At this point, it's almost impossible to evaluate the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team. 

The Jayhawks have played without star freshman Darryn Peterson most of the season because he is dealing with a nagging hamstring injury. Without him, they are just 6-3 after Tuesday's loss to the UConn Huskies. 

Despite the adversity, coach Bill Self said the Jayhawks have plenty of time to develop. 

"I think that it'll help us," Self said. "We'll be better because of it. It's my fault, but we didn't play like we did against Tennessee. The ball didn't move. We had individuals out there today, and we didn't have that against Tennessee. So that was a little bit frustrating. It didn't have anything to do with the ball goes in the basket or not. Did we play the right way? Against Tennessee I told the [team] in time out, 'Hey, we're down 12, but we're playing the right way.' I didn't feel like even when we were ahead tonight, we were playing the right way."

Peterson, the nation's No. 1 freshman, is considered a one-and-done talent. NBA draft experts project him as a top five pick in June. He has only played in two games, averaging 21.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and three assists. 

The positive is the Jayhawks' losses have all came against ranked teams, falling to North Carolina, Duke and the Huskies. Self thinks the early-tests could eventually help in the long run, especially when Peterson returns. 

The Jayhawks get somewhat of a break. They face the unranked Missouri Tigers Sunday before playing North Carolina State, Townson and Davidson. They then open Big 12 play against the UCF Knights Jan. 3. 

Self feels they learned some lessons in the loss to UConn. 

"But a lot of that is also the atmosphere, the first time to play in front of a crowd like that, trying too hard, that kind of stuff," Self said. "You got to be at that magic level where your energy and your enthusiasm and your concentration and attention to details is all at a crossroad. We were more enthusiastic in energy than we were the whole thing. We'll get better at that. But it didn't surprise me that we actually went through that, because it's the first time many of those guys ever been in an environment like that. The environment was great."

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of JayhawksRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com