Kansas guard Melvin Council Jr. (14) chases down a loose ball past Fort Hays State guard Kyle Grill (1) during the second half of an exhibition game on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Fifth-year senior guard Melvin Council Jr. took the lead for Kansas’ offense on Tuesday night in the absence of star guard Darryn Peterson, and finished with 16 points, six assists and plenty of praise from coach Bill Self.

The 23rd-year head coach essentially said postgame that he felt Council was the only player bringing significant energy to the Jayhawks’ performance in their 71-35 exhibition victory against Division II foe Fort Hays State.

“(His enthusiasm) will be infectious for our fans,” Self added. “He’ll be a fan favorite when you play that hard, and play with pace and energy, and he’ll make some mistakes but most of the mistakes that he makes (are) out of being aggressive and trying hard.”

What Council won’t be, though, or at least shouldn’t, is the secondary option on offense alongside Peterson.

“I think if Melvin is our second option,” Self said, “then it’s going to be a very poor offensive year.”

On Tuesday, at least, he was. With Peterson sitting out due to what Self called “a little bug” that had bothered him since the second half of the Louisville exhibition on Friday, Council slashed through the Tigers’ defense with athleticism and intensity and finished 5-for-6 from the field and 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.

“We can’t rely on Darryn,” said Council, a transfer from St. Bonaventure. “We got to help him too.”

But Council, even in the wake of his own strong showing, had no illusions about what KU will need in order to succeed during the season ahead, beginning with Monday’s season opener against Green Bay: “It was great, but you guys can see we need Darryn. You know, he makes everything easy for us and stuff like that.”

He certainly did so when he hit six 3s to boost KU to a double-digit lead on the road at No. 11 Louisville back on Friday — and it didn’t look particularly easy for the Jayhawks without Peterson, at least in the first half as they took their time putting away the overmatched Tigers.

Indeed, Council’s offensive presence can only do so much for KU.

“He’s maybe the second ball-handling option and maybe the best at getting downhill, but the way he scored tonight isn’t going to be the way you score against Houston, driving and getting all the way to the basket and stuff like that,” Self said. “Flory (Bidunga) and Tre (White) and Kohl (Rosario) and whoever else has to step up and make shots. And that’s probably not what Mel does the best.”

White tallied a solid 12 points and six rebounds on 5-for-9 shooting. Rosario, an early-enrolling freshman who didn’t take long to put himself in the starting lineup, hasn’t quite gotten acclimated on the offensive end through two exhibitions and made one 3-pointer on 1-for-5 shooting on Tuesday.

Bidunga may have struggled most of all on Tuesday. He finished with six points on 3-for-9 shooting, nine rebounds and three blocks, but didn’t look comfortable when he tried to extend his offensive repertoire beyond finishing lobs from his teammates.

“He wasn’t very good tonight,” Self said. “And I thought he got out of character and tried to score ways that he doesn’t score, and then you do that and you have a couple ugly balls and then you don’t play as confidently because you didn’t play to your strengths … so that’s probably good for him to see, to be honest with you, that he needs to play a certain way, because he didn’t do that tonight.”

Bidunga may be one of the primary players KU needs to produce offensively, with or without Peterson. The senior forward White said, though, that he feels the Jayhawks can get contributions from a variety of sources.

“Really just next-man-up mentality,” White said. “I feel like that’s our whole message for the year. I feel like one of our greatest gifts is we’re versatile. Our depth is crazy. So you know, one man out, next man up.”