NEW YORK -- Kansas star Darryn Peterson will be reevaluated later this week to determine his status for the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas next week, but coach Bill Self said he "[doesn't] think it'll be long" before his freshman guard returns.
Peterson has missed the past three games with a hamstring injury, including Tuesday night's 78-66 loss to No. 5 Duke at the Champions Classic. When the school announced earlier in the day that Peterson was out, it described the injury as a "strain" for the first time.
"He's had hamstring tightness, which is caused by a slight hamstring strain," Self said. "So until that subsides, he's going to not be confident to play on it, push off and those sorts of things, which has been going on a fairly significant amount of time. We actually feel good about what we're doing, they feel good about what we're doing. We don't think it'll be long."
Peterson has also had some cramping issues, but Self said those have subsided for now.
Kansas heads to Las Vegas next week for the Players Era Festival, where it will face Notre Dame on Monday and Syracuse on Tuesday before a third game against a to-be-determined opponent Wednesday. Peterson's status is up in the air.
"He's going to be reevaluated later in the week. He could not be available to us [for the Players Era Festival]," Self said. "But we'll just have to wait and see until after he's evaluated."
Before the injury, Peterson averaged 21.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in his first two games. The 6-foot-6 guard was the No. 2 recruit in the SC NEXT 100 for the 2025 high school class and is the projected No. 1 pick in ESPN's most recent 2026 NBA mock draft.
In Peterson's absence, Kansas has relied more heavily on Loyola Chicago transfer Jayden Dawson and redshirt freshman forward Bryson Tiller, while Tre White (22 points against Duke), Melvin Council Jr. (15 points) and Flory Bidunga (14 points) have taken on more offensive responsibility.
