The Darryn Peterson saga, which has been simmering all season, seems to have boiled over.
Kansas men’s basketball’s star freshman and the potential No. 1 pick in the next NBA Draft has made headlines for his sporadic availability in a frustratingly mercurial season, Wednesday night included. As attention shifts to March Madness and college basketball enters its annual limelight, the Peterson discourse has gone beyond how his lingering injuries and cramping issues might hamper the Jayhawks’ NCAA Tournament hopes. Could they also impact his draft prospects?
And the debate has reached the loudest platforms in sports media.
“There is no team in hell that should grab Darryn Peterson No. 1,” Stephen A. Smith said Thursday on ESPN’s “First Take.” “The first ability is availability. … What the hell is going on? … I can’t trust him.”
“There is no team in hell that should grab Darryn Peterson at No. 1. … [Peterson] cannot be trusted.”@stephenasmith SOUNDS OFF on Peterson’s availability this season 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/WRq5gswRrv
— First Take (@FirstTake) February 19, 2026
Despite the tide of public scrutiny, Peterson’s NBA outlook is holding strong. At least for now.
“I haven’t heard, from anyone I’ve talked to, like, ‘Wow, he’s going (pick No.) 10 now,’” said one NBA scout, granted anonymity, like others who spoke to The Athletic, in exchange for speaking candidly about a college prospect. “When finally on the clock, I don’t think a couple of missed games because of hamstring (issues) or whatever are gonna convince someone that it’s not worth it (to draft) Darryn Peterson.
“He’s such a valuable archetype, right? Big enough. Can lead an offense. Makes tough shots.”
The biggest threat to Peterson’s draft stock is the reality that he’s one player in an otherworldly freshman class — maybe the best we’ve ever seen. In other years, the difference between Peterson and the next-best prospect might be a canyon. This cycle? Even if Peterson were fully healthy, there’s earnest debate among NBA personnel about his upside compared to BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Duke’s Cameron Boozer, North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson, Houston’s Kingston Flemings and a whole host of other first-year stars.
“The thing that’s making this hard is the class is elite,” a second NBA scout said. “You’re getting (Arkansas star Darius) Acuff last night. You’re getting AJ playing at such a high level. I mean, Boozer’s been the ultimate reliable in terms of production and double-doubles and all that. … Caleb was great, and then he gets hurt (suffering a fractured left hand).”
Multiple college and NBA sources familiar with Peterson and his college recruitment told The Athletic he was known to have missed games in high school, too. Unless the pre-draft process and medicals show cause for concern, though, the sentiment in NBA circles is that Peterson will still be one of this year’s top draft picks. If not the top pick.
“He’s elite, elite, elite,” the second scout said. “When he’s fully healthy, the shot-making is on another level. … When it comes down to it, man, if you’ve seen this guy play in high school, and you saw those matchups, like, Darryn is the guy. For sure.”
Despite playing fewer than 40 percent of Kansas’ minutes this season, Peterson continues to wow NBA evaluators when he does play. One industry source familiar with Peterson’s recruitment — and who agrees he should be the top pick in June’s draft — called the Ohio native a “complete” player and said the flashes he has shown have been “even better” than most NBA decision-makers anticipated.
None of it makes this season-long ordeal any less strange.
The basic facts of Peterson’s freshman year are plenty confounding. A five-star prospect and one of the top recruits in the 2025 class, he has spoken publicly on only a few occasions. The 6-foot-6 lead guard has lived up to that billing when on the floor, averaging 20 points and shooting 49 percent overall and 43 percent from 3-point range. His feel for the game has drawn comparisons to Kobe Bryant.
The problem is that he has played in only 15 of Kansas’s 26 games and is averaging 26.9 minutes in those 15 appearances. He missed seven straight games in November and early December with a hamstring injury, including nonconference losses to Duke and UConn. He has since been limited by the hamstring, cramping issues and a twisted ankle in Big 12 play, including a few bizarre instances.
