Why freshman Darryn Peterson missed KU basketball’s top-10 showdown vs. Arizona
The Kansas men’s basketball team pulled off what seemed like an improbable task entering Monday night — and then was made even more difficult.
The No. 9 Jayhawks managed to upset No. 1 Arizona and hand the Wildcats (23-1) their first loss.
Perhaps the most stunning part? Kansas did it without star freshman Darryn Peterson. He was out due to flu-like symptoms, a KU Athletics spokesperson announced shortly before the game.
“He didn’t practice yesterday, but we were hoping he could play today,” coach Bill Self said postgame. “He came out to shootaround and wasn’t able to. We didn’t know probably until 7-7:30 that he wasn’t going to be able to go, but we knew he was 50/50 yesterday that he may not be able to play.”
In his place, KU started guard Jamari McDowell. He scored 10 points with six rebounds and four steals.
Before Monday’s game, the story took an interesting turn when a social media account belonging to “Barstool Arizona” shared a video of what appeared to be an unidentified staff member courtside texting about Peterson’s absence.
“So he’s sick and he didn’t tell anyone in practice and Bill said don’t half ass it if your gonna play play, if not sit,” the text read. “DP said ‘(Expletive) IT, I’m out.’ Out for game.”
The post had been viewed more than 850,000 times as of 9:25 p.m., according to X data.
Responding to that post on X (formerly Twitter), a KU spokesperson said:
“The person texting in this video is a contracted crew worker who handles official stats during the game for ESPN. He does not work for KU and is not affiliated with the athletic department in any way. He has no inside information and was speculating. We are handling internally.”
Monday marked the 11th game Peterson has missed due a health-related issue. Peterson has dealt with cramping issues, a sprained ankle, a hamstring strain, a separate quad issue and now an illness.
In the 13 games he has played, Peterson is averaging 20.5 points and 4.2 rebounds in 27.8 minutes per game.
Peterson, the projected No. 1 NBA Draft pick for 2026, most recently played Saturday against Utah, scoring 14 points on 5-for-12 shooting. He played 34 minutes in that game.
He was not listed on Monday’s pregame availability report, which Self acknowledged after the 82-78 win.
“We thought he would go,” Self said. “I thought adrenaline would kick in and he would go. He was at shootaround today. He was out there. You could just tell he didn’t feel great, but we were all hopeful (his adrenaline) would kick and be ready to go.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2026 at 8:17 PM.
