photo by: AP Photos/Charlie Riedel, Rob Gray

This photo collage shows Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, left, against Baylor on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Lawrence, and BYU forward AJ Dybantsa against Eastern Washington on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Provo, Utah.

Any team with a remote chance of obtaining a high NBA Draft pick — which, given the way the draft lottery works, the several months left in the NBA season and the possibility of trades, could be just about any team — would do well to have its scouting department represented in Lawrence on Saturday afternoon.

Assuming that guard Darryn Peterson’s ankle cooperates — and Kansas coach Bill Self (on Saturday) and associate head coach Jeremy Case (on Monday’s “Hawk Talk”) have both suggested that they expect him to play — the matchup between No. 14 KU and No. 13 BYU at Allen Fieldhouse at 3:30 p.m. will feature the probable top two picks in the 2026 NBA Draft in Peterson and the Cougars’ 6-foot-9 forward AJ Dybantsa.

Of course it won’t just be the scouts showing out for the rare matchup, which given the competition would be a hot ticket under any circumstance. KU’s highly touted 2026 point guard signee Taylen Kinney and 2027 wing commitment Javon Bardwell, Overtime Elite teammates, are expected to visit according to Shay Wildeboor of JayhawkSlant.com, along with top-ranked 2026 prospect and KU target Tyran Stokes. A star-studded group of alumni will undoubtedly make the trip as well, and of course ESPN’s “College GameDay” crew will set up shop on James Naismith Court.

Now, any coach will remind you that there will be eight other players on the floor at any given time on Saturday evening — and some good ones, too between KU’s well-rounded starting group with the likes of Flory Bidunga, Melvin Council Jr., Bryson Tiller and Tre White and BYU’s elite lineup that includes familiar names like Richie Saunders and Robert Wright III.

There could be quite a few future pros out there, in fact. But the opportunity to see Peterson and Dybantsa battle it out — even if they play different positions, with Peterson a sort of combo guard and Dybantsa a power forward for BYU — is a unique one. (And one the Big 12 surprisingly provided it just once, even though it could have booked the two teams at the Marriott Center as well this year.)

Peterson and Dybantsa have of course faced off before as high school players, when Peterson, a Canton, Ohio, native, was at Prolific Prep, which was then based in California, and Dybantsa, of Brockton, Massachusetts, was at Utah Prep. In December 2024, Prolific won 76-70 in a Grind Session game, as Peterson posted a 32-point, 10-rebound, eight-assist showing and Dybantsa scored 28 with eight rebounds and six assists. The more famous battle between the two came two months later, when Dybantsa put up 49 but Peterson did one better with 61 points and the game-winning shot.

It is not, of course, a foregone conclusion that Peterson and Dybantsa go, in some order, No. 1 and No. 2 overall. But mock drafts certainly seem to lean that way five months out, even as Peterson has battled injury — lately the sprained ankle, but more notably a hamstring issue and persistent cramps until recently.

ESPN, in its mock draft posted Jan. 13, had Peterson first to the Indiana Pacers and Dybantsa second to the Sacramento Kings.

“It’s hard to be declarative on how Peterson’s health will impact things until teams receive his medical in the spring, but his stock as a top pick candidate has held firm,” Jeremy Woo wrote. “Continuing to play should help assuage lingering concerns. There is still time for consensus to solidify, but with all three of Peterson, AJ Dybantsa and (Duke freshman forward) Cam Boozer playing at a very high level, this will likely come down to which team is picking No. 1 after the draft lottery in May.”

Peterson is an ultra-confident, high-efficiency scorer who can create a viable shot from any angle on the court. He has also shown, especially when healthy, a degree of athleticism that allows him to take defenders off the dribble on one end and stay with just about anyone on the other. He’s averaging 21.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in just 27.2 minutes across 10 games.

And here’s KU’s associate head coach on Dybantsa, another of the nation’s most productive players at 23.6 points and 6.7 rebounds: “I actually like him defensively,” Case said. “I think he’s pretty active, he’s long and he’s so athletic and he really tries to guard and to block shots, but he’s better offensively than I thought he was. And what they do with him, they run a ton of isolations for him. If they feel like there’s a bad defender out there, they’ll screen for him and get a switch and try to let him go to work.”

When he does go to work, he has an unparalleled ability to get into the paint and make use of his considerable length to score there.

ESPN is not an outlier in considering these prospects the top two (with Boozer, whom KU saw in November at Madison Square Garden, in a similar tier). USA Today on Jan. 9 had Dybantsa to the Pacers followed by Peterson to the Atlanta Hawks. The Athletic on Jan. 7 (a ranking more so than a mock draft) also put Dybantsa above Peterson.

SB Nation on Tuesday went out on a limb in some sense with Boozer No. 1 to the Pacers, Peterson to Dallas and Dybantsa third to Sacramento.

Freshmen have played brilliantly all over the country this season, to be sure. The next tier below that trio includes the likes of North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson, whose potency KU witnessed firsthand in an early-season loss, and Houston’s Kingston Flemings, whom the Jayhawks will see soon and who just dropped 42 on the road at Texas Tech. And each day seems to bring another dazzling moment from someone like Koa Peat or Brayden Burries (Arizona) or Darius Acuff Jr. (Arkansas) or Shawnee native Keaton Wagler (Illinois) or Braylon Mullins (UConn) or even Ebuka Okorie (Stanford) … and so on.

But No. 1 doesn’t play No. 2 every day. The last time a college basketball game featured the eventual top two picks was Nov. 26, 2021, when Paolo Banchero and Duke beat Chet Holmgren and Gonzaga, 84-81. Banchero went to Orlando and Holmgren to Oklahoma City the following summer.