Originally from Canton Darryn Peterson made one of the most anticipated decisions on the national college basketball recruiting scene, choosing the University of Kansas as his destination for his 2025-26 freshman season.

Peterson announced his commitment Friday evening on the CBS Sports HQ streaming channel. He chose Kansas over three other finalists, Kansas State, Ohio State and USC.

“I will take my talents to the University of Kansas. Go Jayhawks”, Peterson said on CBS Sports HQ.

by Peterson father, Darryl Peterson IIapparently telegraphed Kansas as a pick earlier in the week by posting an Instagram Story announcing that Jayhawks coach Bill Self would have the final recruiting visit with Peterson in preparation for the commitment.

“I just feel like it fits perfectly with my academic and athletic goals,” Peterson said. “Kansas has a strong history of development and success, which have been two huge things for me during this process: finding a place where I can develop as a player and also be successful while doing so.

“They did a great job recruiting me. They’ve been recruiting me since my freshman year. So the relationship is there. (Soi) told me how he could use me on offense and what he could do to use my talents and what he sees for me. And I saw the same things as him.

Peterson17 years old, should become a high-profile NBA draft pick in the near future, probably after just one college season. That’s Peterson’s projected career path since his days at CVCA, where he starred as a basketball phenom as a freshman and sophomore. The five-star recruit averaging 31 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 1.3 assists his final season of high school hoops in Ohio.

Peterson had narrowed his college choices to a list of eight schools: Arizona State, Louisville, Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Ohio State, USC and Washington. He later narrowed it down to Kansas, Kansas State, Ohio State and USC. Ultimately, Kansas won the Peterson sweepstakes.

A 6-foot-5 guard, Peterson is the nation’s third-ranked high school player in ESPN 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 father 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, then transferred in August to Prolific Prep in Napa Valley, California for his senior season.

After leaving CVCA, Peterson became the first high school athlete to sign an NIL deal with Adidas, which has an apparel contract with Kansas.

“There are tons of (Adidas) high school athletes that could have chosen, but they chose me to be first,” Peterson said. “It’s great to be part of history, and it’s great to have a global brand behind me and believe 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 deals, so deals with Adidas and Fanatics were unable to come to fruition for Peterson while he played for CVCA.

“Of course, I mean, (NIL) was part of (the decision to transfer out of Ohio). It wasn’t the biggest,” father Darryl Peterson II told Beacon Journal last year. “The main thing was just playing against the national talent, the national level, the preparation, getting ready to get ready for college and that type of thing. That was the main thing. But if we can do this while accessing NIL, why not? Going to prep school allowed us to unlock that, and it’s been great.

Future NFL and NBA? : Darryl and Darryn Peterson push each other as they dream of being brothers playing at the highest level of football and hoops.

Between Peterson’s final season at CVCA and his lone season at Huntington Prep, he won a gold medal with the United States U16 men’s 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 winning the 2023 FIBA ​​U16 Men’s Americas Championship.

NOW Peterson will be in the NCAA basketball spotlight at Kansas.

“I’m going to do my best to get us to the championship and bring it back,” Peterson said.

The next Kobe Bryant? CVCA’s Darryn Peterson compared to Los Angeles Lakers icon by former NBA coach

Nate Ulrich can be reached at [email protected]. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article was originally published in the Akron Beacon Journal: Darryn Peterson commits to play college basketball at Kansas