Another day, another Darryn Peterson heater. Another day, another Peterson exit in closing time to get the hot pads onto his uncooperative legs. Another day, another loss for a No. 22 Kansas club that is a miraculous last-minute rally against TCU away from having an unfathomable 0-3 record in Big 12 play.
This time, it was West Virginia who used a remarkable 16-0 second-half run to give first-year coach Ross Hodge the first true signature win of his tenure. Brenen Lorient (18 points) took care of the first half, and Honor Huff (23 points) handled the second half in WVU’s 86-75 victory.
It’s a Saturday Funday in the country roads, but the story is an all-too-familiar trend that keeps rearing its ugly head with Peterson and Kansas. The potential No. 1 pick has still not been able to start and finish a game. He sat for all but 53 seconds of the final six-plus minutes of regulation. Part of that was certainly tied to fouling Huff while the West Virginia guard was splashing a trey, but Peterson clearly was feeling under the weather.
When he was on the floor, Peterson continued to make a hard game look incredibly easy, posting 23 points in 31 minutes. Peterson is up to 158 points in 190 minutes this season. It’s one of the most absurd stats of the year, and the connection between Peterson and Melvin Council Jr. looked much more vibrant. Too often this year, Council and Peterson were an either-or dilemma. For long chunks on Saturday, Kansas was getting positive contributions from both of its best guards.
But after dropping to 11-5 overall, it’s hard to keep Kansas in the top shelf of the Big 12 behemoths, largely because its best player is still not 100% and this defense has been shredded by UCF, TCU and now West Virginia. WVU’s offense posted a sizzling 1.28 points per possession, easily the best it’s ever managed against a high-major team this season.
It’s not as if Kansas has bad defensive personnel, either. Melvin Council is an excellent point-of-attack defender. Tre White and Peterson have excellent positional size on the perimeter. Flory Bidunga is a fearsome rim protector, and Bryson Tiller is big and rangy. But Kansas’ connection on the defensive end is sputtering. A sign of a locked-in defense is its ability to limit 3-point attempts for the best shooter on the scouting report. Kansas had no answer for Huff (4-11 from downtown), and that came four days after TCU’s Liutauras Lelevicius drilled five triples himself.
That gaping hole better get cleaned up quickly ahead of Tuesday’s matchup with sharpshooter Milan Momcilovic and No. 3 Iowa State.
