Reading between the lines on Bill Self's latest Darryn Peterson comments

The Darryn Peterson saga took another unpredictable turn on Wednesday night, when the top-ranked prospect voluntarily checked out less than three minutes into the second half of Kansas' 81-69 win over Oklahoma State. He finished the game with 23 points in 18 minutes.

After the game, Kansas head coach Bill Self was asked about Peterson's early exit. The coach was blunt in expressing his disappointment:

"We've had this happen more than a couple of times," he said. "I didn't anticipate that tonight at all. I thought he was good to go. We only got 18 minutes out of him. That's disappointing, because he could've had a really big night."

What's going on with Darryn Peterson?

There has been quite the firestorm of reactions to Peterson's exit last night and Self's subsequent comments. The discourse cycle, per usual, cannot simply be normal. There are folks saying no team should take Peterson No. 1 in June's NBA Draft. There are others questioning if he's serious about winning, or committed to the Jayhawks program.

Self's statement on Wednesday was not a first-time thing. Peterson has missed a lot of time this season, appearing in just 15 of Kansas' 26 games so far. Of those 15 games, he has only eclipsed 30 minutes on the floor six times. After dealing with a hamstring injury early in the campaign, Peterson has subsequently dealt with the lingering ill-effects of that injury: a lot of cramping. He also missed a game against then-undefeated Arizona earlier this month (which Kansas won) due to an illness. He was a last-minute scratch, and Self's comments on that situation were later echoed by his comments after the Oklahoma State game.

"We thought he’d go,” Self said (h/t On3 Kansas). “I thought adrenaline would kick in and he would go. He was at shootaround today. He was out there. But you could just tell he didn’t feel great. We were all hopeful he would kick in and be ready to go. You sound like you bet on the game. But there was no ploy with that at all."

The clear through-line with Self's comments all season is frustration. As are we all frustrated. Peterson came into the season with an incredible hype machine behind him. He was the No. 1 recruit, hailed as a generational guard prospect. Even more frustrating is that, when healthy, he has mostly delivered on those excpectations. At times, he has even exceeded them. Folks want to watch Peterson play, which just has not happened enough — often under somewhat mysterious and amorphous circumstances.

It has reached the point where talking heads like Stephen A. Smith are denouncing Peterson as a viable top draft pick. Right or wrong, this is where the discourse has led us.

Is Bill Self upset with Darryn Peterson?

My general read on this situation — and this will certainly vary from person to person — is that Self's frustration is not aimed at Peterson. He is no doubt upset that Peterson keeps missing time, but as of now, there's no credible evidence to suggest Peterson is "saving himself" for the draft or exiting games for non-injury reasons. This is a guy who has dealt with hamstring issues, cramping and illness all season. It's a brutal cocktail, which has impacted Peterson on the court, as well as his ability to stay on the court.

There are parallels to the countless press conferences of Philadelphia 76ers head coach Nick Nurse last season, when he dealt with an endless barrage of questions regarding the mercurial health status of franchise cornerstone Joel Embiid (ironically, a former Jayhawk). Nurse just looked deflated and defeated at a certain point. You can't keep fielding the same variety of question day after day, week after week, and not be a little bit pissed off at a certain point.

That's not to say Self is angry with the media, and certainly not with Peterson. There is no blame being cast (as of yet). This is just an unfortunate situation all around — for Self, for Peterson, and for the Jayhawks program. With March Madness around the corner, it's fair to wonder the extent to which Kansas can actually rely on Peterson. That is not a great position to be in.

Self referenced Kansas' end-of-season goals in reference to Peterson's Wednesday exit.

"[The cramping] is a concern," Self told ESPN. "I thought we were past it, but obviously we're not. It's certainly a concern. You get into the NCAA tournament, you're playing a team just as good as you and you need to have all your best players available, so to speak. All it takes is for one day like that to derail not only a game, but a season."

How does this impact the future outlooks for Kansas and Peterson?

Kansas currently ranks eighth in the AP poll and 14th in KenPom's Net Rating metric. To his credit, Self has been able to steady the ship through turbulent waters. Kansas has consistently performed well in Peterson's absence — from when he missed multiple weeks early in the season, to Wednesday when he was yanked mid-game. The Jayhawks are still a real threat come March, even if Peterson's status remains uncertain.

On the other hand... Peterson is the Jayhawks' best player, bar none. He's arguably the best guard in college basketball once he's rolling. There is not a more natural, dominant scorer in the sport right now. If Kansas earnestly wants to challenge Michigan, Duke, Arizona, and those teams at the top of the bracket, it will require a fully healthy, fully available Peterson. The Jayhawks cannot afford to lose Peterson 18 minutes into a do-or-die showdown against the best teams in college basketball a month from now.

So, this could have real ramifications if the issue persists. Hopefully Peterson can discover a solution and get right. There is no indication that he is not serious about playing full-tilt and trying to help Kansas win a championship. We can speculate, surmise, guess at his intent — but nothing, truly, has evidenced anything beyond a nagging, unfortunate injury problem.

As for Peterson's NBA Draft stock, only time will tell. NBA teams will want to get their hands on his full medical records and discuss the matter with him in individual meetings. How Peterson conducts himself in those meetings, the earnestness of his responses, could go a long way in drawing the line between him and Cameron Boozer or AJ Dybantsa atop draft boards. For better or for worse.

Everything in Peterson's prospect profile paints him as a legitimate candidate to go No. 1 overall. He's a proficient three-level scorer with a malleable skill set, which should promote stardom in almost any environment. That said, narrative does matter in draft conversations, often more than it really should. So Peterson would do well to put on a proper display in March, if he can. It would help assuage mounting concerns.

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