Kansas forcefully pushed back Monday night against a viral video that claimed star guard Darryn Peterson was at odds with head coach Bill Self and was benched.
Peterson was ruled out shortly before tipoff of Kansas’ Big Monday matchup against Arizona Wildcats due to flu-like symptoms. Soon after, a widely circulated video posted by Barstool Arizona showed a courtside individual texting claims that Peterson and Self had clashed over practice effort.
“So he’s sick and he didn’t tell anyone in practice and Bill said don’t half ass it if your gonna play, if not sit,” the text message appeared. “DP said F— It, I’m out.”
Kansas Athletics refuted the claim, identifying the individual as a contracted ESPN statistics worker with no affiliation to the athletic department. Senior associate athletic director for strategic communications Daniel Berk addressed the video publicly via On3.
“The person texting in this video is a contracted crew worker who handles official stats during the game for ESPN,” Berk said. “He does not work for KU and is not affiliated with the athletic department in any way. He has no inside information and was speculating. We are handling internally.”
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The individual was seated courtside at Allen Fieldhouse and was wearing a headset. The post reached more than 1.1 million views, prompting Kansas’ response.
Peterson’s absence marked his 11th missed game this season after nine earlier games lost to a hamstring injury and another to illness. When available and healthy, he has averaged 20.5 points per game.
