Kansas spent much of the 2025-26 season trying to piece itself together, and Bill Self didn’t try to dress it up. On Jon Rothstein’s “Inside College Basketball Now” podcast, the Hall of Fame coach used one word to sum it up: “disappointing.”
Self said he wasn’t pointing fingers, but he also made clear the Jayhawks never really got the chance to settle in.
“I'm not putting blame on anything; obviously I could have done a better job. But the reality of it is, I don't think we were ever whole the whole season,” opened Self.
That absence of wholeness showed up most in Darryn Peterson’s uneven year. The former 5-star was slowed by cramps, hamstring tightness, a sprained ankle and flu-like symptoms, and he appeared in 24 of Kansas’ 35 games while also dealing with frequent substitutions in the games he did play. For a player with that kind of ceiling, the stop-start rhythm never let Kansas see the full version.
“Darryn is so good. He's so good.
But we never had a chance to see him when he was so good. We saw glimpses of it, but health didn't allow him to actually do it over an extended period of time.”
Even so, Peterson’s numbers were strong in his lone season in Lawrence. The Prolific Prep product averaged 20.2 points per game while shooting 43.8% from the field and 38.2% from three.
He also posted 4.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game. His best night came in a 32-point comeback win over TCU, but the bursts came in fragments, not in a long enough stretch to fully rescue the season.
Kansas ultimately bowed out in the NCAA Tournament against St. John’s in the round of 32.
Self also pointed to productive seasons from Melvin Council Jr and Tre White.
Council finished his only year with the program at 12.7 points per game, along with 5.1 assists and 5 rebounds, while shooting 39.2% from the field. His shot selection came and went, but his defense and edge on every possession made him a fan favorite and one of the most impactful transfers in college basketball last season.
White, meanwhile, gave Kansas 13.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game on 45.0% shooting. He also delivered in bigger spots, scoring 22 against Duke and 23 against Houston.
Self said Peterson’s injury situation wasn’t “A big deal from an injury standpoint…It was a frustrating deal for our teammates because you have him for a half, you don't have him for half, you have him for a half. So that made it a little bit more challenging for all the guys.”
Now the focus turns to what comes next. Kansas is bringing in 12 new players, and Self and his staff are looking to turn his 24th season into something far more memorable. The Jayhawks will do it with a roster that is talented but unproven, and with a demanding 2026-27 schedule ahead as they try to get beyond the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since winning it all in 2022.
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