Darryn Peterson’s return to the Kansas basketball lineup seemed like a positive step as the Jayhawks began their Big 12 Conference play against UCF on Saturday. The No. 17 Jayhawks had come out of non-conference games in a strong position, especially considering Peterson missed nine of the 13 games due to injury before this road matchup. This included winning three games in three days during the Players Era event in Las Vegas without him. Adding Peterson to a team with that momentum, especially against a team not typically considered a top contender in the Big 12, should have helped solidify KU’s place among the league’s elite — even if there was some re-acclimation involved.

Instead, despite Peterson scoring a career-high 26 points against UCF, the Jayhawks fell 81-75 and watched UCF fans rush the court after the game. A significant portion of those 26 points came in the first half, along with about 18 of the close to 23 minutes he played. After the loss, KU head coach Bill Self addressed why Peterson spent more time on the bench in the second half.

“Darryn, who I wanted to put on a minute restriction — it’s what we’d talked about, and we really couldn’t do it the first half,” Self said on the Varsity Network postgame show. “We paid for it in the second half, because obviously his leg started bothering him again. So, that was disappointing. We were going to do the minute restriction around 24 minutes, and he ended up playing about that, but he played way too many in the first half. But we were playing so poorly, and he kept us in there.”

According to Self, part of the issue in the first half was senior guard Melvin Council Jr. struggling with two early fouls and redshirt sophomore guard Elmarko Jackson dealing with a hurt knee. Council eventually stepped up in the second half, scoring all 20 of his points there as he carried the offensive load for Kansas. Jackson played even less in the second half than he did in the first, and was limited statistically in both halves, logging about 11 minutes of total action.

Peterson exited the game with just under 11 minutes remaining in the second half, shortly after hitting a 3-pointer that gave his team a 59-58 lead. That was the last lead the Jayhawks would hold in the contest. UCF later led by as many as nine points, and although Kansas tied the score, that was as close as they got to a win.

There are more reasons than just Peterson’s injury status for the drop in confidence regarding Kansas’ chances at a Big 12 title this season. Self himself admitted it was a bad day, a rough day where the team didn’t perform well in many areas, and everything that could go wrong did. However, as KU prepares for a home game against TCU on Tuesday, the question remains: how much can Peterson contribute and help the Jayhawks?

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He was the 2022 National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.