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Jay Bilas compares Darryn Peterson to Kevin Durant with his scoring ability

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh01/31/26griffin_mcveigh

There does not appear to be an exact comparison for freshman point guard Darryn Peterson. Kansas certainly has a special player on its hands, possibly unlike anybody we have seen before in college basketball. But ESPN’s Jay Bilas still gave the comp a go, at least from a scoring perspective.

Bilas says Peterson is similar to current NBA superstar Kevin Durant in terms of their ability to score with a good amount of ease. Durant spent one season in Austin at Texas before turning into the No. 2 overall pick in 2007.

“So many people have been trying to get a comparison for Darryn Peterson,” Bilas said during the BYU-KU game. “… “You know, ‘Who is he like?’ I haven’t seen a scorer that scores as easily as Darryn Peterson in college since Kevin Durant. I mean, they’re very different players but just the ease at which they score. Very similar in that regard.”

Durant walked away from college basketball with a grocery list-level worth of accomplishments. He won almost everything imaginable, from awards to scoring titles. Nobody in the Big 12 averaged more than Durant’s 25.8 points per game, finishing fourth in the country. Making 40.4% from three and 47.3% from the field makes it easy to see how Durant got there.

Unfortunately, we have not gotten the full Peterson experience thus far. Injuries have kept him out of multiple games, making Saturday afternoon vs. BYU just his 11th appearance of the season. Still, Peterson found a way to officially announce himself to the entire country in the first half when going head-to-head with AJ Dybantsa.

Nobody in the halftime locker room, on either team, has more than Peterson’s 18 points. Six of his seven shots from the field have gone down. None more emphatic than a poster over multiple BYU defenders. A foul could have even been called, something Bilas later pointed out in the broadcast.

Everyone will be hoping Peterson has the ability to stay healthy moving forward. Kansas certainly is a different team with him on the floor. Other guys on the roster have stepped up at times with Peterson watching from the bench. Having the former Five-Star Plus+ out there gives the Jayhawks a whole lot higher ceiling, though.

Bilas feels confident in what Peterson can do when looking to score. Being placed in the same sentence as Durant is about as high an honor as you can ask for.