NBA scouts love Darryn Peterson, but even they are starting to wonder what's going on behind the scenes

The most anticipated head-to-head match-up of the college basketball season, Kansas' Darryn Peterson vs. BYU's AJ Dybantsa, gave us a definitive answer before halftime.

Peterson is the top pro prospect in the sport and remains atop the CBS Sports big board rankings for the 2026 NBA Draft. 

Of course, the second half reaffirmed every question that has been raised in the last three months as Peterson played only three minutes, in which there was a notable lack of burst relative to the first half, before leaving with his latest cramping issue.

This on-again off-again saga is now "getting bizarre," according to one NBA scout I spoke with over the weekend. 

Bill Self's public comments about Peterson's health have been similarly puzzling. 

"I have no idea," Self said postgame Saturday when asked why Peterson came out of the game. "I'm not a doctor, but he definitely started cramping.

Peterson has generally been less available and less productive in second halves this season; he is averaging 16.4 minutes and 13.8 points in the first half this season, and 10.2 minutes and 7.5 points in the second. Of No. 13 Kansas' 21 games, Peterson has played in 11 of them, beset by a hamstring injury, then quad cramping, then a gnarly ankle injury, and then cramping again Saturday. 

The bottom line is that scouts are now wondering out loud what's going on behind the scenes. Ironically, it comes with more certainty than ever about what they're seeing between the lines: Peterson, not Dybantsa and not Duke's Cameron Boozer, is the best prospect in this summer's draft. 

"I'm even more enthusiastic about him," another scout told CBS Sports. "If he's doing stuff like this without being 100%, he's even better than I thought."

The dialogue that will pick up now, though, is whether Peterson's talent outweighs the injury the risks in a class that also offers Dybantsa and Boozer as options to whoever wins the lottery. Recent NBA history will be at the front of everybody's minds; fellow highly-regarded prospects Joel Embiid and Zion Williamson have all had their trajectories impacted by an inability to stay healthy. Embiid slipped from No. 1 to No. 3 in the draft because of injury red flags. He has won an MVP with the 76ers, but has also been an availability see-saw. Williamson, a super prospect and the No. 1 pick by New Orleans in 2019, may never reach his ceiling for a couple reasons, injuries being chief among tme. 

With regards to Peterson's inconsistent availability, there are essentially three ways to interpret what has been going on.

One: that it speaks to bigger medical issues or red-flags. There is actually less trepidation about this than there might be in years past, however, since the new collective bargaining agreement ensures that anyone picking atop the draft will have full access to his medical information.

The second interpretation, one that's being speculated about: That his inconsistent availability is the direct result of his agent, Darren Matsubara, and his father, Darryl Peterson, pulling all of the strings here and being overly cautious. While these whispers are not new, they've intensified since Saturday's game when Kansas Deputy AD Sean Lester came over to speak with Peterson in the middle of a stoppage in play. There are even reports, currently unconfirmed by CBS Sports, that he had previously spoken with Matsubara in the tunnel immediately prior to going over to Peterson.

The third interpretation is one that no media member wants to say out loud, but that scouts are consistently asking behind the scenes: "What do we know about his pain tolerance before this year?" as I was recently asked. Basically, in the football sense, is he hurt or injured? Availability is as critical to being a star in today's NBA as anything, and if Peterson is easily derailed, physically or mentally, that's of concern to NBA decision-makers. 

Beyond the root of the availability concerns, there is also a widespread assumption that Self can't speak totally candidly for fear of Peterson being shut down for the year. 

"It's obvious he can't say what he wants to say," another NBA scout told me two weeks ago. Peterson's availability has toggled from "in" to "out" three times this season. He is not listed on the injury report for Monday's clash at No. 13 Texas Tech. 

The bottom line is that while Peterson's talent has been undeniable, perhaps exceeding our expectations coming into the season, everything else has fans, media and even NBA scouts speculating for all the wrong reasons.

There are two ways to resolve that. Staying on the court is step No. 1, continued domination is step No. 2. The latter seems easy. Getting healthy, and keeping it that way, is the hard part.