Packing up for his second trip to New York City in nearly a month, freshman Bobby Pettiford is getting valuable experience early in his college career, having just returned from the ESPN Events Invitational over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The first-year guard posted 11 minutes on the floor vs. Iona this past Sunday after only recording light time in the Jayhawks’ first loss of the season to Dayton.

Looking to step things up defensively with the Red Storm Friday, Pettiford says protecting the lane has been a key emphasis from coach Bill Self at practice.

“At practice yesterday, if the team touches the paint, we’re going to run,” Pettiford said with a smile. “Yesterday was a bad day for sure. If they get an offensive rebound, if we don’t close out, especially us smaller guards, we’re going to run for it or hit the treadmill.”

Kansas was outpaced by Dayton in the second half of the semifinal of the Orlando invite. The Flyers ran up a 12-0 run on the Jayhawks at one point before eventually pulling out the win.

“It was bad,” Pettiford said. “We weren’t happy. We lost to a team we shouldn’t lose to. I don’t think we should lose at all, but definitely a game like that. We weren’t disciplined in tough situations, we were all down about it.”

Checking themselves early in the schedule, the Jayhawks are still trying to shake out what exactly the offense should look like. For Pettiford, that process is still at work for even seasoned names like Remy Martin.

“We’ve got so many that can score,” Pettiford said. “We’re just trying to figure our offense. (Martin), he’s coming from Arizona State where maybe he was the main man, he could juggle and all that. Here, it just looks different with so many guys. He’s got to figure it out.”

Matched up with a talented Johnnies squad led by leading scorer Julian Champagnie, Kansas has another solid test ahead of their Friday night in Queens. Pettiford says everyone’s heads should be steady when they take the floor.

“We’ve got to just guard, run, and be ourselves,” Pettiford said. “We’re bouncing back, so we’ll come with the edge.”

“We start two small guards: Dajuan (Harris) and Remy,” Pettiford added. “They have me and Joe (Yesufu) come in a lot, they want to post us up. Everything we’ve played has done that so far. We’re just gonna stick with that same game-plan.”

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