Kansas guard Darryn Peterson said he finally has clarity on a season-long issue that shaped — and at times limited — one of the most closely watched freshman campaigns in college basketball.
“I thought I was going to die on the training table that day,” Peterson said in an interview with ESPN, recalling the episode that sent him to the hospital after a full-body cramping event during Kansas’ preseason conditioning program.
Long projected as a potential No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, Peterson said medical testing after the season pointed to high-dose creatine use as the likely cause of the severe cramping that cost him 11 games and repeatedly forced him in and out of the lineup. Creatine is a widely used supplement designed to support strength and muscle performance.
Peterson said he had not used the supplement before arriving in college. After the season, he underwent bloodwork and additional testing during a short training break. According to Peterson, doctors determined his baseline creatine levels were already elevated, and additional supplementation pushed them into an unsafe range.
The cramping first surfaced early in the season following Kansas coach Bill Self’s preseason conditioning program. Peterson described the initial episode as escalating rapidly from his legs to his entire body, ultimately requiring hospitalization for IV fluids.
“I made it to the training room and just started begging them to call 911,” Peterson told ESPN. “They were trying to get a vein to get me the IV, get me back hydrated. But I was cramping so hard they couldn’t get a vein.”
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Kansas officials were limited in what they could disclose publicly during the season because of medical privacy rules. But Self later acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding Peterson’s condition affected both his rhythm and the team’s consistency, contributing to a stop-start season for the guard.
Peterson tried to manage the issue throughout the year with hydration strategies, electrolyte supplements, IV treatments and dietary changes. He also played through discomfort at times, though he missed 11 games and exited others early when symptoms returned.
“Whenever I felt anything like that come on, my initial thought was that it might get to that again,” Peterson told ESPN. “And I can’t let that happen and be embarrassed and have that on TV and all that. It kind of put me in a tizzy because I didn’t know what was causing it. Nothing has ever been wrong with me before.”
By late in the season, Peterson was able to log more consistent minutes, including several 30-plus-minute performances. He said the issue began to subside after he stopped taking creatine. He has since resumed training in Los Angeles ahead of the NBA Draft combine and said he has not experienced further cramping episodes.
Peterson entered the college season widely viewed as a candidate to be the No. 1 overall pick, and he still remains firmly in that conversation despite the uneven year.
Will Peterson still go No. 1 in the 2026 NBA Draft?
Even with a disrupted freshman season, Peterson’s draft stock has not collapsed. The key question for teams is how much of his missed time stemmed from a correctable supplement issue rather than an underlying injury concern.
That distinction matters in a draft where he is still considered among the few players with true No. 1 overall upside. While BYU star AJ Dybantsa is widely viewed as the current favorite to be selected first, league evaluators continue to stress that the decision is not finalized and will hinge on medicals, workouts and interviews.
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Peterson’s best stretches at Kansas reinforced why he was once the top-ranked high school player in his class, showing advanced scoring instincts and the ability to operate both on and off the ball. If teams are convinced the cramping issue has been fully identified and resolved, his path back into serious No. 1 consideration remains open.
Peterson averaged 20.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 0.6 blocks per game while shooting 43.8% from the field, including 38.2% from 3-point range.
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Darryn Peterson Draft Scouting Report
Pro Comparison:
Tyrese Maxey
Summary
Peterson is the most dynamic guard in this draft class and potentially one of the best on-ball creators we’ve seen in the backcourt in several draft classes. He came into the 2025-26 college season as a consensus top-three prospect after averaging 30.4 points, 7.4 assists, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 steals as a high school senior at Prolific Prep. While the narratives around his freshman season at Kansas have centered around his time missed, he’s continued his pattern of making clear gains with each passing year, despite rarely playing with the full explosiveness that we saw in high school.
About
- No. 1 prospect in the national 2025 recruiting class.
- Co-MVP of the McDonald’s All-American Game.
- Naismith High School Player of the Year.
Strengths
- Dynamic creator with an overlap of positional size, length, strength and playmaking ability.
- Can score and make plays at all three levels with his handle, pull-up shooting, physicality as a driver, mid-post game, pick-and-roll navigation, knack for drawing fouls and ability to create for others.
- Drastically improved shot-making and ability to make tough shots, off both the catch and the dribble.
Weaknesses
- Availability and durability are the two biggest concerns given the amount of time he’s missed and also been noticeably less than 100% this year at Kansas.
- High-usage player who rarely showed the same playmaking for others, or even on-ball initiating, as frequently as he did in high school.
- Can be a little bit of a ball-stopper in the halfcourt.
