Peterson ruled out against UConn, will miss 7th straight game

Kansas Jayhawks guard Darryn Peterson talks with assistant coach Kurtis Townsend before tipoff against Princeton on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas will be without star guard Darryn Peterson for the seventh straight game when it faces UConn on Tuesday night, KU coach Bill Self announced.

Peterson has been dealing with a hamstring injury throughout the season and has not played since the Jayhawks traveled to North Carolina on Nov. 7. Self told reporters on Monday that Peterson had returned to practice, but that he would need “to test out medically from a strength and flexibility standpoint” on Tuesday morning in order to get back into action against the Huskies.

That testing apparently didn’t pan out in Peterson’s favor.

“Darryn is not going to play tonight,” Self said in a statement posted on social media. “He is very close. He has worked his butt off, but he is still not 100 percent. He is day-to-day.”

The freshman from Canton, Ohio, who has a chance to be one of the top picks in the 2026 NBA Draft, has averaged 21.5 points per game in two relatively short appearances against Green Bay and North Carolina. In their six games without Peterson, the Jayhawks are 5-1, including three straight victories at the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas last week against Notre Dame, Syracuse, and now-No. 13 Tennessee.

The lone loss for the non-Peterson KU lineup occurred in a respectable showing at Madison Square Garden against one top-five team in Duke, and now the Jayhawks will welcome another to Allen Fieldhouse when they take on No. 5 UConn at 8 p.m.

KU will likely roll with its now-typical starting five of Melvin Council Jr., Jamari McDowell, Tre White, Bryson Tiller and Flory Bidunga, which made its first appearance in the Syracuse game on Nov. 25. The Jayhawks also have Loyola-Chicago transfer guard Jayden Dawson back in the fold after he missed most of the Players Era tournament with a wrist injury.

Peterson’s next chance to play will be on Sunday when KU faces Missouri at the T-Mobile Center.