With the Kansas basketball team taking on the BYU Cougars on Saturday, it will be a highly anticipated matchup between top projected NBA Draft picks Darryn Peterson and AJ Dybantsa. Though the Kansas basketball star is currently dealing with an ankle injury, Bill Simmons would speak on his prospects in the NBA and why he has cooled off on the hype.
Speaking on his self-titled show, the sports analyst would even compare the Jayhawks freshman to former first-overall pick Ben Simmons due to his injuries and overall drive. Some may see this as a big turn, as Simmons would compare Peterson to Kobe Bryant back in September of last year.
“Darryn Peterson, I’m cooling on, based on the Ben Simmons, I’m not positive you like basketball because you’re not playing basketball. What’s going on with you?” Simmons asked.
The topic of conversation came about due to a discussion of which team should get the No. 1 overall pick based on karma.
“This question is the league is either trying to send a message or trying to do somebody a solid,” Simmons said. “And I think the answer is OKC getting the number one pick from the Clippers. As the Aspiration penalty to the Clippers. It’s like we couldn’t find anything but, and then all of a sudden, OKC gets AJ Dybantsa.”
Kansas basketball's Darryn Peterson is dealing with an ankle injury
While the focus is on the Kansas basketball team and Peterson, there is concern if he will become injury-prone, as he's missed 10 of the program's first 20 games. Still, there's no denying how anticipated the matchup is against BYU and Dybantsa, with head coach Bill Self saying he'll likely play.
“I think they'll play,” Self said, according to 247 Sports. “I don't know for a fact, I'm not a doctor, but I think he'll play. That game will obviously mean a lot to a lot of people. They're terrific, and GameDay will make it extra hype. So I don't see any reason that he couldn't play. If he played today, he would have been ineffective, because I think he couldn't have pushed off today.”
It remains to be seen if he will, but Peterson has been averaging 21.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 49.3 percent from the field and 42 percent from deep.
