College Basketball

Kansas Basketball Recruiting: Does Darryn Peterson Deserve 2025’s Top Spot?

Author photo
By
Ben Pfeifer
Author photo
Ben Pfeifer Sports Editor

Ben Pfeifer graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in Psychology and Journalism. He has worked in basketball scouting covering the NBA and the draft for over a half-decade, working for various outlets. Now, he covers the NBA, the draft and high school basketball.

Get to know Ben Pfeifer better
Sports Editor

Published16 Feb 2025

Disclosure
We publish independently audited content meeting strict editorial standards. Ads on our site are served by Google AdSense and are not controlled or influenced by our editorial team.
Image via Maxpreps

For most of his high school career, Kansas commit Darryn Peterson has chased AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer. They’ve spent the last few years at the top of 2025 high school class rankings, with Dybantsa currently holding the consensus top spot. However, Peterson is making as strong a push as possible for the top spot.

After a dominant summer on the Adidas circuit, Peterson is putting together one of the great senior seasons in recent prospect history. He’s dominating any and every opponent in front of him, recently dropping 61 points against Dybantsa’s Utah Prep. His Prolific Prep squad already beat Dybantsa’s team twice and beat Cameron Boozer’s Columbus team in November.

Peterson’s statistical production, even outside of the 61-point game, has been historically great. In the seven Prolific Prep games logged on Synergy, he’s averaging 35.1 points, 7.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists. 2.3 steals and 1.1 blocks per game on a sizzling 62.8% true shooting clip. 

Peterson’s dominant offensive season

He’s been simply unstoppable as an offensive engine for Prolific this season, scoring and creating at all levels of the floor. Peterson is an elite shooter, making 41.5% of his 7.6 3-point attempts per game. He’s converted 47.4% of his off-dribble threes, which comprise a majority of his outside shot diet, including 6-10 threes in his recent win over Dybantsa and Utah Prep.


When teams force Peterson off of the line, he’s thrived on the interior regardless of the defenders present. In those seven games, Peterson is shooting an elite 72.7% at the hoop (6.3 attempts per game) and an even crazier 74.2% on layups, a number that rivals many elite centers. 

Peterson’s recent 61-point performance exemplifies his ridiculous season-long efficiency. He scored 61 on only 27 shots, making 21 of 25 free-throw attempts with five and one. Peterson’s veteran control of the basketball game doesn’t come often for players his age, as he dictates the pacing and outcome of every possession like a heliocentric NBA initiator.


At the moment, no major national recruiting outlets rank Peterson as the top prospect in his class. ESPN and 247 Sports both rank him third, Rivals ranks him second, and On3 ranks him fourth. Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman had Peterson atop his 2026 NBA Draft mock back in November, which is the only evidence I’ve seen of a mainstream scout ranking Peterson that high.

If Peterson’s recent performances can’t convince scouts to move him up their rankings, I’m not sure anything else will. He’s playing as well as any high school guard prospect in recent memory. Despite the brilliance of Dybantsa, Boozer and the rest of the 2025 high school class, Darryn Peterson deserves inclusion in the upper group of prospects in the entire world outside of the NBA.