Kansas guard Darryn Peterson (22) makes his way to the free throw line after a foul during the second half, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas freshman guard Darryn Peterson has played in 13 of KU’s games this season, but he has missed 11 and been limited in the second halves of plenty more, for a host of different reasons.

“He’s got a string of bad luck,” head coach Bill Self said.

From his early-season hamstring injury to the cramps that bothered him in December and January to single-game absences due to a rolled ankle and flu-like symptoms, Peterson has dealt with no shortage of ailments in what will surely be his lone collegiate season.

But when he’s been on the floor, he has been brilliant, averaging 20.5 points per game in 27.8 minutes on 48.9% shooting, including upwards of 40% from beyond the arc. He’s sunk game-tying free throws, drained game-winning 3s and thrown down posterizing dunks, and by all accounts is still a strong candidate to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.

But with that sort of high profile comes scrutiny, and with Peterson’s recent absence from KU’s momentous 82-78 victory over No. 1 Arizona on Monday came plenty of commentary from national media members questioning his motivation to play.

That criticism has been present to varying degrees all year, but in the lead-up to Thursday’s press conference ahead of KU’s trip to Iowa State, it rose to such a level that Self felt compelled to address it before the media. He said he had been reading commentary on Peterson on X and felt the discourse was “not remotely true,” adding that he has found himself in a sort of no-win situation where “when you’re honest, people don’t believe you, and when you don’t comment on it, people create their own narratives.”

He rejected the theory that Peterson is participating in some sort of “load management,” noting that the topic has never come up, and said “the narrative is B.S. in many ways.”

“Was his hamstring legit? Hell yes,” Self said. “Would you risk injuring it more in November? No. Was his cramping legit? Yes, positively, it was. Did he turn his ankle bad (at Colorado) to the point where he couldn’t practice for nine days, and then practice one day and play BYU? Yes. And that was adrenaline kicking in, in the BYU game. And then, of all things, he gets sick.”

Peterson went out to shootaround on Monday attempting to see if he could play, “and he went out before, and he gets lightheaded, and I walk in, and the doctor says, ‘Bill, he’s not going to be able to go.’ But the negative was that people saw him out there — what could have happened between being out there and not playing? Bottom line is, he was just trying to see if he could go.”

Self said it might not have seemed significant on its own if Peterson missed one game due to illness but that it took on an outsized importance for plenty of people because of what had happened the rest of the year.

“It’s a lot, I would think, when you’re 19 years old and you’re dealing with everybody having a narrative about everything that’s going on,” Self said. “Or you’re sitting on the bench and you’ve got heat warmers on your legs or whatever, and now everybody’s got a narrative about a heat warmer. I mean, come on. But that’s what he’s dealing with, and that’s the world he’s getting ready to enter.”

Peterson has to this point been on the floor for 37.2% of KU’s season. (That’s a little less than half the likes of regular starters like Flory Bidunga and Tre White.) The extent to which he is able to increase that number on Saturday afternoon at Iowa State may depend on his ongoing level of participation in practice. Self said he practiced on Wednesday and Thursday but did not do so at full speed.

“I’m hoping he can be closer to full speed tomorrow and hopefully he can be full speed on Saturday,” Self said.