How Darryn Peterson impressed KU coach Bill Self in college basketball debut
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Darryn Peterson scored 21 points in 21 minutes but left due to leg cramps.
- Coach Bill Self limited Peterson's second-half minutes to manage cramps.
- Peterson showed scoring, defense and poise; KU seeks to monitor his condition.
Second-year Green Bay basketball coach Doug Gottlieb will have plenty to talk about on his next Fox Sports Radio show.
The hot topic figures to be Kansas freshman guard Darryn Peterson, who hit two 3s and scored 18 points while playing 17 minutes the first half of the Jayhawks’ 94-51 victory over the Phoenix on Monday night at Allen Fieldhouse in the regular season opener for both teams.
Peterson, like in KU’s exhibition opener vs. Louisville, was slowed by a bout of cramps the final half. He finished with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting (3-of-7 from 3) with four rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot in his college debut.
He played just five minutes the final half, raising his hand to exit the game with 14:57 remaining. He did not return and in fact spent several minutes chatting with trainer Bill Cowgill after a short conversation with coach Bill Self at the end of the bench.
“It felt like he didn’t break a sweat. That was literally the easiest 21 (points) in 21 minutes as a freshman. And I thought our guys guarded. He’s just good,” said Gottlieb, a former point guard at Oklahoma State who added that coaching a game at KU’s tradition-rich building was “the honor of a lifetime.”
Peterson did not play in KU’s second exhibition game against Fort Hays State while he dealt with both cramps and the fact he was “not feeling well physically.”
He scored 26 points (hitting six 3s) in KU’s exhibition opening win at Louisville, but struggled in the second half of that game because of cramping.
“Definitely a combination,” Self said, asked if Peterson played so few minutes the final half Monday because of the cramping issue or the fact KU led 64-36 at the time of his exiting the game.
“But definitely it was bothering him. He said he felt it coming on. So no reason to (play him with North Carolina coming up Friday). We need to practice tomorrow. So hopefully we can get him out there for practice tomorrow. But yes, that (cramping) was the primary reason. If it had been a closer game, I’m sure he would have tried to go back out there.”
Peterson likely would have broken Xavier Henry’s record for most points by a KU freshman in a debut (27 vs. Hofstra in 2009) had the cramps not surfaced.
“He was good,” Self said. “Obviously the first half … he just scores easy. He makes it look easy. He was really good. Once again, we couldn’t really play him much the second half at all, but I thought he was good. I thought Flory (Bidunga, career high 23 points with six rebounds and three blocks) was good and and I thought Melvin (Council, 10 points, five rebounds, four assists) was good. I thought we had three guys who played really well.”
Again of Peterson, Self added: “He makes the game look easy. It’s not that easy, but in the first half he was playing downhill. He played really well and didn’t make shots. His poise is well beyond his years without question. Teams will do a good job guarding him. He’ll have off nights, and that stuff’s going to happen. He’s young, but he’s about as mature as any 18-year-old around anywhere I would say.”
Self said Peterson has also been effective on the defensive end.
“Could be,” Self said with a smile, asked if Peterson already was a good defender. “It’s like the hashtag, ‘Potential means it’s not happened yet,’ but I think he could be great defensively.
“He can slide. He’s long and smart and can play lanes. He gets it. But there’s a lot of things about him also that I think he can certainly develop more on that end than what we’ve seen so far. But in order to do that, we’ve got to figure this other incident out.”
Does he enjoy defense?
“I think he loves playing,” Self said. “And, you know, last I checked, that’s 50% of being out there. He loves playing.”
KU will next meet North Carolina at 6 p.m. Central on Friday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
This story was originally published November 3, 2025 at 10:52 PM with the headline "How Darryn Peterson impressed KU coach Bill Self in college basketball debut."
