NEW YORK
Star freshman Darryn Peterson will not play in Kansas basketball’s matchup against Duke on Tuesday night, coach Bill Self confirmed to The Star.
Self said Peterson is “making improvement” with a hamstring strain and will be reevaluated at the end of the week.
This is the third straight game Peterson has missed due to the hamstring injury. A KU spokesperson told The Star that Peterson did travel with the team.
After the Jayhawks’ victory over Princeton on Saturday, Self said — as part of an unrelated answer — that the Jayhawks wouldn’t have Peterson for the “immediate future.”
“We’re not, obviously, going to have him at least for the immediate future,” Self said at the time. “I just don’t know how long that’ll be.”
The freshman missed KU’s game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday, as well as Saturday’s contest. Self had previously described the issue as hamstring tightness.
For the No. 24 Jayhawks, this is a big blow — especially against top prospect Cameron Boozer and No. 5 Duke on a big stage.
The matchup was highly anticipated for many reasons, but a lot of hype was built around Peterson’s matchup against the Duke freshman star. The two players are vying to be selected No. 1 in the 2026 NBA Draft.
“(Peterson) wants to be out there so bad, but I’m not going to put him out there until he feels well,” Self said Saturday. “You can say or think we’re trying to win the battle. Well, yeah, we are, but the battle is not near as important as the long term.”
Peterson has missed a good amount of time due to the injury.
He did not play in an exhibition game against Fort Hays State and played limited minutes in another exhibition game against Louisville due to what Self described as “cramping” at the time.
“We’ve got to get him where he’s not hesitant to play,” Self said after KU’s game against Princeton. “We have seen him play, and he’s pretty good, and we still haven’t seen him whole yet. Think about that.”
The Star’s Gary Bedore contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 18, 2025 at 11:15 AM.
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Shreyas Laddha
The Kansas City Star
Shreyas Laddha covers KU hoops and football for The Star. He’s a Georgia native and graduated from the University of Georgia.
