The Kansas Jayhawks' 2025-26 season ended in heartbreak to St. John's in the round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament, losing on a buzzer-beating layup. It capped off a year in which head coach Bill Self's squad went a combined 24-11 and finished a rather rocky, up-and-down season. At the heart of the tumultuous and rather weird year was freshman guard Darryn Peterson.
Coming into his first college season, Peterson was the top prospect out of high school and expected to be the clear choice for whoever was picking number one in the 2026 NBA Draft. The at the time 18-year-old played in just 24 of KU's 35 games, and exited early in a handful of outings due to a continuous stretch of nagging cramping issues in his legs that had since been revealed to be caused by taking high doses of creatine (a natural supplement produced by the body used to energize, strengthen, and heal muscles after training).
Nonetheless, Peterson was awarded as part of the All-Big 12 team as a freshman, scoring just over 20 PPG on 44-38-83 shooting splits to go along with four rebounds and over one steal per game. Whether his performance at Kansas is seen as good or bad, apparently, NBA teams are paying very little attention to it throughout the draft process and focusing more on who he is as a person.
NBA teams not taking kindly to Darryn Peterson's draft process
As a projected top-three pick, Peterson is more than likely going to end up on either the Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz, or Memphis Grizzlies. ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Monday that Peterson has granted only the Washington Wizards, who hold the first overall pick, permission to work him out ahead of the draft and that he plans to keep it that way.
"Both Darryn Peterson and AJ Dybantsa believe they will be the number one pick," said Charania. Dybantsa was another one-and-done freshman at BYU last season and is also in heavy contention to be the top pick, but has granted the Utah Jazz access to work him out as well. Obviously, Peterson has some strong beliefs in his ability as a basketball player, and he should; he's exceptionally talented. But reports also say that he was a little shocked when he got into the room with the Wizards brass.
ESPN's Brian Windhorst said that "Peterson was 'surprised' when his initial meeting with the Wizards focused more on him as a person rather than him as a basketball player." To be honest, that comment is shocking, considering that's how every draft process has largely been for any sport over the last half-century. Teams can get a pretty good sense of what you are as a player by watching games, analyzing film tape, and being at practices. But what they learn most in the pre-draft interviews is the person more than the player.
For Peterson to be "surprised" by this is a red flag in my book about how he and his camp have approached this process. If his plans succeed and he ends up being the number one pick, then good for him, but I worry about what reaction the former KU star will have if his name is not the one he hears at the start of the first round on June 23rd.
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