{"id":183913,"date":"2026-03-28T07:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=183913"},"modified":"2026-03-27T18:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:35:26","slug":"darryn-peterson-a-wasted-one-and-done-at-kansas-or-just-bad-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/03\/28\/darryn-peterson-a-wasted-one-and-done-at-kansas-or-just-bad-luck\/","title":{"rendered":"Darryn Peterson: A Wasted One and Done at Kansas – or Just Bad Luck?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On November 1, 2024, 17-year-old five-star phenom Darryn Peterson<\/a> committed to play basketball for head coach Bill Self at the University of Kansas. Peterson had been Self’s white whale for some time and was easily the best player Self had ever recruited fresh out of high school in his 23 years of coaching at KU.<\/p>\n

At roughly 6’6″, 205 lbs, Peterson possessed a rare shotmaking ability to go along with an impressive command of the court and sneaky athleticism. It’s a move that had Lawrence buzzing with excitement in hopes of securing the school’s third NCAA title in the Self era.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward 16 months, and the Jayhawks’ season ended in heartbreak, losing in the Round of 32 to St. John’s<\/a> on a buzzer-beating layup. It’s the fifth time in the past six years that Kansas has failed to sniff the Sweet 16. The Hawks have also won just a single Big 12 tournament since 2019. While the team-wide letdowns continue, the regular-season saga that was Darryn Peterson will forever have people wallow about what could have been.<\/p>\n

Darryn Peterson: A Wasted One and Done at Kansas – or Just Bad Luck?<\/h2>\n

Dissecting A Spree of Darryn Peterson Cramping Issues<\/h3>\n

In KU’s first two games, Peterson played about as well as you would expect from a guy of his caliber. He scored a combined 43 points in 50 minutes on over 60 percent shooting from the field. Peterson also showed off his defensive prowess and instincts with three forced turnovers in each matchup.<\/p>\n

However, an odd cramping issue in his legs at the end of the second game forced Peterson to miss an entire month of action. He later said he had to go to the hospital to receive fluids and described the cramps as a “traumatic experience.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The guard returned in early December to finish out non-conference games and played a promising 31 minutes in a one-point victory over NC State<\/a>. The cramping persisted, forcing him to miss another two games. With Self having to shift Kansas’ lineup at the drop of the hat, the Hawks struggled to maintain a groove offensively. When Peterson played, everybody on the team deferred to him and his elite talent. It worked when Peterson was making shots, but when other guys were not being aggressive off of him, the plan failed due to a lack of chemistry.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

The Jayhawks Scrape to Reach a Ceiling That was Never There<\/h3>\n

After a while, the Jayhawks learned what it was like to play without their star freshman. Seniors Melvin Council Jr.<\/a> and Tre White<\/a> stepped up in both playmaking and shot selection. Young forwards Bryson Tiller<\/a> and Flory Bidunga<\/a> also played exceptionally due to Tiller’s offensive versatility and Bidunga’s suffocating defense.<\/p>\n

Kansas went on an eight-game winning streak, capped off with a monumental win over Arizona<\/a> without Peterson. Through 24 games, the Jayhawks were 19-5 despite lineup woes, injuries, and a brutally tough Big 12 conference. Peterson was set to return after another one-game absence, which would have been the last boost KU needed to finish the year out strong and look like a top contender.<\/p>\n

It was anything but that.<\/p>\n

The Jayhawks ended the regular season losing five of their last nine games. It was evident that Peterson was either not healthy or just didn’t feel like giving it his all. He averaged just over 18 points per game in this span on a ridiculous 15 shots. The defensive intensity was not there like it was, and his assists fell below two per game.<\/p>\n

Now 23-10, the Jayhawks survived a close win versus TCU in which Peterson shot 5-17 from the field. Kansas then promptly got shellacked by Houston 69-47. Peterson shot just 27 percent in that contest, but he followed it up with a spectacular first half against California Baptist in the KU’s Round of 64 win. In the next round, Peterson shot just 5-15 from the field with no assists and three turnovers in a late disappearing act that saw Kansas’ cursed season finally end.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

It’s hard to ascertain the internal discussions within Bill Self, Darryn Peterson, and his camp. But I think it’s safe to say that as the season went along, the more upset Self got, and the more Kansas began to unravel on the court. As for Peterson, he will enter the 2026 NBA Draft<\/a>, where he projects to be a top-three pick despite the ups and downs of his lone college season. For Kansas, Bill Self’s retirement rumors are swirling, with a new crop of impressive freshmen set to take center stage in the Phog.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 William Purnell-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On November 1, 2024, 17-year-old five-star phenom Darryn Peterson committed to play basketball for head coach Bill Self at the University of Kansas. Peterson had been Self’s white whale for some time and was easily the best player Self had ever recruited fresh out of high school in his 23 years of coaching at KU. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5793,"featured_media":182342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2],"tags":[1432,49782,881],"class_list":["post-183913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","tag-bill-self","tag-darryn-peterson","tag-kansas-jayhawks"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5793"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183913"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183994,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183913\/revisions\/183994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}