Darryn Peterson’s freshman year at Kansas is over, and if you watched the whole thing — the early hype, the cramping saga, the flashes of the Peterson everyone was waiting to finally see — Sunday’s performance in the second round of the NCAA tournament felt like a verdict on everything scouts have been watching all season.
Peterson’s best moment came in the second half, with Kansas clawing back from a 14-point hole. When isolated against St. John’s big man Zuby Ejiofor, Peterson waved his teammates off, called his own number, blew by Ejiofor, and converted an and-1 finish to cut it to 58-53. It was the kind of bucket that made you think, “Here we go!”
On the very next possession, Ejiofor stripped Peterson. Naturally!
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That sequence captures Peterson’s night better than any stat. The and-1 will end up on his draft highlight. But the turnover that immediately followed was the kind of lapse that will raise questions in pre-draft rooms. Which, if you’ve watched Peterson all year, you already knew. That moment didn’t emerge from nowhere. It was that kind of night … just not right away.
Peterson hit two gorgeous 3-pointers in the opening two minutes. They were the kind of smooth, effortless shots that make scouts salivate. One of them came after sprinting through a dribble handoff, with his defender draped all over him, and he looked like prime Ray Allen shooting through it with confidence. But then he went quiet offensively for most of the night, and Kansas lost 67-65.
The box score shows 21 points. But it came on 5-for-15 shooting from the field. Dillon Mitchell — assigned to shadow him by St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino — gave him genuine length problems. Peterson struggled to create separation off the dribble, settled for tough pull-ups, and never found a consistent way to pressure the basket. He once again didn’t look explosive in the paint, a concerning trend for a 6-foot-6 guard. The advanced creation moves that would let him turn the corner against length simply aren’t there at this stage of his development, especially when juxtaposed against BYU forward AJ Dybantsa creating at will, Duke big man Cameron Boozer generating shots both inside and outside, and Arkansas point guard Darius Acuff scoring from every spot on the floor.
Peterson ends his year with an effective field goal percentage of 51.3% against Quad 1 and 2 teams. That’s 13.2% worse than his 64.5% number against Quad 3 and 4 teams, which is the largest drop off of any possible top-10 pick, per CBB Analytics. The better Peterson’s competition, the more his efficiency erodes.
“I was hurt for the majority of the year,” Peterson said. “I went through some really bad stuff. I wasn’t really myself for real until like the end of the year.”
The numbers don’t quite back that up. After Peterson pulled himself out of a game against Oklahoma State on Feb. 18 following a 23-point, 18-minute burst, the criticism was deafening. Jayhawks fans questioned his toughness. Draft boards flickered. And then suddenly, he was available. In the nine games since, he averaged the most minutes (32.7) of his entire season.
But his production was at its worst. He took only 15% of his shots in the half-court at the rim and made just 37% of them. From outside, shots weren’t falling either. He made just 34% of catch-and-shoot jumpers and only 31% of dribble jumpers. If he was as healthy as he says, that’s almost worse.
The scoring numbers are only half of it. The assist column features a big fat goose egg. Peterson had zero assists and three turnovers. Pitino had actually previewed this in his pregame press conference, joking about whether Peterson had any flaws: “You know he's going to shoot the basketball, because he has a negative assist-turnover ratio.”
Sunday validated the scouting report. St. John’s dared him to kick it out to Tre White and Melvin Council Jr. He made one beautiful read to White on a corner 3 that was bricked, but for the most part he didn’t really look to pass. He averaged 1.6 assists all season long, and Kansas’ offensive rating was actually better without him on the floor: 113.2 compared to 109.8 with him.
“I didn’t think we ever got rhythm offensively the whole year,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “Nothing about it was very smooth. It seemed like to me we were having to adjust on the fly.”
To be fair, Peterson’s teammates didn’t make it easy during the tourney. They shot 14.3% from 3 in their two March Madness games. But that’s almost beside the point. The deeper critique from executives isn’t exclusively about Kansas. It’s about whether Peterson is wired to make his teammates better as a playmaker at all. At Prolific Prep, Peterson similarly looked to score first. It’s a tendency that has followed him from the grassroots circuit to Lawrence to the NCAA tournament, and now it will follow him to the draft combine.
And yet Peterson wasn’t invisible. He drew eight fouls and shot 8-for-10 from the line, including tying free throws late. He blocked four shots. He chased down rebounds. The shot-making and defensive activity that made him a lottery pick were visible. But the inefficient volume shooting and questionable playmaking made his March Madness experience feel less like a springboard and more like a warning label.
The 2026 NBA draft class is deep enough that every question mark matters. Peterson has as much upside as anyone. But Sunday was a reminder that the gap between belonging in the top-three conversation and leading it is still real too. He’ll get to answer the questions this spring, in workouts, in interviews, and in medical exams. The talent has never been in doubt. The answers are what the next few months are for.