ESPN’s ‘GameDay’ panel latest to discuss Darryn Peterson’s availability for KU
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- ‘GameDay’ panel debates Darryn Peterson’s game availability amid injuries.
- Peterson has played 14 games; KU staff and team doctor cited legitimate issues.
- Analysts weigh talent versus toughness as March Madness nears.
Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson’s availability in basketball games continues to be a hot topic of discussion nationally with just a few weeks remaining before the start of March Madness.
“When he plays, you can’t take your eyes off him,” ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas said Saturday morning as part of the ESPN “GameDay” panel, which held its weekly show in McKale Center, home of the Arizona Wildcats.
“I think part of this (game-by-game speculation) honestly is our selfishness in that I want to watch him play, so I’m constantly going, ’Is he going to play?’ Because I want to watch him play,’’ Bilas added.
Peterson — he missed Monday’s win over No. 1 Arizona — played in his 14th game of his one-and-done college season against No. 5 Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday.
Peterson, who has missed 11 games because of hamstring tightness, cramping, a sprained ankle and most recently flu-like symptoms, scored a season-low 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting in the No. 9-ranked Jayhawks’ 74-56 loss to the Cyclones.
He was 2-of-6 from 3 and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line in 24 minutes. He had zero assists against three turnovers, with one steal.
Peterson did not play the last seven minutes of Saturday’s game, KU coach Bill Self indicating with seven minutes left in a double-digit loss that Self was thinking about what would give his team the best chance to win Wednesday night at Oklahoma State.
“Maybe because of the communication part of it, or the fact when there’s not a lot of talk coming from inside the program, people tend to speculate on what’s going on,” Bilas said. “That may be part of this, but a lot will be determined with the end of the season. I don’t expect this to be a continuing thing. We’ll see if it is or if it’s not. I don’t expect it to be. But there’s one thing, there’s no question about undeniable talent.”
KU (19-6, 9-3) has six regular-season games remaining starting with Wednesday’s 8 p.m. tipoff at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
To this point, Peterson, a 6-foot-6 native of Canton, Ohio, has averaged 19.8 points a game on 47.9% shooting. He’s 38-of-92 from 3 (41.3%) and 55-of-69 from the free-throw-line (79.7%). Peterson has grabbed 3.9 rebounds per contest. He has 22 total assists against 24 turnovers with 17 steals and seven blocked shots.
Since scoring 26 points versus Baylor on Jan. 16, Peterson has had scoring outputs of 16 points (at Colorado), 18 versus BYU(all 18 the first half), 19 at Texas Tech including two huge 3s late, 14 against Utah and 10 at Iowa State. He is 6-of-18 (33.3%) on 3-pointers and 13-of-36 (36.1%) shooting overall his last three games.
Analyst Seth Greenberg said he understood KU’s medical staff determined Peterson would not be able to go in Monday’s game against Arizona because of Peterson’s flu-like symptoms. Indeed KU coach Self offered that explanation at a Thursday news conference held in advance of Saturday’s KU-Iowa State game.
Self told media members that a team doctor told him about a half-hour before tip, “Bill, he’s not going to be able to go.”
“You want to see a guy play,” Greenberg said on the “GameDay” broadcast Saturday. “You want to have that (Michael) Jordan moment. The problem is you stack it on top of each other, the ankle, which was a real injury, the calf, which was a real injury, the cramping, which was real, and then you throw this (flu-like symptoms) on top of it, people kind of ... a red light goes up.
“The guy loves ball,” Greenberg added. “I can tell you one thing. He makes shots that guys make in the NBA — guys like the names of Jordan and (Dwyane) Wade and Kobe (Bryant), those are the type of shots he makes. And when he’s healthy, and I think he will be healthy, he could end up leading this team to a Final Four.”
Analyst Jay Williams, like Bilas a former college player at Duke, offered his take: “I agree Kansas (in playing without Peterson often) has handled (this) well, but this is just me speaking in a very raw manner. Like, I’ve never had a doctor say unless something was broken, ‘Oh, you’re not going to play.’ No, I’m going to play.
“And I’m not questioning whether he loves the game or not. But I am questioning a little bit of the dog mentality. I see it sometimes in games,” Williams added. “I think it’s OK to have this conversation. Now, look, he could be a prolific player, and maybe he is that player. But if you watch somebody repeatedly, you tell me who you are. That’s a little bit of what I’m saying.”
Greenberg asked Williams if he thought Peterson’s “people were protecting him from himself?”
“I don’t know,” Williams said, “I just sometimes ... even if you hear some of the stories like, if it was the flu, you’re going to have to take me off that court. That’s just how I feel about it. Maybe because I’ve been around guys like Gilbert Arenas, or I’ve been around guys like Kobe or been around guys like these guys and I see them play being sick all the time, it’s just that’s how I feel about it.”
Self on Thursday said Peterson this season simply “has got a string of bad luck.”
Self said some commentary regarding Peterson perhaps not playing in some games or the end of some games when he could have played is “not remotely true.”
“The narrative (of load management) is B.S. in many ways,” Self said. “Was his hamstring legit? Hell yes. Would you risk injuring it more in November? No. Was his cramping legit? Yes, positively, it was. Did he turn his ankle bad (at Colorado) to the point where he couldn’t practice for nine days, and then practice one day and play against BYU? Yes. And that was adrenaline kicking in in the BYU game. And then, of all things, he gets sick.”
