I was a student reporter at Brigham Young University during Kevin Young’s first two seasons as the Cougars’ head coach. When AJ Dybantsa decided to sign with BYU, it was a content goldmine.
Here was a 6-foot-9 player that had athleticism comparable to LeBron James, he already held millions of dollars in NIL endorsements and was being touted as one of the “best prospects this century.”
I was working on a story about Dybantsa in April 2025 and managed to snag an interview with Paul Biancardi, ESPN’s
national director of recruiting for high school basketball, who also happened to recruit LeBron when he was an assistant at Ohio State back in the day.
I asked him something along the lines of, “who are the best high school prospects you’ve ever seen in your career,” hoping he would circle his way back to Dybantsa. He said the usual suspects. LeBron, Kobe, Kevin Durant, Cooper Flagg. I thought he was going to end with AJ, but he surprised me with a different player in the same class.
“And one of the kids in today’s class with AJ: Darryn Peterson… very special,” Biancardi said. He also put AJ in that category, but I was not expecting him to put Peterson up there with the others. This was the first moment where I realized that Peterson was just a little bit more special than your average No. 2 recruit.
A year later, and all signs point to Dybantsa going No. 1 to the Wizards, and Peterson No. 2 to the Jazz. But there have been countless experts who are still comparing Peterson to some of the greats — even after a drama-filled season at Kansas.
In January, after Kansas beat then undefeated No. 2 Iowa State, former NBA all-star and CBS Sports’ Wally Szczerbiak doubled down on his stance that Peterson was the “best player in college basketball.”
“[Peterson] has not been healthy all year, but now that he is starting to round into form, there is nobody as good as that guy… there’s a little Maxey. I see Kobe,”
Peterson’s assistant coach at Kansas, Norm Roberts, who has 35 years of college coaching experience — 14 at Kansas — said he was the best player he’s ever coached, and that he reminded him of Bryant.
“[Peterson] reminds me of Kobe. The way he scores, the way he gets to the midrange, the way he shoots the step-back, his size, his length, all of those things. Even some of his mannerisms on the court,”
Kansas assistant coach, Norm Roberts on “The Field of 68: After Dark”
During the college basketball season, CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish revealed a conversation that he had with Peterson’s hall of fame coach Bill Self, in which Self tabbed Peterson the “most talented player” he’s ever coached.
“Bill Self has coached Andrew Wiggins who was the No. 1 pick in the draft. Bill Self has coached Joel Embiid who was the MVP in the NBA. And before Darryn Peterson ever played a minute for him, he said, ‘that’s the most talented player I’ve ever coached,’”
Getting the No. 2 pick was not a consolation prize in this year’s draft. If it goes how most project it to go, the No. 2 selection will be a player with Kobe-esque potential — at least, that’s what many of the best basketball minds believe.
The critiques about Peterson are valid. Some of the playing-sitting antics in his lone collegiate season were worrisome and the health could end up being a major factor in his career.
If you want to label him as boom-or-bust, fine. But if it’s a boom, the Jazz could be drafting a hall of fame guard in this year’s draft.
