photo by: AP Photo/John Raoux

Kansas forward Bryson Tiller, right, shoots against Central Florida forward Jordan Burks during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Orlando, Fla.

Orlando, Fla. — As much as Kansas may have missed Darryn Peterson’s production in the second half of Saturday’s 81-75 upset loss at UCF, Melvin Council Jr. picked up the slack quite effectively.

The fifth-year senior transfer from St. Bonaventure didn’t necessarily make it look as easy as Peterson, a potential future No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, but he nevertheless ensured that KU still had a consistent source of backcourt scoring after the break. Largely relying on his speed for drives to the rim, at one point he put up a dozen points in less than four minutes.

What KU never had, in either half, against the Knights was any sort of paint presence on offense.

“We didn’t play through our post one time tonight,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I don’t think we threw the ball to the post on the block one time, and went and tried to score. We did a few times whenever there was a ball screen and throw behind it or whatever, but for the most part we didn’t get many post-ups.”

The responsibility for feeding the ball into the post, of course, lies with the guards, so the burden of growing beyond Saturday’s grim paint performance will fall on all the Jayhawks. But the forwards didn’t cash in on the chances they did get.

Sophomore Flory Bidunga managed just eight points on 3-for-5 shooting; foul trouble prevented him from remaining on the floor for long stretches, but he still managed to play 29 minutes. Bidunga is averaging 14.2 points per game, but he’s been limited to 13 or fewer in his last six games against high-major opponents.

Fellow forward Bryson Tiller struggled mightily on both ends of the floor. He’s had his ups and downs in the early stages of his freshman year, but on Saturday he didn’t offset the occasional defensive lapses with any of his usual technically impressive post play on offense. He finished 0-for-5 from the field, largely on open attempts, and 2-for-4 at the free-throw line and had some high-leverage misses, including two as the teams were trading blows late in the first half and one when the game was tied at 56 with 12:23 to go.

“Bryson Tiller, he caught the ball a couple times in tight and we didn’t finish, and then Flo didn’t catch the ball really in tight,” Self said.

Self gave Tiller a quick hook at various points throughout the day, and with five minutes to go had seen enough, replacing him with a previously unused Samis Calderon for the following 4:31. Calderon was credible, with one block, and was present on the floor for KU’s 9-0 run to tie the game at 70, but didn’t get notably involved on offense.

It was a far cry from when the 2024-25 Jayhawks — one of the least successful teams of Self’s 23-year tenure — made the same trip to Addition Financial Arena to start the new year and dominated in the paint with 27 points and nine rebounds from Hunter Dickinson and 12 points, five boards and six blocks from Bidunga, on their way to a 51-point victory.

On Saturday, with both teams fielding dramatically different rosters this time around, the battles in the post — and the final score — looked quite a bit different.

“We didn’t have a post presence today at all,” Self said. “We’ve got to have that to be good. Most of our teams in the past have played through the post, and this one hasn’t been able to do that consistently yet.”