{"id":672416,"date":"2026-03-22T09:36:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T09:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/672416\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T09:36:26","slug":"what-rick-pitino-had-to-say-about-kansas-basketballs-darryn-peterson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/672416\/","title":{"rendered":"What Rick Pitino had to say about Kansas basketball\u2019s Darryn Peterson"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO, California \u2014\u00a0As much as St. John\u2019s coach Rick Pitino is aware of what reaching the Sweet 16 this year would mean for his program, that\u2019s not where he\u2019s focusing.<\/p>\n

Pitino, in his third year leading the Red Storm, is locked in on what makes Kansas<\/a> great and what it\u2019ll take to defeat the Jayhawks in the men\u2019s NCAA tournament. If St. John\u2019s wins, making a Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999 will take care of itself. If it doesn\u2019t, it\u2019s not going to be because he didn\u2019t try to get his team ready for what\u2019s set to be a challenging matchup.<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s the size Kansas<\/a> basketball coach Bill Self\u2019s roster has this season, as well as how much the Jayhawks (24-10) like to use pace. There\u2019s how physical and tough-minded he\u2019s known Self\u2019s teams to be over the years, at Kansas, ahead of this round of 32 game Sunday in San Diego, California. Pitino also doesn\u2019t think there\u2019s been any team St. John\u2019s (29-6) has faced this season that throws more lob dunks than KU.<\/p>\n

RELATED: KU basketball players praise Darryn Peterson\u2019s NCAA tournament debut<\/a><\/p>\n

But when No. 5 seed St. John\u2019s and No. 4 seed Kansas meet up in this East Region contest, it\u2019ll also feature one of the potential top picks in the 2026 NBA Draft in KU freshman Darryn Peterson. As much as this game will be about the Red Storm and Jayhawks facing off, that it\u2019s another opportunity to see Peterson healthy and playing again \u2014\u00a0after he\u2019s dealt with health issues earlier this season \u2014 will surely add to the attention surrounding the game. And Pitino is well aware of Peterson\u2019s talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets to the foul line, he\u2019s got great size, got a beautiful looking jump shot with great arc,\u201d Pitino said Saturday about Peterson. \u201cHis size presents a problem. When he uses the pick and roll, he\u2019ll reject it, and his size getting to the rim\u2019s great. He\u2019s a great scorer. He\u2019s going to be a great NBA player because he has an NBA game, and we\u2019ve got our work cut out for him, trying to stop him. But, they have a well-rounded team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pitino also talked about how terrific Kansas senior Melvin Council Jr. is, with what he\u2019s capable of on a fast break. Pitino highlighted KU sophomore Flory Bidunga, who\u2019s the Big 12 Conference\u2019s defensive player of the year. But how St. John\u2019s guards Peterson will be among the top things to watch in this March Madness matchup, especially after Peterson dropped 28 points Friday in a win against No. 13 seed California Baptist.<\/p>\n

Across 23 games this season, Peterson has averaged 20.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, while averaging more than an assist and a steal per contest. He\u2019s shot 44.3% from the field, 38.2% from behind the arc and 82.8% from the free throw line. He stepped up to help KU avoid an upset in the round of 64, and it\u2019ll be up to Pitino and the Red Storm to see if he will be the one celebrating a run to the Sweet 16 with the Jayhawks instead.<\/p>\n

\"March<\/p>\n

March 20, 2026; San Diego, CA; Kansas basketball guard Darryn Peterson (22) shoots against California Baptist guard Martel Williams (33) during a men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament game at Viejas Arena.<\/p>\n

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He was the 2022 National Sports Media Association\u2019s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Rick Pitino’s opinion about Kansas basketball\u2019s Darryn Peterson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO, California \u2014\u00a0As much as St. John\u2019s coach Rick Pitino is aware of what reaching the Sweet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,160,17641,2465,3727,2469,5920,1284,11715,8851],"class_list":["post-672416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-california","tag-darryn-peterson","tag-flory-bidunga","tag-jayhawks","tag-kansas","tag-red-storm","tag-rick-pitino","tag-san-diego","tag-the-jayhawks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116272156143314271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672416","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=672416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}