Kansas Jayhawks freshman Darryn Peterson has only played two games this season because of injury. 

It hasn't prevented him from staying atop the radar for NBA teams. 

NBA analysts Kevin O'Connor and Tate Frazier recently discussed Peterson's draft stock on O'Connor's podcast for Yahoo! Sports. Frazier left impressed after seeing Peterson in person against the North Carolina Tar Heels. Larry Brown, Mark Turgeon, Mario Chalmers and Roy Williams were among those in attendance. 

"The takeaway from most everyone that I kind of talked to in short-form conversation was basically like, `No. 22, he's the real deal,"' Frazier said. "He didn't even have a great game but he was obviously the best player on Kansas. Talent-wise, you could see what Darryn Peterson could be. He could impact the game even when he's off. I think that's very special as a guard. You don't really have guards that could do that type of stuff. To me, that's like Derrick Rose, John Wall. There's like a rare air of guards that can really impact while not being able to score the basketball." 

Frazier went far as saying Peterson should be the No. 1 pick in the June NBA draft. 

"To me, after seeing him in person, I've seen AJ [Dybantsa] in person as well, I came away kind of thinking to myself he's going to be the No. 1 pick," Frazier said. 

Peterson was the No. 1 recruit of the 2025 class. He and Dybansta, a freshman at BYU, are generally considered the top two prospects in the country. 

"I lean toward him at No. 1," O'Connor said. "I'm not locking anything. I don't want to anchor myself to anything yet. There's a lot of games to go, hopefully a lot of games for Darryn Peterson as well for Kansas moving forward this season." 

The question is when Peterson returns from the hamstring that has kept him out most of the season. Jayhawks coach Bill Self recently gave an update earlier this week after their game against UConn. 

“The combination of (the testing results) and his confidence level (in) letting him go, guys, he’s 90-95%,” Self said. “But he wasn’t 100. I said all along, we are not going to play him until he is. It was as much my decision as anything, but I also sensed he wasn’t quite there yet.”

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of JayhawksRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com