There is no shortage of drama when it comes to Big 12 basketball. From the stories on the court to the ones off of it. Just this season alone, we have no shortage of storylines, whether it’s locally or nationally.
As great as the play has been with the top tier of the conference, the best stories off the court have come from the Sunflower State. The Jerome Tang saga was certainly one of the most memorable in recent years to the point where national analysts were talking about his shenanigans. But now it appears that we don’t have to look very far to find our next soap opera.
Kansas is one of the biggest brands in all of college basketball. From the championships to the list of all-time greats, they were once the gold standard of Big 12 basketball. Head coach Bill Self has had a remarkable run and is widely regarded as one of the best coaches in the country.
They are a program that draws a lot of national attention and intrigue from top players. However, Kansas has been receiving a lot more attention than usual, and it has nothing to do with the play on the court. In fact, it has to do with someone not wanting to be on the court.
Of course, I am talking about star freshman Darryn Peterson. Now, before I go off, I want one thing to be clear. Peterson is a fantastic player. There’s a reason why scouts line up to see him and only dream about drafting him. Whether he plays another minute or not for Kansas, he will be a lottery pick.
It seems like all season long, the only thing we have heard about him is load management. Is he going to play? Is he going to sit? Or does he even want to play college basketball at all? These are the questions we all want answers to.
Up to this point, Peterson had played in 16 of Kansas’ 27 games. In his 16 games, Darryn has played over 30 minutes in just six of them. And call me crazy, but I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Peterson is just 19 and is already load managing more than Lebron James, who is 41. I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like it. There are less than 40 games in college basketball even if your team makes it all the way y et Darryn can’t even play a full game or more than 30 minutes. Who in the hell wants a guy like that to lead their franchise?
College basketball is only 40 minutes long, while an NBA game is 48 minutes long. How in the world is he going to play more than 30 minutes in an NBA game? I don’t know if it’s his agent in his ear or him just flat out not caring, which is a stereotype that is killing the NBA regular season.
It’s one thing if this were ten years ago, and a guy like Darryn Peterson wasn’t getting paid. But he’s getting paid millions of dollars, and he is treating this like it’s some part-time job that he doesn’t care about.
Bill Self needs to draw a line in the sand in order to tell Darryn you are either fully in or full out. If he doesn’t want to commit, then he can sit on the bench for the rest of the year and get a head start on load management in the NBA.
