Kansas star freshman Darryn Peterson sat out Tuesday's 61-56 loss to UConn with a lingering hamstring injury, his seventh missed game of the season.
"Darryn is not going to play tonight," coach Bill Self said in a pregame statement. "He is very close. He has worked his butt off, but he is still not 100 percent. He is day-to-day."
Peterson averaged 21.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in the first two games of the season before missing the rest of the month. He entered the season as the front-runner for the No. 1 pick in June's NBA draft.
With Peterson sidelined prior to Tuesday, Kansas had won five of six games, with the lone loss coming to Duke at Madison Square Garden. The Jayhawks went 3-0 at the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas last week, including an 81-76 win over Tennessee in the third-place game.
Self has gone with a bigger lineup without Peterson, going with 6-foot-11 Bryson Tiller next to Flory Bidunga down low. Tiller has responded by averaging 9.2 points and 7.2 rebounds as a starter.
Kansas (6-3) also moved guard Jamari McDowell, who played sparingly over the first few weeks, into the starting lineup for the final two games in Vegas. McDowell brings some length and shooting to the Jayhawks' perimeter; he made two 3s in each of his two games as a starter.
Against the Huskies, the Jayhawks struggled in the second half, being outscored 32-23, as UConn improved to 7-1.
