Friday marked the first time Kansas and Baylor have played each other without at least one of them being ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll since December 1966. Regardless, the game will go down as one of the more memorable ones in the series, if only because it’ll forever be the one in which Darryn Peterson — in prime time on a big network stage — showed everybody why most project him to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
The 6-foot-6 guard took 13 shots, made 11 of them and finished with a game-high 26 points in just 23 minutes. He’s now averaging 22.2 points while shooting 50.4% from the field and 40.6% from three in nine appearances. Peterson is the biggest reason why the Jayhawks have won two straight and are 18th in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Arizona remains No. 1 for the seventh consecutive day.
“That was fun to watch,” said Kansas coach Bill Self. “That was impressive.”
As I noted on the Eye On College Basketball Podcast earlier this week, it’s been interesting to watch the reaction from NBA evaluators through the first two-plus months of this season while this freshman class has, broadly speaking, emerged as arguably the best ever. Duke’s Cameron Boozer has been incredible. BYU’s AJ Dybantsa has been awesome. North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson has been stellar. Houston’s Kingston Fleming’s has been wonderful.
Meantime, Peterson has barely played.
He missed nine of KU’s first 13 games and was limited in others because of various soft-tissue issues. It’s been frustrating for everybody involved. And yet, despite all of that frustration (and confusion), there was never a moment when any person I communicated with at the NBA level expressed any real concern or wavered from the idea, provided they previously held it, that Peterson is the best prospect in the class.
On Friday night against Baylor, the reasons were on full display.
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