photo by: Nathan Friedman/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas guard Darryn Peterson brings the ball up the court during the game against Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz.

TEMPE, Ariz. — The Kansas men’s basketball team has, for fleeting moments this season, demonstrated to head coach Bill Self that it can remain aggressive and cohesive while also giving star freshman Darryn Peterson opportunities to, well, be Darryn Peterson.

There was the first half against BYU on Jan. 31, when Peterson dominated the headlines in his battle with AJ Dybantsa but Bryson Tiller also produced one of the best performances of his young career, and the Jayhawks leapt out to a 20-point lead as a result. Or the home matchup with Iowa State less than three weeks earlier, right after KU’s fabled players-only meeting, when Flory Bidunga dominated early and Tre White was the eventual leading scorer. That game featured a 21-point halftime lead.

“To me, we were the most aggressive defensively, offensively everyone was contributing, and (Peterson) was, you know, against BYU he was the best defender in the game the first half, and he was doing a little bit of everything,” Self said on Monday at the team hotel in Tempe, ahead of Tuesday’s game against Arizona State. “I think we’ve seen flashes of it, just not consistency.”

The fact that such consistency remains elusive, with KU now having reached the month of March, prompted Self to say that he believes he has never had a team “less figured out” at this stage of the season.

That has to do in large part with Peterson’s injuries, and specifically the cramping he has battled at various points since mid-December, including as recently as Feb. 18 at Oklahoma State, which has led to inconsistent availability.

“It’s different when you have an injury, but that injury eliminates,” Self said. “It’s different when you have (something that) it doesn’t eliminate, all it does is just linger.”

The teams that have made the longest runs in Self’s tenure as head coach, he said, have played together all season.

This one has not, which on the one hand has prompted sanguine comments from Self throughout the year about how KU hasn’t reached its ceiling. It also might inspire concern about whether the Jayhawks will ever actually be able to do so, as they continue to turn out inconsistent, if not necessarily poor, play.

“I don’t think that I’ve been around a team where we differ more (in) how we look from a sharing, aggressiveness standpoint, personality standpoint, more at this stage of the season than what this team does,” Self said.

It goes back to an issue that has hindered the team all year, but hindered them the least in games like BYU and ISU: The non-Peterson players do not maintain the same aggression when KU’s star is on the floor.

“We’ve talked about it as a group that we have to do certain things to give us the best chance to play with the energy that we’ve played with at times this year, when it’s been elite,” Self said, “and (Peterson) be a part of that energy, as opposed to let’s just try to play to get him shots or whatever, it changes the mindset (so) that I don’t think the energy’s quite the same.”

He said that when he has made this point to the players, they don’t disagree with him. They see and feel it too, that they defer too much when Peterson is in the game.

And what of Peterson himself? Self said that he needs the guard to be energetic. He looked good in the Jayhawks’ loss to Arizona on Saturday with 24 points and five rebounds, making for one of his best full-game performances of the year after a couple of middling showings against Cincinnati and Houston. But his “explosiveness,” a commonly discussed trait throughout the year, is still not where it needs to be, Self said.

“I think he’s closer, but I still think there’s another step he can take,” Self said. “You know, we’re at the point now, it’s at the end, so one way or another, we got to put that in the rearview mirror. Obviously if your body doesn’t feel that way, then it’s hard to do, but I do think he’s gaining on it.”

THE WHISTLE

At the times this season when Peterson has been healthiest, he has used his athleticism and lightning-quick first step to get to the basket. When he has been less healthy, he has operated primarily as a perimeter shooter, a role in which he is still quite effective.

Unfortunately for Peterson, he is not generating a lot of fouls with his drives to the rim. Since he returned from a one-game absence to play at Iowa State on Feb. 14, he has attempted just 3.3 free throws per game. He’s also been subjected to plenty of contact when he tries to move without the ball.

The freshman was asked postgame on Saturday about the way he’s been officiated this season.

“They don’t call them, but in the game I’m passionate, so I kind of react,” he said, “but they didn’t see it, it’s not a foul.”

Self said it can be frustrating for his player, but that he needs to play without worrying about officiating.

“But there’s a lot of holding going on off the ball that probably limits his opportunities to get good touches that the officiating is letting go right now,” Self added. “I certainly hope that that can change, because I don’t believe that I’ve seen very many players in my time that are good offensive players that the freedom of movement doesn’t exist in the way it does with most players.”

Despite the efforts of White in particular and the growth of its post players, KU is not a particularly frequent foul-shooting team at this stage of the year. The Jayhawks rank 247th in the nation with 18.9 attempts per game.