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’ star guard Darryn Peterson is on track to play against Missouri and KU is approaching the game as though it will have Peterson back in the fold, head coach Bill Self said on Friday.

“He’s practiced the last two days, so he should be available,” Self said. “Unless he has a setback between now and game time.”

Peterson has missed seven straight games due to a hamstring injury as KU proceeds with caution in returning him to action. The Jayhawks face Missouri at noon on Sunday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

Peterson had returned to practice ahead of Tuesday’s game against UConn — which turned out to be a 61-56 home loss — but did not play, as Self said postgame he was only “90, 95%, but he wasn’t 100, and I said all along we’re not going to play him until he is, so it was much my decision as anything, but I also sensed that he wasn’t quite there yet.”

Self reiterated on Friday that he is looking for the freshman from Canton, Ohio, to be “totally symptom-free.”

“I think it’s a long season and from my vantage point, totally symptom-free would be the thing I would say that would constitute putting him out there,” Self said. “If he’s not totally symptom-free, I’m not going to put him out there. It’s nonconference, even though it’s important, but it’s nonconference still.”

He also praised Peterson’s role in trying to get himself back on the court promptly.

“If it wasn’t for his four days of four-times-a-day treatment and everything else going on, maybe he would be out longer,” Self said. “Yeah, I’m really looking forward to having him back out there, but more so for him than anything else.”

Peterson averaged 21.5 points in his two appearances against Green Bay and at North Carolina before he had to sit out due to the hamstring issue. His last game was at UNC on Nov. 7. In his absence, the Jayhawks are 5-2 with losses to Duke and UConn and wins over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Princeton, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Tennessee.

The future of the rivalry

KU and MU were never supposed to play back-to-back games at the T-Mobile Center, as they will in 2025 and 2026. Neutral-site dates were supposed to bookend four campus-site contests — two at each school — but the COVID-19 pandemic intervened and forced the opening matchup in 2020 to be rescheduled.

Hence why the Jayhawks and Tigers are doing battle in Kansas City both on Sunday and during the 2026-27 campaign.

“It’s exciting,” sophomore forward Flory Bidunga said. “Neutral site, I feel like both probably will be there, so it’s a great atmosphere to be in for sure.”

Self also said he doesn’t have a problem with playing the rivalry game at a neutral site. He did stop short of saying that he’d like to continue the series into the future, however. He mentioned the importance of taking part in the Players Era in order to secure name, image and likeness opportunities for KU’s players (and the tournament is expanding considerably being next year).

“I think everything has changed on how you approach scheduling, so we’ll approach it in a way that’s best for us moving forward and my administration will have more to say on that than I actually will,” Self said. “But it’s a good game.”

‘Probably not’ on Nickens

The KU men’s basketball staff helped kick-start the KU football team’s recruiting of wide receiver Jaden Nickens, and the idea was for him to take part in both sports.

It was always clear to Self, though, as he said last December shortly after Nickens signed with KU football, that Nickens would be “football first and foremost.”

Now it seems he may be football only. With the football team’s season now at an end, Self said on Friday that KU basketball will “probably not” add Nickens to its roster.

“But I can’t speak to that positively,” he added, “because that hasn’t been discussed. So I would say probably not, but I don’t know exactly where that is.”

Self referenced — as he had when Nickens signed — the roster limits imposed by the House v. NCAA settlement, which are now, of course, in full effect.

KU is technically able to have 14 players on its roster this season. The new limit is 15, regardless of scholarship status, but the Jayhawks are enduring their final penalty from the Independent Accountability Resolution Process.

That’s all notwithstanding the so-called Designated Student Athletes who would have lost their spots to the new limits if they had not been grandfathered in. If KU’s three walk-ons — Justin Cross, Wilder Evers and Will Thengvall — are DSAs, then the Jayhawks only have 13 of their possible spots filled.

“It’s a possibility,” Self said of Nickens, “but right now, I’m probably not leaning that way just because we’re so far along.”