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Darryn Peterson’s up-and-down college season continued with a surprising late scratch against No. 1 Arizona on Monday night.
The star Kansas freshman—projected as a top-three NBA draft pick—sat out with flu-like symptoms despite warming up with the team. Kansas coach Bill Self said after the game he didn’t learn until an hour before tipoff that Peterson wouldn’t play.
“I went into the training room, he’s in there trying, and I said, ‘Can you?’ and he said, ‘Coach, I don’t think I can,’” Self said after the game. “And to be honest with you, I would probably rather him not play if he couldn’t contribute, just because we’d spend 20 minutes trying to get him shots or whatever, and if he doesn’t feel it, then I would much rather do it the way that it happened. So, he tried, but he just couldn’t get there.”
The Jayhawks won anyway, handing the Wildcats their first loss of the season in a 82–78 win.
But Peterson’s absence received another layer of drama after Barstool Sports posted a video of a man texting at the Kansas scorer’s table.
“So he’s sick and he didn’t tell anyone in practice and Bill said don’t half ass it if your gonna play, if not sit,” the text message appeared to say. “[Peterson] said Fuck It, I’m out.”
The tweet went viral and Kansas athletics spokesperson Daniel Berk responded publicly just 75 minutes later.
“The person texting in this video is a contracted crew worker who handles official stats during the game for ESPN,” Berk said in the post. “He does not work for KU and is not affiliated with the athletic department in any way. He has no inside information and was speculating. We are handling internally.”
ESPN declined to comment.
Peterson has missed 11 games this season, but has played like a top pick when healthy. He missed nine games due to a hamstring strain, one to an ankle injury and Monday’s with an illness. In 13 games he’s averaging 20.5 points per game on 49% shooting and 42% from 3.
Self—who coached Joel Embiid, Andrew Wiggins, and Christian Braun at Kansas—has previously called Peterson “the best player we’ve recruited since we’ve been here.”
In December, Self admitted that Peterson’s family has influence in his availability, after Peterson missed a game against Davidson due to a family decision.
“We’ve talked about this,” Self said. “We’re in agreement with the family that he should not play until he feels good,” Self said. “We’re in agreement. But I’m not inside his head or his body that I can determine if he feels good enough or not.”
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