Preview: I’m hoping for a quicker offensive display against Towson

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Preview: I’m hoping for a quicker offensive display against Towson

Nathan Friedman/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. throws the ball up the floor with teammates Darryn Peterson and Elmarko Jackson during the game against North Carolina State, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As Kansas coach Bill Self said Monday morning, Melvin Council Jr. was so good against NC State in Saturday’s overtime win at the Lenovo Center that he “covered up a lot of things.”

“To be completely honest, you take Melvin out of the equation and who would you turn to (and) say, ‘They had a really good game the other day’?” he said. “And a lot of it is not individual, a lot of it is what we do to help the other person and that sort of thing. And it wasn’t very good.”

Indeed, Council’s historic and unpredictable performance — the numbers, repeated so frequently since Saturday night, speak for themselves: 36 points, 13-of-27 shooting, nine 3-pointers while he had five total this season — masked what was otherwise a fairly lackluster offensive day for the Jayhawks.

Flory Bidunga, who Self said should become KU’s second offensive option, was hampered by foul trouble and finished with eight points on seven shots. Tre White, previously 13-for-29 this year from deep, went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc and didn’t commit as many of his usual fouls (Self said he “tried to open up gaps that weren’t there”). The bench provided two points. Even Darryn Peterson, who scored 17 points, “wasn’t moving at the pace he needed to, depending on how people were going to guard him,” Self said.

And then he left the game before it ended due to “quad cramps” — not the hamstring injury he previously dealt with, Self said — and his status is unknown for Tuesday night’s home game against Towson.

Whether Peterson returns to the field against the Tigers or misses his eighth game of the year, Self will look for the Jayhawks to display a more dynamic offense with renewed ball and body movement. He said they were playing “ridiculously slow” on that side of the court and hadn’t moved the ball well since beating Tennessee without Peterson on Nov. 26.

“We don’t have a team full of one-on-one players,” Self said. “When Darryn is out there, he can hold it and stick it and he can get his. Everyone has to be a ball thrower, shooter or passer immediately, or a better screener. You can’t be a stander, and we have way too much going on.”

The team that heads to Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday at 8 p.m. is the favorite in the Coastal Athletic Association. Towson will have had more than a week to prepare for KU after losing 86-61 at UCF on Dec. 7, the same day the Jayhawks played Missouri. The Tigers are 6-4 this year and haven’t won a road game, although they did beat two teams just outside KenPom’s top 100 in Rhode Island and Liberty at the ESPN Events Invitational in Kissimmee, Florida.

Towson’s scoring comes primarily from three sources (no one else averages more than 4.8 points per game): Tyler Tejada, Dylan Williamson and Jack Doumbia Jr.

Tejada is the league’s preseason player of the year – he was the rookie of the year in 2023-24 and the player of the year in 2024-25. The 6-foot-9 wing averages 18.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and is a sophisticated shot creator who can also get hot from distance, as he did when he went 6 of 10 from deep in a win over Cornell on Dec. 3.

Guard Williamson is a high-volume shooter who has already made 20-plus shots in a game twice this year and scored 15.6 points with 3.3 assists, while Doumbia, a transfer from Wright State, is a slasher who can also stop and provide a spark off the bench.

“I think they’re good,” Self said. “I think they play very hard and extremely active. They can shoot from four positions. I think they have a great team.”

The rest of Towson’s roster doesn’t provide much on the offensive end. For example, the Tigers have a starting forward, Caleb Embeya, who has attempted 13 shots this season (and made five). They rank 314th in the country with 70.3 points per game, and their ball movement produces just 10.5 assists per game, which is 353rd out of 365 teams.

On the other hand, they allow 68.2 points on defense – a respectable 81st.

Coming off the hard-fought win over NC State, the Jayhawks are 8-3 and ranked 17th in the nation with losses to Nos. 3, 5 and 12 – playing mostly without their star guard Peterson. If they can beat Towson on Tuesday and Davidson next Monday to go out to 10-3, “you’d think, ‘OK, we survived the preseason,'” Self said.

“I’m really looking forward to playing tomorrow’s match,” he added. “I hope we come out and play with the passion, energy and pace that good teams play with.”

Kansas Jayhawks (8-3) vs. Towson Tigers (6-4)

• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, 8 p.m. Central Time

• Broadcast:ESPN2

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9 / KMXN FM 92.9)

Keep an eye open

Continuation of the Council: Council hadn’t shot 30% or better from deep in any of his Division I seasons before coming to KU and he was down to 18.5% this fall before going 9-for-15 on Saturday. This performance alone brought his season rating to 33.3%. He obviously won’t make two 3s out of three every game, but this performance showed he can score from outside “if he plays without thinking about it,” Self said. Additionally, as he did Saturday, he will need to continue his basic offensive game, which involves using his speed to get to the rim, while occasionally mixing in outside shots.

No second chance: KU averages 9.5 offensive rebounds per game, which ranks 317th in the country. Self mentioned this as a potential area for improvement. That mark is despite starting what is something of a three-forward lineup with a big wing in Tre White and post players Bryson Tiller and Flory Bidunga, and it stands in stark contrast to their status as the No. 11 team in the country, tied with Columbia, in defensive rebounding. (As an aside, the Jayhawks are also tied for second in the nation in opponent forced turnovers. That doesn’t help them get out and run or generate extra opportunities for their offense.)

Pat standing: KU is now on winter break, and last year the Jayhawks used the semester break to add Tiller, who was recovering from an injury suffered while playing for Overtime Elite. He didn’t contribute to the 2024-25 team on the field, but managed to settle in before his rookie debut this fall. This year, KU won’t add anyone for the second semester, Self said Monday, unless something “falls into your lap or falls out of the sky.” However, the Jayhawks are still working on their fall 2026 recruiting class, and junior college guard Trent Lincoln will visit Lawrence for the Towson game.

An offbeat observation

When Tejada earned CAA Rookie of the Year honors in 2024, he became Towson’s first recipient of a major award since Nick Timberlake was Sixth Man of the Year in 2020. Timberlake, of course, played for KU during the 2023-24 season.