In an overtime win against TCU on Jan. 6, Peterson was brilliant, scoring a season-high 32 points. Except he also sat with heating wraps on his legs for most of a late comeback, only to check back in for the final 5.4 seconds, draw a 3-point shooting foul and drain all three free throws to send the game to OT. Then he didn’t play at all in the extra period.
In a marquee Saturday showdown on Jan. 31 against BYU and fellow standout Dybantsa, Peterson was transcendent during an 18-point first-half, seeming to answer any doubts about who should be the NBA’s top pick.
“He wanted to cook AJ,” the second scout said. “He had that dunk against BYU. He got up for that game.”
UNREAL. pic.twitter.com/rMEBRVZq3A
— Kansas Men’s Basketball (@KUHoops) January 31, 2026
Until he sat out the final 17 minutes because of cramps.
Last week, he missed a Big Monday matchup against No. 1 Arizona because of flu-like symptoms, an absence announced minutes before tipoff after Peterson tried to go through pregame warmups. The Jayhawks pulled off a dramatic second-half comeback without him.
The constant yo-yo-ing of injuries and illness with minimal details — in particular from Peterson, likely one of the highest-paid players in the sport — sparked speculation about his shutting things down or protecting himself for the draft process. It got loud enough that Kansas coach Bill Self publicly defended Peterson a few days after the Arizona game.
“I’ve read some of the narratives that are out there about him, and it’s really not remotely true,” Self said. “The narratives are BS. … It’s a lot when you’re 19 years old and dealing with everybody having a narrative about everything that’s going on.”
But in Wednesday night’s win over Oklahoma State, Peterson poured in 20 in the first half, hit a 3-pointer early in the second and promptly subbed himself out for the rest of the game because of cramps. Again. It was reminiscent of the BYU performance and seemed to catch Self off guard.
“I didn’t anticipate that tonight at all. I thought he was good to go,” Self said after the game. “We only got 18 minutes out of him. That’s disappointing because he could have had a really good night. It’s happened often enough that our guys have learned to play without him, even though that’s not the way we want to play. But that’s certainly something that we’re not unaccustomed to right now.”
Many in the industry sense that frustration — from Peterson, Self, Kansas and fans — is finally spilling over into public.
If there is apprehension about Peterson at the NBA level, it’s not rooted — at least not yet — in his talent. But there are those wondering if Peterson’s inner circle has provided the best guidance throughout this situation and whether that could carry over to the next level, too.
Any concerns for Kansas, however, are certainly warranted. When Peterson is on the floor and playing anywhere near his capability, he’s one of the best in the sport, and the Jayhawks are a legitimate national title contender. The team has proved it can win without him, too, even against a top-ranked Arizona team that was undefeated and full strength. But Kansas’ ceiling is lower without Peterson, and the uncertainty of what to expect from him game-to-game doesn’t help. Maybe Peterson will start to feel healthier down the stretch, but it’s hard to envision things stabilizing if he has to play consecutive days at the Big 12 tournament or two high-wattage games in three days during the NCAA Tournament.
At the same time, these seem to be genuine health issues holding Peterson back, as opposed to some type of calculated gamesmanship regarding his NBA future.
“I don’t know what they’re calling it medically,” the first scout said, “but you can’t hide from the combine.”
As murky and frustrating as this freshman season has been, if all he cared about were his draft position, he would have shut it down by now. As Self said, “load management” relates to four games in seven days, not two full halves. The erratic availability is concerning, but the fact that Peterson keeps going out there and performing when he does has endeared him to some at the next level.
“I do feel for Darryn in some ways,” the second scout said, “because I think he looks at it as, ‘I’m trying to play, and I could have shut it down.’”
Barring a significant change over the next six weeks, the NBA Draft Combine, along with team workouts, interviews and medical analyses, will determine how high Peterson gets picked this summer. The twists and turns haven’t changed that.
What it means for Kansas next month might be a different story.