Kansas looking to grow against Princeton without Darryn Peterson
Kansas has a tune-up game against Princeton on Saturday before heading to New York to face Duke in the Champions Classic. The Jayhawks will be without Darryn Peterson for the second straight game, Bill Self announced on Friday.
“He will not play tomorrow,” Self said. “He is still sore, and for whatever reason, it’s still sore and trying to figure it out. But we don’t think it’s a long-term deal at all.”
Peterson is leading Kansas with 21.5 points per game on 60% shooting. Flory Bidunga sits behind him at 14.3 points per game. Bidunga said playing without Peterson gives the Jayhawks a chance to grow as a team.
“I think it’s great for us,” Bidunga said. “Obviously, he’s a great player. But I feel like, who knows in the future, maybe he will be in foul trouble, and then we need to learn to play without him. So I think it’s a great opportunity for us to play without him and just grow as well.”
Princeton comes to Allen Fieldhouse with a 2-1 record, losing its opener to Akron and beating Bucknell and Division Three John Jay. The Tigers’ offense still has the hallmarks of Pete Carril’s Princeton offense – backdoor cuts and three-point shots.
“They back cut the heck out of you, and we’ve struggled guarding back cuts,” Self said. “So if you can eliminate threes and back cuts, that would probably be a pretty good formula to have at least a little bit of defensive success because they can make you look pretty foolish with those two things.”
Princeton is averaging over 30 threes attempted per game through its first three games. Dalen Davis leads the Tigers with 16.3 points per game, and he’s made six of his 13 threes. Princeton has launched threes but hasn’t made them at a consistent clip, shooting 33.3% from beyond the arc.
Kansas has scheduled Ivy League teams in each of the past three seasons. However, Saturday will be its first meeting against Princeton since 2001. Self has a connection with the Tigers dating back to his playing days, as Princeton knocked Self’s Oklahoma State team out of the NCAA Tournament in 1983.
“Historically, Princeton’s had one of the best programs, well, historically, they probably do have the best program in the Ivy,” Self said. “Them or Yale. Yale’s been on a roll lately. But going back historically, they knocked me out of the NCAA tournament when I was a player way back when.”
