Sifting through reality, rumors about Kansas' Darryn Peterson are frustrating

A lot of controversy has surrounded the Kansas basketball team this season. Freshman superstar Darryn Peterson has been at the center of it.

Expectations were high for Peterson from the beginning. He was the top recruit in his class, with an extraordinary ability to score. Kansas head coach Bill Self sang Peterson praises at the Big 12 media days back in October, saying his maturity was far advanced of anyone he had ever coached at such a young age.

Clearly, Peterson was to be the cornerstone to the Jayhawks' attempt to return to glory after a few down years by Kansas standards. Unfortunately, things haven't worked out as expected.

Peterson has suffered from various leg issues since early in the season, and he hasn't seemed to fully recover from the vague cramp problems that have hampered him all season. He's also missed a game due to a sprained ankle and another due to the mysterious flu-like symptoms.

Is Darryn Peterson actually injured, or is he load managing?

Self has defended Peterson at every turn. Last week, he was clear that the narratives surrounding Peterson and his absences and Peterson not finishing games weren't correct.

Self has also started to show some slight frustration himself when Peterson pulls himself out of games, which has happened on numerous occasions this season. After the Oklahoma State game last week, when Peterson scored at will in the first half and then pulled himself out of the game three minutes into the second half, Self was obviously surprised. He was working under the faulty premise Peterson would be available.

Seth Davis of Hoops HQ, who has covered college basketball for years, summed up the situation nicely on X. Be sure to click on "Show more" to see his full comments.

Davis brings up a good point. There has been little transparency. Self is restricted on how much he can reveal about Peterson's injuries, but he's also been caught off guard when Peterson takes himself out of games. It's clear that Self isn't seeing what is causing Peterson to come out.

The fans are just seeing a portion of the big picture. They see him look fantastic in the first halves of games, then see him pull himself for no obvious reason in the second half. They hear news that he isn't playing against Arizona (after missing Duke and UConn) due to vague flu-like symptoms. Furthermore, they see Melvin Council Jr. leave a game after a shot to the chin, then return minutes later with six stitches and go right back into the game.

These things make it easy for fans to form their own perceptions, and the jungle that is social media just pours more fuel on the fire.

Sam Vecenie, who covers basketball for The Athletic, thinks it is clear that Peterson is not healthy when compared to how he looked on tape as a prep player.

Again, like Davis, Vecenie hints at how the messaging hasn't been great. Finally, Peterson's father posted a response on Instagram. It's really the first thing we've heard from Peterson's team or handlers.

The results thus far to all the Peterson drama are that KU struggles at times to mesh when Peterson is in the game. When Peterson missed games early in the season, it helped other players to develop a level of comfort with each other, and they played very well at times.

A player of Peterson's skill level should clearly improve this team. The problem is, because of the inconsistent playing time, Peterson hasn't been able to elevate his teammates as much as everyone hoped. The other players tend to defer to Peterson and just don't operate as smoothly when he's playing.

There have been times that KU has played better without Peterson than they have with him in the game. The Jayhawks have also looked fantastic with him too. It is the inconsistency of his availability that is hurting this team.

If you take all the available information that has been released about Peterson's health at face value, you can accept that the up-and-down nature of this KU season couldn't be avoided. Your frustrations are still valid. If you believe in the rumors about load management and Peterson just protecting his draft position, your frustrations are real.

While fans are incredibly disappointed by the uneven play by Kansas, fueled this weekend by a bad loss to Cincinnati at Allen Fieldhouse, this team can still make a deep run in both upcoming tournaments. They are a good team. They can be even better if Petreson can get healthy and the players can find a way to play together.

Let's hope Peterson can get over the issues that have been hindering him and the Jayhawks can reach their potential. One piece of advice for everyone, though, is to avoid the vitriol on social media surrounding Peterson and remember he is a 19-year-old kid trying to do what is best. It is also unknown exactly how badly his leg issues are hampering him. Let's just hope he gets healthy for the stretch run.

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