As the No. 8 Kansas basketball team got embarrassed by No. 5 Iowa State last Saturday, 74-56, it was another game that people focused on the concerns regarding star Darryn Peterson. While Peterson's minutes with the Kansas basketball team have been the talk of the sports world, head coach Bill Self made sure to dispel any narrative.
Peterson started against Iowa State, but didn't play the last seven minutes of the game, having missed time recently with an illness. There have been narratives spewed about his unwillingness to push through and play. In an interview with Seth Davis at Hoops HQ, Self would clarify what happened with Peterson's illness and his minutes last Saturday.
“He was sick, he practiced the day before as much as he could, he went through shootaround the day of, and still felt like crap. He went out to see how he felt in the pre-warmups when we do our stretching and whatnot. People saw him do that,” Self said. “At that time, he went out there saying, ‘I’m gonna do it.' Came back in when he didn’t feel well, head was pounding, all that stuff. And the doctor told me, ‘Bill, no, he’s not gonna be able to go.'”
Kansas basketball's Bill Self continues on Darryn Peterson
As Self has characterized Peterson's absences with the Kansas basketball team as “bad luck” in the past, the head coach would go into the process of a player dealing with a sickness that drains their energy.
“I think when you don’t practice for a long amount of time, and you lose weight, and you got flu symptoms and all that stuff — he didn’t feel well. When I say didn’t feel well, was he 60 percent? Was he 70 percent? Maybe, I don’t know. But he wasn’t to the point where we were down to say, ‘Hey, let’s roll with you.'”
There's no denying that some will continue to say that Peterson is “soft” or doesn't want to push through to play, but Self doesn't see it that way at all. The goal now is for Peterson to come back to a playing level.
“We gotta make sure he’s ready to practice on Monday and Tuesday to be ready on Wednesday,” Self said.
The next game for the Jayhawks (19-6, 9-3 Big 12) is on Wednesday against Oklahoma State.
