The 2025–26 season has been one of the most entertaining and competitive seasons of recent memory. It seems like every Saturday offers multiple marquee matchups. The one thing that hasn’t delivered is No. 1 recruit Darryn Peterson’s health. The Kansas first-year is facing lots of backlash for his unpredictable availability that has plagued the Jayhawks all season: It’s one of the biggest stories in sports right now.
Peterson is averaging just 27.4 minutes per game and has appeared in only 17 of 28 matchups for his team; but, social media has focused more on his in-game behavior. Videos of him looking lazy on court and abruptly subbing himself off for the game have led people to question his toughness and drive to play basketball. While Peterson’s availability has been extremely odd, the ‘hot takes’ that have come along with this story are largely overreactions.
People have continually questioned if this was his way of protecting his draft status, but Peterson already had an obvious chance to wrap it up for the season. In Kansas’ win against Brigham Young — and Peterson’s main competition for the No. 1 draft pick, AJ Dybantsa — he looked like the best prospect on the court. That was only for one half, though, with his characteristic cramps returning in the second.
It’s pretty clear when Peterson’s legs give up on him. He stops moving off-ball, his explosiveness fades and his game as a whole looks different. But this isn’t a player choosing when to exert energy or attack; it’s a player whose body is repeatedly forcing him to make that difficult decision to come off.
Even still, Peterson finished with 18 points in just 20 minutes of play. If the goal were to ‘preserve the tape,’ that is the perfect opportunity to shut it down for the draft, avoiding any bad moments and ending on a dominant stretch. Instead, Peterson kept trying to play through it, even with this same issue continuing to resurface. The national discourse which defines Peterson as lazy is the failure to recognize what is happening in plain sight.
Kansas has had to deal with this reality all season, not just in the videos from the Oklahoma State game. Because of this saga, there have essentially been two different Jayhawks teams this year, with one built around Peterson’s game and another that has learned to recalibrate on the fly when he isn’t available. The frustration of the fans is understandable, but the headlines going around making this a commitment issue are missing the bigger picture. This dilemma isn’t about toughness or draft stock. It’s about a top first-year battling a recurring injury in one of the biggest spotlights in the sport.
