{"id":621321,"date":"2026-02-24T06:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621321\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T06:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:46:21","slug":"bill-self-proposes-unexpected-benefit-to-darryn-petersons-absences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621321\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Self proposes unexpected benefit to Darryn Peterson’s absences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darryn Peterson<\/a> has only played in 16 of Kansas\u2019 28 games this season. However, Jayhawks head coach Bill Self<\/a> believes there may be an upside to Peterson\u2019s repetitive absences. After Kansas\u2019 dominant win over No. 5 Houston<\/a> on Monday, Self revealed how Peterson\u2019s injuries have forced other players on his team to step up.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur guys have gotten so much better since the start. And, even playing without [Darryn Peterson] so much, I think in many ways, it\u2019s forced our other guys to grow up,\u201d Self told ESPN\u2019s Scott Van Pelt. \u201cOur ceiling is still well in front of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of great teams out there that are playing really well, and they can still improve and get better, but I think we got a big gap that we can get better. We just got to get everybody healthy and on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

College basketball fans have theorized Peterson is engaging in \u201cload management\u201d<\/a> this season. In seven of Peterson\u2019s 15 appearances, he\u2019s played fewer than 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

The conversations around Peterson only grew louder last Wednesday after he subbed out of Kansas\u2019 game against\u00a0Oklahoma State<\/a>\u00a0with 17:22 remaining in the second half and didn\u2019t return. Some pundits went as far as arguing that NBA teams shouldn\u2019t draft Peterson because he may refuse to play.<\/p>\n

Through the backlash, Bill Self has defended Peterson. After all, when the former five-star prospect plays, he\u2019s nothing short of fantastic. Peterson is averaging 19.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game while shooting 48% from the field and 41.3% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

Alas, as Self mentioned, he isn\u2019t the only one playing well for the Jayhawks. In Kansas\u2019 win over Houston, four Jayhawks scored double figures. Nobody outshined Tre White<\/a>, who racked up a team-high 23 points, while shooting 3-4 from downtown.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Peterson\u2019s teammates wouldn\u2019t be playing at the level they are now if he hadn\u2019t missed any games this season. More exciting for Jayhawks fans, Self believes the team hasn\u2019t reached their potential yet.<\/p>\n

Kansas will look to build on its momentum Saturday when it squares off against No. 2 Arizona at 3 p.m. CT. The game will air live on ESPN. The Jayhawks handed Arizona its first loss of the season when the two teams met earlier this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darryn Peterson has only played in 16 of Kansas\u2019 28 games this season. However, Jayhawks head coach Bill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,4695,52411,6,12],"class_list":["post-621321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-basketball","tag-bill-self","tag-darryn-peterson-25-prolific-prep","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116124266468452391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}