Canton native Darryn Peterson has made one of the most highly anticipated decisions on the national college basketball recruiting scene, choosing the University of Kansas as the destination for his 2025-26 freshman season.
Peterson announced his commitment Friday night on the CBS Sports HQ streaming channel. He chose Kansas over three other finalists, Kansas State, Ohio State and USC.
“I’ll be taking my talents to the University of Kansas. Go Jayhawks,” Peterson said on CBS Sports HQ.
Peterson’s father, Darryl Peterson II, seemingly telegraphed Kansas as the choice earlier in the week by posting an Instagram story announcing Jayhawks coach Bill Self would have the final recruiting visit with Peterson in the buildup to the commitment.
“I just feel like it aligned perfectly with my academic and athletic goals,” Peterson said. “Kansas has a strong history of development and success, which were two huge things for me during this process — find somewhere I can go develop as a player and also have success while doing it.
“They’ve done a great job recruiting me. They’ve been recruiting me since like my freshman year. So the relationship’s been there. [Self] told me how he could use me in the offense and what he could do to utilize my talents and what he sees for me. And I’ve seen the same stuff he was seeing.”
Peterson, 17, is widely expected to become a high-profile NBA draft pick in the near future, likely after only one collegiate season. It has been Peterson’s projected career path since his days at CVCA, where he starred as a freshman and sophomore basketball phenom. The five-star recruit averaged 31 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 1.3 assists in his final season of Ohio high school hoops.
Peterson had trimmed his college choices to a list of eight schools: Arizona State, Louisville, Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Ohio State, USC and Washington. Later, he narrowed it down to Kansas, Kansas State, Ohio State and USC. In the end, Kansas won the Peterson sweepstakes.
A 6-foot-5 guard, Peterson is the country’s third-ranked high school senior in ESPN’s recruiting database.
“I feel like I can score, defend, facilitate, rebound,” Peterson said. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
Peterson was born in Canton and raised in Akron and Canton, his dad and former University of Akron basketball player, Darryl Peterson II, told the Beacon Journal in 2023.
Peterson left Northeast Ohio in 2023 to play at Huntington Prep in West Virginia as a junior and then transferred in August to Prolific Prep in California’s Napa Valley for his senior season.
After departing CVCA, Peterson became the first high school athlete to sign an NIL deal with Adidas, which has an apparel contract with Kansas.
“There’s tons of high school athletes [Adidas] could have chose, but they chose me to make the first,” Peterson said. “It feels great being a part of history, and it’s great having a worldwide brand behind me and believing in me.”
Shortly after striking a deal with Adidas, Peterson also signed a trading card deal with Fanatics. The Ohio High School Athletic Association prohibits student-athletes from signing endorsement agreements, so the deals with Adidas and Fanatics couldn’t materialize for Peterson while he played for CVCA.
“Sure, I mean, [NIL] was a part [of the decision to transfer out of Ohio]. It wasn’t the biggest part,” father Darryl Peterson II told the Beacon Journal last year. “The main part was really just playing against the national talent, national level, preparation, getting ready to kind of get ready for college and that kind of thing. That was the main thing. But if we can do that and still go access NIL, why not? Going to the prep school did allow us to unlock that, and it’s been great.”
Between Peterson’s final season at CVCA and his lone season at Huntington Prep, he captured a gold medal with the U.S. Men’s U16 National Team. He averaged 16.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.3 steals in six tournament games for Team USA en route to it winning the 2023 FIBA Men’s U16 Americas Championship.
Now Peterson will be in the NCAA basketball spotlight at Kansas.
“I’m going to try my best to get us to a championship and bring it back,” Peterson said.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.
