When Darryn Peterson sat out Monday’s game against top-ranked and then-undefeated Arizona due to flu-like symptoms, speculation swirled. It’s continued in the wake of No. 9 Kansas beating the Wildcats despite the standout freshman guard’s latest absence from a marquee matchup.
Peterson is a former five-star recruit and a current projected top-two NBA Draft pick, but his durability is under the microscope now that he’s missed 11 of the Jayhawks’ 24 games for a variety of reasons.
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Critics have also been questioning the legitimacy of Peterson’s ailments, particularly his recent illness, given that he was on the floor for the start of pregame warmups before leaving the court and then missing the game versus Arizona, one of the most highly anticipated matchups on the sport’s calendar.
His head coach, two-time national champion Bill Self, addressed that skepticism on Thursday, notably dispelling a load-management narrative that he described as “BS.”
“I’m not a social media guy, but I have gotten on X and read some of the things and narratives that are out there about him, and it’s really not remotely true,” Self said, via The Field of 68.
Peterson has missed significant time because of a hamstring strain, a sprained ankle, a quad issue, cramping problems and now an illness, as reported by The Kansas City Star.
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Before missing Monday’s game versus No. 1 Arizona, he had missed games against then-No. 5 Duke and then-No. 5 UConn and was sidelined most of the second half during a Jan. 31 win over then-No. 13 BYU, a showdown that featured his biggest competition for the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, AJ Dybantsa.
“When you’re honest, people don’t believe you,” Self continued in a nearly four-minute remark during his midweek news conference. “And when you don’t comment on it, people create their own narratives.
“And you know what? I do the same thing about things I don’t know about. Well, it must be this. Geez, it has to be that if they’re not going to talk about it.
“But here’s the bottom line: Was his hamstring legit? Hell yes. Would you have risked injuring it more in November? No. Was his cramping legit? Yes, positively, it was. Did he turn his ankle bad to the point where he couldn’t practice for nine days and then practice one day and play BYU? Yes. And that was adrenaline kicking in, in the BYU game.”
While he played just three minutes in the second half in that matchup with Dybantsa, Peterson still finished with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting. He made three 3s, stacked three steals and delivered the highlight of the night, thanks to a seismic dunk over BYU’s Mihai Boskovic and Keba Keita.
That’s the thing. When Peterson’s been on the court, he’s often been as good as advertised.
In fact, he’s scored at least 14 points in every game he’s played, eclipsing the 20-point mark six times in 13 chances. The 6-foot-6, 205-pound Canton, Ohio, native is averaging 20.5 points and shooting 48.9% from the field, including 41.9% from deep.
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As for the illness that kept Peterson from playing against Arizona, he’s still recovering from it, according to Self. The longtime Jayhawks head coach noted that Peterson being sick was only a big deal because it was lumped together with his other absences, which Self chalked up to a “string of bad luck.”
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“Was he sick? Yeah, he was sick enough he couldn’t practice,” Self said. “But he said he was still going to give it a run. And he came to shootaround, and he gave it a run, and he went out before, and he gets lightheaded, and I walk in and the doctor says, ‘Bill, he not going to be able to go.’
“The negative is that people saw him out there: ‘What could have happened between being out there and not playing?’ He was just trying to see if he could go. I mean, if he wanted to run from it or hide from it, he wouldn’t have gone out there. So the narrative is BS in many ways.”
Self then added: “Load management? This kid hasn’t talked about that one time. Load management? Geez, that’s when you play four games in seven days. That’s not when you play one half a week or anything like that.”
Self said that Peterson is doing better but isn’t full speed yet. He’s hoping the first-year guard will be closer to 100% on Friday and reach that status in time for Saturday’s road game against No. 5 Iowa State.
“It’s a lot, I would think, when you’re 19 years old, and you’re dealing with everybody having a narrative about everything that’s going on,” Self said.
“Or you’re sitting on the bench, and you got heat warmers on your legs or whatever, and now everybody’s got a narrative about a heat warmer. That’s what he’s dealing with, and that’s the world he’s getting ready to enter. But the narratives haven’t been accurate.”
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