photo by: AP Photo/Annie Rice

Kansas guard Darryn Peterson (22) looks to shoot during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Texas Tech, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas.

LUBBOCK, Texas — Kansas guard Darryn Peterson will be the first to tell you that he had a bad game on Monday night at Texas Tech.

Or at least he did for the first 38 1/2 minutes at United Supermarkets Arena.

“Shots weren’t really going in,” he said. “They guarded me kind of well. I just trusted the work.”

The work shone through in the end, and it was scintillating. The freshman from Canton, Ohio, once again demonstrated precisely why NBA general managers are ready to build franchises around him. Gifted an extra possession inside of two minutes to go when the Red Raiders turned the ball over in sloppy fashion, Peterson erased KU’s three-point deficit by lofting an off-balance corner 3 over 6-foot-9 forward JT Toppin.

After Toppin missed twice on the offensive end, Peterson drifted around a screen from teammate Flory Bidunga and then pulled up in front of Donovan Atwell — again beyond the arc — for the dagger with less than a minute remaining.

“His name is Bucket Jones for a reason,” senior guard Melvin Council Jr. said.

Bidunga had an epithet of his own in mind, one starting with “bad mother.” He said in KU’s postgame press conference that he told Peterson he was that sort of person when they went up to the locker room after the game.

“Excuse my language,” Bidunga added.

To be sure, Monday night’s display was not the first example of game-saving heroics from Peterson this season. For example, he drew a foul and made three free throws to tie the game in KU’s miracle comeback against TCU early in conference play.

But because of an early-season hamstring injury, recurring issues with cramping in his quadriceps muscle and a recent sprained ankle, much of his production has inevitably been limited to first halves.

For a while in Lubbock, again, it didn’t look like Peterson was bound to be that productive at all. He was 0-for-2 from the field with a pair of free throws in the second half.

“He hadn’t made many tonight,” head coach Bill Self said. “He was just kind of out there.”

And then…

“You know, he’s got something that I guess you’re born with and can’t teach,” Self said.

Peterson attributed his mentality late in the game to the aforementioned hard work and the confidence of his teammates. He maintained focus at the tail end of a game during which he was on the receiving end of derisive chants from the Texas Tech student section before and after halftime — and more broadly following weeks and months of scrutiny as he has attempted to work himself back into action.

“My personal opinion is it’s water off his back,” Self said of the latter. “He’s cut different when it comes to that type of stuff.”

It was also, of course, a sign of physical resilience that he made it to the final buzzer.

“I’ve been trying to all year,” he said. “So to finally be able to do it, it’s a blessing.”

Peterson said he didn’t deal with any cramping on Monday. Self acknowledged, though, that Peterson didn’t look nearly as explosive as he had of late, but said, “I didn’t ask him (if he was cramping). I wasn’t going to give him a chance to say it was.”

“I don’t know if it’s fatigue, I don’t know what it was,” Self said, “but I know he elevated on those last two.”

In the process, he elevated the Jayhawks to a road victory over the No. 13 team in the nation — one that, if KU takes care of business at home against Utah on Saturday, will likely elevate the Jayhawks into the top 10 in the nation, not long after they were unranked altogether.

“He is the No. 1 player in the country,” Council said. “Big players make big shots and that’s what he did for us.”