Bill Self hates what Kansas ‘screwed up’ in loss to UCF

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The Kansas Jayhawks had their four-game win streak snapped following their 81-75 loss to UCF on Saturday, a game that was also saw the return of star freshman Darryn Peterson from injury. For Kansas head coach Bill Self, the loss to UCF came down to one thing, the team’s poor defense, as per Shreyas Laddha of The Kansas City Star.

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“We screwed up some slips and some things like that,” Self said. “Which we knew that was a big point of emphasis that we were going to have to be better at. When we tried to stay connected with four and five, we never got any stops.”

UCF shot 44 percent from the field, 30 percent from the 3-point line, and they got the free-throw line 26 times, covering on 18 of those attempts. In comparison, Kansas shot 43 percent from the field and 35 percent from the 3-point line while getting to the free-throw line 23 times and converting on 17 of those attempts.

The final score was fairly close and both teams shot rather even, giving credence to Self’s assertion that the game might have been different if Kansas could have gotten more timely defensive stops.

With the loss, Kansas fell to 10-4 on the season, and 0-1 in Big 12 Conference play. Kansas’ next opportunity to wipe away the taste of the bitter loss to UCF is on Tuesday, Jan. 6.

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One of the biggest storylines this season for the Jayhawks has been the availability of Darryn Peterson. Peterson is in the running alongside BYU’s AJ Dybantsa to the be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. He’s been limited this season due to a hamstring injury, but that shouldn’t affect his draft status.

In his return during Kansas’ loss, he finished with 26 points, six rebounds, one assist and two steals in 23 minutes of play. However, Peterson was pulled from the game early.

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/bill-self-hates-kansas-screwed-224053069.html

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Publish date : 2026-01-04 22:40:00

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