KU sensation Darryn Peterson brings basketball clinic to his Ohio high school
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- Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson hosted youth clinic at his Ohio high school gym
- Peterson taught basketball fundamentals to grades 4–8 at CVCA in Canton
- Peterson leads early 2026 NBA Draft projections with 12 of 20 panel votes
Kansas Jayhawks freshman basketball guard Darryn Peterson returned to Cuyahoga Valley (Ohio) Christian Academy on Saturday to run a three-hour skills clinic in the gym where he started his highly successful high school hoops career.
The 6-foot-5, 195-pound McDonald’s All-American and 2025 Naismith Trophy Player of the Year said it was gratifying to instruct youths in grades 4 to 8 in the Canton, Ohio area. The official name of the clinic was Darryn Peterson Bucket Camp — “Bucket” being a reference to his nickname, “Bucket Jones.”
A native of Canton, he attended CVCA for two years, then spent one school year at Huntington Prep in West Virginia and his final season of high school basketball at Prolific Prep in Napa, California.
“I’m excited to give back to young athletes back home and share my love for the game,” Peterson told hoopswire.com. “This camp is all about helping the next generation of players develop their skills and confidence, both on and off the court.”
Peterson, who has been called the best high school player from Ohio since LeBron James, attended Hartford Middle School in his hometown. He elected to play high school basketball at CVCA because of Royals coach Matt Futch, a college teammate of Peterson’s dad, Darryl, at the University of Akron.
“Stay focused. Keep working. Keep having fun with it,” Darryn Peterson instructed the campers Saturday, his comments captured in a video on social media site X.
Peterson recently received 12 votes from a 20-person ESPN.com panel which was asked to identify the most likely No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Peterson outdistanced BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa, who received eight votes.
“Peterson commanded more votes with his unusual mix of positional size, skill and explosiveness profiling as one of the best lead guard prospects in recent memory,” wrote Jeremy Woo of ESPN.com. “He has the physical talent and competitive makeup to excel as an offensive creator and standout defender. He will be heavily featured for the Jayhawks after a strong senior season at Prolific Prep put him at the forefront of the No. 1 conversation.
One Western Conference executive told Woo: “It’s a total toss-up right now. By no means is (there a) consensus yet. Peterson feels a little more well-rounded offensively and can function on and off the ball, which drives a few more successful ‘off-ramps’ for him. I do think AJ has more star quality because he’s a better athlete. I like that Peterson’s skill and maturity on the court already seem higher. He’s been forced to expand other parts of his game.”
KU coach Bill Self has said of Peterson, “To me, Darryn’s the best player we’ve recruited since we’ve been here. When you talk about a player, and a combination of a player and a prospect, I think that’s without question. He’s a special talent,”
Added Self, “It’s not very often you have a chance to coach a generational-type talent, and he is that. So I’m excited about it. But what impresses me as much about him as anything, is that he wants to be a player, and he’ll be your hardest worker, and all the things that go along to what a leader should look like.”
Asked about Self’s “generational player” comment, Peterson — who in November 2023 became the first high school player to sign an NIL deal with Adidas — said: “I try not to pay attention to it, really. I just go out and hoop. People say a lot of stuff, so I’m just going to try to live up to what he said. He’s said a lot of good stuff about me, so I’m going to try to go out and prove that to everybody.”
Peterson and the Jayhawks will begin classes and be able to work out eight hours a week in accordance with NCAA offseason competition rules starting Monday, Aug. 18. That’s the first day of fall semester 2025-26. In-season practices will begin in late September.
Late Night in the Phog is Oct. 17 at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published August 12, 2025 at 8:00 AM with the headline "KU sensation Darryn Peterson brings basketball clinic to his Ohio high school."
