Entering the 2025-26 collegiate season, with NBA draft watchers eagerly monitoring him after a stellar prep and AAU career, the consensus among most was that incoming Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson was set to be the top pick (whether the Wizards or the Jazz) when this June rolled around.
A little less than a year ago, The Athletic projected Peterson as the No. 1 pick, writing, “Peterson is my current pick for the No. 1 spot. He’s a tremendous shot maker and scorer, developed beyond his years because of his handle and polish with the ball.”
Bleacher Report, too, had Peterson No. 1, writing, “Peterson stands out as the top prospect thanks to his ability to create his own shots, score at all three levels, and shift into a playmaker when needed. Kansas figures to run a big portion of its offense through his transition speed, ball-screen navigation and one-two punch of driving and pull-up shooting.”
And ESPN wrote of Peterson, in picking him No. 1 last summer, “Headed to play for Self, Peterson will be the centerpiece of a Kansas roster built around his dynamic offense, giving him every opportunity to solidify his standing as the No. 1 prospect in next year’s draft.”
But then the season got going and Peterson played in just 24 of the Jayhawks’ 35 games, repeatedly sitting out altogether or only playing partial games because of mysterious cramping issues.
Darryn Peterson’s Strange Journey to NBA Draft
Kansas coach Bill Self was perplexed by the absences of his best player, and no doubt, Peterson missing game deprived his team of consistency and continuity. The Jayhawks were expected to be national title contenders but instead finished 24-11, 20th in the AP poll. They were eliminated in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
After Peterson removed himself from a game in February after scoring 23 points in 18 minutes, Self said: “I didn’t anticipate that tonight at all. I thought he was good to go. But we only got 18 minutes out of him. That’s disappointing because he could have had a really good night.”
NBA Draft Watchers Confused
And the controversy began to hit Peterson’s draft stock, with many speculating that Peterson was sitting out so that he could guide where he landed in the NBA.
One NBA scout said that, just as there were major concerns about tanking in the league, there were similar concerns about Peterson: “It feels like he is tanking his own stock, he is tanking on a persona level. Maybe he’s to try to boost his chances of picking where he lands. It would be a weird strategy. We won’t know the lottery order for three months. But there’s no other explanation for what’s going on.”
Darryn Peterson: Creatine ‘Made My Levels Unsafe’
Peterson has since gone on to explain that the cause of the cramping was the popular supplement creatine, which he claimed he began using once he got to Lawrence. Peterson said the powder caused him to get full-body cramps, and he was using too much of it.
“I’d never taken it before [going to college],” Peterson told ESPN. “But after the season I took two weeks off and they did tests which showed my baseline level was already high. So, they said when I dosed [a process of increasing a dose over time to create maximum benefit at the beginning of taking a supplement], it must’ve made the levels unsafe.”
Now, not all of the folks around the NBA accept that story as what was really behind Peterson’s cramps. But it’s behind him now, and he is ready for the NBA draft.
Darryn Peterson Injury: Why Did NBA Draft Pick Miss So Many Kansas Games?