LAWRENCE, Kan. — Darryn Peterson will miss another game for No. 25 Kansas this weekend because of a lingering hamstring issue, coach Bill Self said Friday, though the Jayhawks coach added “we don’t think it’s a long-term deal at all.”
The nation’s top-ranked recruit, and potentially the No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA draft, missed Tuesday night’s 77-46 rout of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi after hurting himself in a shootaround earlier in the day. He will now miss Saturday’s game against Princeton.
“For whatever reason it’s still sore and [we are] trying to figure it out,” Self said. “As long as it’s still this sore, he says, and limits him at all, there’s no reason to put him out there yet. So that’s where we’re at.”
The big question is whether Peterson will be back for some high-profile games beginning next week.
The Jayhawks head to New York to play No. 4 Duke on Tuesday in the Champions Classic. Then comes a trip to Las Vegas, where they are guaranteed games against Notre Dame and Syracuse in the Players Era festival. Third-ranked UConn visits Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 2, and Kansas also has games against Missouri and N.C. State before Big 12 play begins.
Peterson scored 21 points in 22 minutes during his college debut against Green Bay, and he had 22 against the Tar Heels. But he also was hampered by cramping problems early in the season, which limited him to one half of an exhibition against Louisville and kept him from playing entirely in another exhibition game against Fort Hays State.
Asked whether he was concerned about Peterson missing time, Self replied: “Right now, a couple of days, I’m not.”
“He practiced the day of our game on Tuesday,” Self said. “But he said it just feels tight, and it still felt tight yesterday.”
