No. 17 Kansas, fresh off a road win at North Carolina State on Saturday and a neutral-site victory over Missouri on Dec. 7, returns home to face Towson on Tuesday night in Lawrence, Kan.
The Jayhawks (8-3), winners of five of their last six, have two more nonconference games before opening Big 12 play on Jan. 3 at UCF. Coincidentally enough, Towson (6-4) played its most recent game against UCF and suffered an 86-61 road loss on Dec. 7.
For the Jayhawks, the status of guard Darryn Peterson is in question as the freshman exited the NC State game with what was feared to be tightness in his hamstring — but head coach Bill Self revealed Monday that it was a cramp in his quad.
Peterson, who missed seven full games this season with a hamstring injury, scored 17 points in a season-high 31 minutes before taking himself out with a couple of minutes remaining. He leads KU with 19.3 points per game.
The Jayhawks had others step up, namely Melvin Council Jr., who knocked down a career-high nine 3-point attempts in a 36-point performance.
“He was unbelievable and made hard shots,” Self said. “They dared him to shoot. And then when he made a couple, he started looking at a big basket, and then he was unbelievable. If you look at his entire stat line, nine threes, seven rebounds, four assists, no turnovers, play 43 minutes. That’s a pretty good stat line. He put us on his back tonight.”
KU’s Flory Bidunga also has been a steady presence for the Jayhawks with 14.1 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. He has scored in double figures in nine of 11 games and produced four double-doubles. Tre White averages 14.1 points per game for the Jayhawks.
But Peterson’s status is top of mind.
As Council said after his standout game: “Got to get D.P. back. That’s it. It’s the last (non)conference away game. We’ve got two more games left (Towson Tuesday and Davidson on Dec. 22), so we’re just trying to go in Christmas break 10-3. That’s it.”
Towson will be looking to pull off a massive upset in its second game against a ranked team this season. On Nov. 8, the Tigers led briefly against then-No. 2 Houston before falling 65-48.
The Tigers’ top players have been Tyler Tejada, who averages a team-high 18.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, and Dylan Williamson, who averages 15.6 points and 3.3 assists per game. Williamson is the best deep threat, knocking down 34.2 percent of his 3-point attempts.
Towson has yet to defeat a Big 12 opponent under 15th-year coach Pat Skerry. The Tigers are 0-7, which includes an 88-58 loss to KU the last time they met on Nov. 22, 2013.
Still, playing at a historic venue like Allen Fieldhouse is something Skerry praised when the game was announced last offseason.
“I have tremendous respect for Bill Self and the Kansas program,” Skerry said. “It will be an incredible challenge and a great opportunity for us to get to play Kansas, one of the premier teams in the country.”
