Future KU guard Darryn Peterson in elite company as MVP of McDonald’s All-America game
Darryn Peterson on Tuesday night joined a veritable ‘who’s who’ in the basketball world in winning co-MVP honors at the prestigious McDonald’s All-America game at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
In scoring a game-high 18 points with seven rebounds and a game-high three steals for the winning West team, future Kansas guard Peterson joined NBA greats LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Webber, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O’Neal as game MVPs. Kenny Gregory, Jacque Vaughn, Josh Jackson and Cheick Diallo also all won McDonald’s MVP honors while representing KU.
“It’s great to add my name to the list,” Peterson, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound senior guard out of California school Prolific Prep told New York’s PIX11.com after the game. He shared MVP honors with future Duke forward Cameron Boozer, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds for the East.
“I work super hard. It was a goal of mine to get it but it kind of came with the (flow of the) game. I’m proud of myself,” Peterson added.
Peterson — he has averaged 32.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game for Prolific Prep this season — didn’t boast after scoring 10 of his team’s fourth-quarter points in a 105-92 victory. On the contrary … Peterson was not pleased with one aspect of his game and brought it up in his interview with the PIX11.com reporter: his shooting.
He was 7-of-14 overall but just 1-of-6 from 3.
Asked what “Jayhawk nation can expect” from him in the 2025-26 season, he said: “Just a young guy coming in ready to work and work super hard, trying to bring a championship. I think this week prepared prepared me for it.”
“We were shooting from the NBA and college line all week (practices, scrimmages and the game). I know I’ve got some work to do. I didn’t make as many shots as I think I can so I’ve got to go back to the drawing board and get better,” Peterson added.
The winning West team included future BYU player AJ Dybantsa, who had 17 points and five rebounds, plus future Houston Cougar Chris Cenac (11 points, seven rebounds), future Washington forward Nikola Bundalo (12 points, six rebounds) and future USC guard Alijah Arenas (11 points).
“It was definitely hard (to build team chemistry in just a couple days for the all-star game),” Peterson said, “because we are all the best players on our (high school) team so we had to adjust to playing off the ball. I think we had a good mixture of getting off the ball and taking our shots. We got the win. Obviously that was enough.”
Peterson performed well during the practices leading up to the game, impressing reporters and scouts.
“You’ll be seeing a lot more people join us in having Darryn Peterson ranked No. 1 after what we all saw,” wrote Jonathan Givony, NBA Draft analyst at ESPN.com. Currently, Peterson is ranked No. 2 in the high school recruiting Class of 2025 by ESPN; Dybantsa is No. 1.
“The Kansas commit has phenomenal instincts on both ends of the floor, and is a fantastic shot-creator and shot-maker,” Givony added on social media site X.
Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com wrote on X: “Should be a good race for the No. 1 overall pick in 2026 (draft) between Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa and Cam Boozer.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Future KU guard Darryn Peterson in elite company as MVP of McDonald’s All-America game."
