The last post on Kansas basketball coach Bill Self’s official X, or Twitter, account came in September of 2025. The most recent before that? Two months earlier.
That was the extent of Self’s activity on the social media platform for all of 2025.
But don’t mistake the KU coach’s lack of posts for inactivity altogether.
In fact, Self confirmed on Thursday that he has spent some time on X recently. And, as you might’ve guessed by now, the topic he was most interested in following was none other than the comments surrounding star freshman Darryn Peterson.
“I'm not a social media guy,” Self said Thursday, during his regular weekly press conference ahead of Saturday’s showdown with No. 5 Iowa State. “But I have gotten on X and read some of the things and narratives that are out there about him, and it's really not remotely true.”
Self stopped short of being full-on pissed off. He seemed more annoyed, in that eye-roll kind of way, than anything. But he also spent a few minutes addressing the journey so far.
It’s been a wild ride. And it doesn’t exactly feel like it’s over.
"That's what he's dealing with, and that's the world he's getting ready to enter. But the narratives haven't been accurate.”
— Kansas coach Bill Self on KU freshman Darryn Peterson's crazy season
From a couple of illnesses to recurring cramps, a nagging hamstring injury and a badly rolled ankle that he actually was able to play through initially, DP has missed 11 of KU’s 24 games and parts of others.
If he wasn’t so damn talented and didn’t possess the ability to take over any game he plays in, it might not have mattered quite as much to KU’s rabid fan base. But it has. It does. And Self did his best on Thursday to explain his side of things, while admitting that, in other instances and on other topics, even he has found himself in the position of creating a narrative around something he’s not all that well informed about.
“Well, it must be this, you know, geez,” he demonstrated. “(Or) it has to be that if they're not going to talk about it.”
He then dove into the Darryn Peterson stuff.
“Here's the bottom line,” he began. “Was his hamstring legit? Hell, yes. Would you risk injuring it more in November? No. Was his cramping legit? Yes, positively, it was. Did he turn his ankle bad to the point where he couldn't practice for nine days, and then practice one day and play BYU? Yes. And that was adrenaline kicking in, in the BYU game. And then, of all things, he gets sick.”
“He's got a string of bad luck,” Self added.
The KU coach said he understands the frustration. And, truth be told, he’s been frustrated, too. He added that he believes the combination of all of those things happening to the same player at once, in a relatively short period of time and when that player is only going to be in town for a handful of months, has added to the talk and reaction to all things Peterson this season.
“He didn't play because he's sick isn't a big deal,” Self said. “But he didn't play because he was sick when he didn't play (in) the other games added together becomes a big deal in people's minds.”
He continued: “But was he sick? Yeah, he was sick enough he couldn't practice. But he said he was still going to give it a run. And he came to shoot-around, and he gave it a run. And he went out before, and he gets lightheaded, and I walk in, and the doctor says, ‘Bill, you're not going to be able to go.’ But the negative was that people saw him out there. What could have happened between being out there and not playing? Bottom line is, he was just trying to see if he could go. If he wanted to run from it or hide from it, he wouldn't have gone out there. So the narrative is BS in many ways.”
Unprompted, Self brought up the phrase “load management” during Thursday’s press conference, noting that people have suspected and accused DP of sitting out of games in order to limit the toll on his body like we commonly see with pros in the NBA.
“Load management? This kid hadn't talked about that one time,” Self said. “Load management, geez, that's when you play four games in seven days. That's not when you play one half a week or anything like that.”
So, now, with 7 regular season games left and whatever postseason fate awaits DP and the Jayhawks, the focus remains on just how much he’ll be able to help this team as it prepares to make its run.
Regardless of the reason, it’s best to expect that to be a day-to-day thing if you’re a Kansas fan paying attention.
Even DP’s status for this Saturday’s game in Ames, Iowa, was unknown as of Thursday.
Self said Peterson practiced on Wednesday and Thursday but was not full speed for either session. The hope was for him to be closer to full speed on Friday and then ready to roll at close to that on Saturday for the noon tipoff on ABC.
“That's what he's dealing with,” Self said. “And it's a lot, I would think, when you're 19 years old and you're dealing with everybody having a narrative about everything that's going on, or you're sitting on the bench and you've got heat warmers on your legs or whatever, and now everybody's got a narrative about a heat warmer. But that's what he's dealing with, and that's the world he's getting ready to enter. But the narratives haven't been accurate.”
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
