College insider said what Kansas fans are thinking about Darryn Peterson's injury concerns

The Kansas Jayhawks thought this would again be their season with the roster Bill Self built. The Jayhawks had a Darryn Peterson, a five-star freshman, who was already being considered as a top pick, if not the top pick, in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Peterson was going to be the player Kansas needed to push for another National Championship. His season started out great and really gave Jayhawks fans hope, but things quickly turned grim as Peterson suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out for quite a few games, including the game against the Duke Blue Devils, one many were excited to see.

Since then, it has become a consistent problem that has now turned into quad cramps. Peterson has sat out of many games, and against UCF on Saturday, his first game in nearly a month, it seemed like he was finally getting past it all, until the second half.

Peterson set a new season high for points in a game in the first half against the Knights with 23 points. In the second half, he added three points, but early on, he was pulled and ended up never coming back out onto the court. It was evident that some sort of injury was keeping Peterson from the contest.

Jon Rothstein said what no one else will about Darryn Peterson's injury

Even with all of the injury problems, Peterson is still being projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. This is great for Peterson as a player, but Kansas was hoping to get at least a full season with him on the court, and at this point, they are getting robbed of even that.

College basketball insider Jon Rothstein spoke about Peterson's injury problem on his podcast, and he said what no one else is willing to.

"This is officially becoming a nuisance," Rothstein said. "This is becoming something that just won't go away."

Rothstein talked about Peterson's performance against UCF, which was his best of the season, even in just 24 minutes of play. Without Peterson, the Jayhawks would have been blown out of the water by the Knights. When Peterson isn't on the court, the Jayhawks have no rhythm, they can't work the ball around, and they struggle to make shots consistently.

The one key thing that Rothstein said that should be noted is that Peterson continues to pull himself out of games, meaning this doesn't seem to be a choice by Self and the coaching staff. Bill Self even admitted that at one point in the season, he was waiting for Peterson's camp to tell him if he would be good to go. Basically, Kansas is getting no say on how Peterson plays; it is all coming from him and his agents.

"When you are at the mercy of somebody else, running a program and putting a team together with a mission to win is secondary to what that camp feels is best; it is impossible to win at the highest level," Rothstein said.

Peterson's health is of the utmost importance, but his camp is going to make sure he is not hurting his draft stock at all, even if that is at the detriment of him not playing and hurting KU's chances at having the best season possible.

This may be a hard truth that fans don't want to believe, but ultimately, this is the direction that college sports is heading, and something needs to change if people are unhappy with it.