‘Best to ever play at Kansas’: Darryn Peterson earned major praise in latest win
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Peterson scored 26 points in KU’s 80-62 win, displaying elite shot-making and range.
- Analysts compared Peterson to Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and project him as No. 1 pick.
- Durability concerns persist: cramps and hamstring tightness limited Peterson’s minutes.
Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson’s dazzling 26-point performance in the Jayhawks’ 80-62 victory over Baylor had the basketball world buzzing Friday night.
“DP best to ever play at Kansas,” former KU guard Christian Braun of the Denver Nuggets wrote on X after the 6-foot-6 Canton, Ohio native knocked down 11 of 13 shots (including 2-of-4 from 3 and 2-of-4 from the line) in just 23 minutes.
While Wilt Chamberlain, Danny Manning, Clyde Lovellette, Paul Pierce, Nick Collison, Raef LaFrentz and some others might stake a claim to “best player ever” at KU, Peterson no doubt showed potential college and NBA superstar-type talent during the first half of Friday’s victory.
Peterson scored 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting with two assists and no turnovers in 16 minutes as KU led 43-37 at the break.
“I think he may be the best player I’ve seen in my lifespan of coaching,” said former KU assistant coach Norm Roberts, who attended Friday’s game in person, then appeared on the Field of 68 podcast after KU improved to 13-5 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12.
Baylor fell to 11-6, 1-4 despite BU’s two NBA prospects, Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou, scoring 24 and 20 points respectively.
“Watching him tonight — and I was in the arena — you can normally say, ‘Hey, do not let a guy get to a spot,’” Roberts continued. “Well, everywhere on the floor is his spot. He can hit every shot.
“He can make a 3. He can make a floater. I saw him make a 9-foot baseline jumper over a 6-10 guy. It doesn’t matter. He can play through contact. He finishes three-point plays. Obviously he’s a terrific passer, too. He can do so many things on the floor.”
Roberts continued: “The thing that’s crazy about it, it looks like he’s not sweating, like it’s taking no effort. The way he does it, he’s so smooth.”
Roberts, who said Peterson’s game might be best compared to the late NBA great Kobe Bryant, on Friday praised Peterson’s body language.
“Tonight in the game when he was heating it up and scoring and killing, he never talked smack. He didn’t do any of that. He stayed focused on the game. I think that’s a great level of maturity he’s showing on how good he really is,” Roberts said.
ESPN analyst Myron Medcalf commented on X after watching Peterson star against the Bears.
“I haven’t seen a player with Darryn Peterson’s feel for the game, instincts and shot-making capabilities at this level since KD (Kevin Durant),” Medcalf wrote. “He gets any shot he wants, when he wants and it’s always a good shot because he takes it. Just makes the game look so easy. Rare for a teenager.”
Gary Parrish of CBS Sports wrote in an article after the game: “Friday marked the first time Kansas and Baylor have played each other without at least one of them being ranked in the Associated Press top 25 poll since December 1966. Regardless, the game will go down as one of the more memorable ones in the series, if only because it’ll forever be the one in which Darryn Peterson — in prime time on a big network stage — showed everybody why most project him to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.”
The only concern about Peterson’s play thus far his freshman season has been the fact he has not finished a game and missed some games completely because of various ailments. Those include a hamstring strain, quad issue and the current problem of cramps.
Peterson played just seven minutes the final half against Baylor (scoring six points on 3-of-3 shooting) and missed the final eight minutes.
“Despite all of that frustration (and confusion), there was never a moment when any person I communicated with at the NBA level expressed any real concern or wavered from the idea, provided they previously held it, that Peterson is the best prospect in the class,” Parrish wrote.
The FOX Sports announcers who broadcast Friday’s game were mighty impressed with Peterson.
“Haha! Ball. Player,” play by play announcer Gus Johnson bellowed after a first-half bucket of Peterson.
Noted FOX analyst Jim Jackson: “Some people just move different. That’s what Darryn Peterson has. He just moves a lot different than a normal freshman … this kid is just smooth.”
After the game, KU coach Bill Self said of Peterson’s scoring outburst (as well as a perfect lob pass to Flory Bidunga for a dunk): “That was fun to watch.”
Self discussed the ongoing cramping problem in his postgame radio interview with Greg Gurley.
“You know, DP for 19 minutes was the best player in America,” Self said. “We still haven’t figured it out, though, but hopefully, somehow or another, the light will come on and we can get him playing in the second half. But gosh, he was special there for a while.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2026 at 6:30 AM.
