Incoming 5-star KU basketball recruit named national high school player of the year
Future Kansas basketball guard Darryn Peterson has been named the 2025 Jersey Mike’s Naismith boys high school player of the year, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced on Friday.
Peterson, a 2025 McDonald’s All-America selection out of Prolific Prep in California, is the third Jayhawk to win the Naismith player of the year honor joining Andrew Wiggins in 2013 and Cliff Alexander in 2014. The trophy has been awarded since 1987.
A 6-foot-5, 195-pound native of Canton, Ohio, Peterson is ranked No. 2 in the recruiting Class of 2025 by ESPN and 247Sports, and No. 3 by Rivals and On3.
At Prolific Prep (28-5) this season he has averaged 30.4 points a game on 52% shooting (86% from the free-throw line). He averages 7.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 2.2 steals per game.
Akron native LeBron James, the late Kobe Bryant, Kevin Love, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, Alonzo Mourning and Chris Webber are among the past Naismith winners who went on to have stellar careers in the NBA.
Other 2025 finalists: small forward AJ Dybantsa (BYU), power forward Cam Boozer (Duke), small forward Nate Ament (undecided) and point guard Darius Acuff (Arkansas).
“It is a blessing to be in this position. It is an unbelievable honor to win the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Player of the Year,” Peterson said in a release as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. “To know that I have added my name to a list that includes LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and others is quite the feeling. My teammates and I put in an extreme amount of work throughout the year, and it would not be possible without them.
“I would like to thank the members of the committee that voted for me, as the five finalists for this award were all deserving. Big thank you to my parents for believing in me every step of the way. Even if I did not win player of the year, I would still be player of the year to them.”
Peterson played his first two years of high school basketball at Cuyahoga Falls High School in Cuyahoga, Ohio, and then transferred to Huntington Prep in West Virginia in 2023-24 before moving on to Prolific Prep. He played club basketball for Phenom United where he averaged 28.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 4.2 steals and 3.0 blocked shots per game last summer in the Adidas 3Stripes Select league.
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.
KU coach Bill Self has called Peterson “the best player we’ve recruited since we’ve been here.”
