Peterson Named to Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson has been named to the 2025-26 John R. Wooden Award Men's Preseason Top 50 Watch List, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced today.

Selected by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list comprises 50 student-athletes who are frontrunners for the Wooden Award All-American Team and the John R. Wooden Award. This season marks the 50th anniversary of award.

Peterson is looking to become the third Jayhawk to win the John R. Wooden Award joining Danny Manning (1988) and Frank Mason III (2017).

On most every preseason All-America team and national player of the year watch list, Peterson leads Kansas in scoring at 21.5 points per game. In two games played, Peterson is 15-for-25 (60.0 percent) from the field, 6-for-12 from three-point range, and is tied for the team lead with four steals and also has six assists and two blocked shots.

Named the Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year and a unanimous Preseason All-Big 12 selection by the league coaches, Peterson is one of Kansas' highest-ever recruited players after earning Naismith Trophy High School Player of the Year and McDonald's All-American honors following the 2024-25 season. Last season, the 6-foot-6 Canton, Ohio, native averaged 30.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 2.2 steals per game. He ended 2024-25 ranked No. 1 by 247Sports.com and On3.com. Peterson is the third No. 1 national recruit to play for Hall of Fame coach Bill Self at Kansas, joining Andrew Wiggins and Josh Jackson.

No. 24 Kansas (3-1) will face No. 5 Duke (4-0) at the State Farm Champion Classic tonight, Nov. 18, at 8 p.m. (Central). The contest will be played at Madison Square Garden in New York City and will be televised on ESPN.

Darryn Peterson 2025-26 Honors
Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List
Big 12 Men's Basketball Starting Five (11/10/25)
The Sporting News Preseason All-America First Team
Oscar Robertson Trophy Preseason Watch List (1 of 50)
Naismith Trophy Player of the Year Watch List (1 of 50)
NABC Preseason Player of the Year Watch List (1 of 20)
The Field of 68 Preseason All-America First Team
CBS Sports Top 100 (#2)
The Athletic Preseason All-America First Team
Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Preseason Top 20
CBS Sports Preseason Freshman of the Year
CBS Sports Preseason All-America
Big 12 Preseason Freshman of the Year
Preseason All-Big 12 (unanimous selection)

University of Kansas Athletics

Peterson Named to Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List

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