Kansas guard Darryn Peterson (22) and Kansas guard Jayden Dawson (1) flash smiles as they leave the court following the Jayhawks’ 104-100 overtime win against TCU on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026 at Allen Fieldhouse. Peterson hit three free throws with seconds remaining to push the game into overtime. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas was down 15 points with less than five minutes remaining in regulation against TCU on Tuesday, but what felt like the emotional low point of KU’s second-half near-disaster occurred when the margin was just nine.

With the Jayhawks attempting to push the ball up the floor and just over two minutes remaining, Elmarko Jackson tossed it down the court to Darryn Peterson. But Peterson, who was starting to turn toward the sideline, missed the pass altogether as it sailed out of bounds for a turnover; then, making matters worse, Peterson beckoned to the bench, asking for a substitution.

“He started the cramping, or he felt it coming on,” KU coach Bill Self said. “So that was his decision to come out, and he wouldn’t have come out, obviously, unless he had to.”

The star freshman had to that point dealt with his leg cramps about as well as in any game all season, having played 31 minutes and scored what was already a career best, 29 points. But when he asked to come out, it could have spelled the end for the Jayhawks.

Instead, in his absence over the course of the next two minutes and 17 seconds, KU somehow got itself into a position where it was down three points and had the ball with five seconds to go. (In short: Tre White and Jamari McDowell made big 3s, TCU committed inexplicable turnovers and Melvin Council Jr. came through in the clutch.)

And then, Self ordained, it was Peterson time: “I didn’t ask him if he wanted to (come in),” Self said. “He had to. That was where that was, right there.”

The beleaguered guard entered for Elmarko Jackson and in his fleeting moments on the floor, with KU trailing 87-84, made perhaps the biggest play of the 45-minute thriller.

The play KU called with 5.4 seconds remaining was “line three,” Council and Bidunga said afterward.

“We didn’t execute it great, but didn’t execute it bad,” Self said.

After McDowell lobbed the inbounds pass all the way across the court to Flory Bidunga, Peterson was able to find just enough space from Jace Posey to receive a bounce pass, then drew contact from Posey as he flung up a 3-point shot that had no chance at hitting the rim.

The result: a foul call.

Kansas guard Darryn Peterson (22) is fouled on a three point attempt by TCU forward Jace Posey (00) with seconds remaining in regulation on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026 at Allen Fieldhouse. Peterson went on to hit all three free throws pushing the game into overtime. The Jayhawks defeated the Horned Frogs, 104-100. Photo by Nick Krug

“We’re looking for three since we’re down, and ended up DP (caught) the ball, and everything worked out perfectly,” Bidunga said.

Then came three free throws, all of which Peterson made — “Amazing,” Council called it.

“That’s big time for sure,” Bidunga said.

Council said he didn’t say anything to his teammate before he went to the free-throw line: “He’s ice-cold-blooded. He got it, he got it. But I was pretty mad when he missed the 3 in the corner to win it.”

Indeed, Peterson was actually in for one more play, even though Self said he had asked to come back out after shooting the free throws. So he had subbed out for Jackson on defense. But then, in TCU guard Brock Harding’s effort to hurl the ball down the court to set up his teammates for a potential game-winning shot, he missed them altogether. That gave KU possession with 1.7 seconds to go, and another chance for Peterson to return.

He rounded a screen from White and fielded the inbounds pass from Council in the corner, but his leaning shot was off the mark, as Council referenced.

“I think if he could do that again, I think he would have tried to lift (the defender Posey) and bounce it rather than try to shoot it, because there was time to do that,” Self said.

In fact, it’s hard to believe given his 32 points in the final box score, but Peterson didn’t quite have his shot most of the night — he finished 8-for-18 from the field. Where he excelled to a remarkable extent was in getting to the rim and earning fouls. He drew nine fouls from Frogs and went 13-for-15 at the free-throw line (KU was 30-for-40 as a team). He had previously attempted 19 free throws on the season.

“He shot it poor, so the best thing he did tonight was get downhill, and he hasn’t done that,” Self said. “People can question whatever they’re going to question and everybody can be an armchair quarterback, so to speak, in a lot of different areas, but the bottom line is, you saw what his legs look like when he can get downhill as opposed to just settling for jump shots — which, that’s all he’s done up until tonight.”

Of course, the most important free throws of all came as a result of a play quite far away from the hoop. And TCU, by the way, with a three-point lead, could potentially have fouled Bidunga during the two seconds he had the ball trying to pass it to Peterson. David Punch was right there guarding him. TCU coach Jamie Dixon was asked postgame about his instructions to his team for the possession and said, “We just didn’t get it done. We didn’t do what we wanted to do. That’s on me. If it doesn’t get done, it’s on me … Games change on how they call those things, and it’s a challenge. And it was not what we wanted to do.”

In any case, both teams still had their chances to win in overtime, but the Peterson-less Jayhawks pulled it off, with Council scoring nine of their 17 points, and nine of his total 18, in the extra period.

That gets at the heart of a key takeaway from Tuesday’s game, one that had perhaps already been apparent back on Saturday against UCF when Council scored virtually all of his points with Peterson on the bench.

“He’s a special talent, but we don’t know how to play with him yet and he doesn’t know how to play with the others yet,” Self said. “So there’s a lot of things that we need to be until we become that, and that is tougher, harder, faster, and we weren’t any of those things tonight until the very end.”

The next chance for KU to play that way is Saturday at West Virginia.