Why Bill Self called Wednesday one of KU Jayhawks’ best recruiting moments ‘in decades’
Darryn Peterson, a 6-foot-5, 195-pound senior combo guard from Prolific Prep in Napa, California, has signed a national letter of intent to play basketball at Kansas, KU coach Bill Self announced Wednesday.
Peterson, who is originally from Canton, Ohio is ranked No. 3 in the recruiting class of 2025 by Rivals, 247Sports, ESPN and On3.
“This is one of the best recruiting moments that Kansas basketball has had in decades,” Self said Wednesday. “Darryn is an all-around guard that scores at all levels and is also a terrific facilitator and defender. He has been well drilled and has a toughness about him being raised in a family where his brother is a successful football player at Wisconsin.
“Darryn was as important as any recruit we have recruited in recent memory. Coach (Kurtis) Townsend did a great job as the lead recruiter. Darryn can be a catalyst to also draw other players to our program.”
Peterson is playing his senior prep season at Prolific Prep. He played his first two years of high school basketball at Cuyahoga Falls High School in Cuyahoga, Ohio. He then transferred to Huntington Prep in West Virginia in 2023-24 before transferring to Prolific Prep.
Peterson plays club basketball for Adidas 3Stripes Select, where he averaged 28.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 4.2 steals and 3.0 blocks per game this past summer.
In 2023, Peterson won a gold medal with USA Basketball at the FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. At the championship, Peterson averaged 16.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.3 steals in earning all-tournament honors.
Peterson chose KU over USC, Ohio State and Kansas State.
“I just feel it aligned perfectly with my academic and athletic goals,” Peterson told Eric Bossi of 247Sports recently in a ceremony shown live on YouTube. “Kansas has a strong history of development and success which were huge things for me during this process. It’s somewhere I can go develop as a player and have success while doing it and winning.
“Coach (Bill) Self and coach KT (Townsend), they’ve done a great job recruiting me. They’ve been recruiting me since my freshman year.”
Asked what KU fans should expect, Peterson said: “Bucket Jones (his nickname). Buckets. Just a lot of wins. I’m going to try my best to get us a championship, bring it back.”
Recruiting analyst Adam Finkelstein of 247Sports had this to say: “KU is losing its point guard in Dajuan Harris. They needed to fill that position in the biggest way possible. If you could get one guard, this is the one you wanted. He can play on ball, off ball. He’s a perfect building block for what they can do next year in Lawrence.
Here’s Finkelstein’s scouting report on Peterson: “Peterson is a big guard with good positional size, length, and strength. He’s 6-foot-5, with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, and a cut-up and defined frame. What differentiates him most though is an effortless ability to score and make plays from a variety of spots on the floor, all within the flow of the game.
“Peterson is extremely versatile. He’s a true combo guard who is equally effective playing on or off the ball. He has natural poise as a handler with now only rare moments when he can be rattled by pressure from smaller guards. He’s also a true multi-level scorer who can simultaneously see the floor, make reads, and pass well. ... He also has good natural instincts and has already developed an NBA caliber intellect when it comes to drawing fouls and getting easy points at the free-throw line.
“... Peterson is a solid and competitive on-ball defender with very good playmaking metrics off the ball as well. He is also an elite perimeter rebounder, with the size, strength and length to eventually be a multi-positional defender. Overall, there’s just not another guard in the country right now who can match Peterson’s combination of size, length, strength, real functional versatility and effortless ability to get to his spots that can make the game look easy at times.”
KU on Wednesday, the first-day of the week-long early signing period, also announced the signing of Samis Calderon, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound, 19-year-old shooting guard/small forward from Espirito Santo, Brazil, and a graduate of NBA Academy Latin America in Mexico City.
Calderon is a rising senior in the recruiting class of 2025. He competes for the Overtime Elite program in Atlanta and chose KU over Michigan, Tennessee, Auburn and others.
