Darryn Peterson Shares Details on Health Scare While at Kansas

Darryn Peterson's freshman season at Kansas was certainly a fascinating one - and perhaps one that many will look back on years from now wondering what could have been.

Peterson was in and out of the lineup for much of the season. While he played in nearly every game down the stretch and throughout March, he still missed 11 games during his freshman campaign, with most of those absences coming sporadically in the opening months of the year.

He dealt with multiple lower-body injuries, but the most persistent issue was severe cramping.

In fact, Peterson revealed he was hospitalized following a practice after suffering full-body cramps. In a recent interview with ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, Peterson admitted he begged Kansas' medical staff to call 911 while they attempted to administer an IV because he genuinely feared for his life.

"I made it to the training room and just started begging them to call 911," Peterson said. "They were trying to get a vein to get me the IV, get me back hydrated. But I was cramping so hard they couldn't get a vein. I thought I was going to die on the training table that day."

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As for the cause of the cramping, Peterson told Shelburne it stemmed from excessive use of creatine, a popular supplement commonly used to aid muscle growth and power.

"I'd never taken it before going to college," he added. "But after the season I took two weeks off and they did tests which showed my baseline level was already high. So they said when I dosed, it must've made the levels unsafe."

Peterson ultimately recovered, though he acknowledged the incident was traumatic and impacted how he approached games afterward. According to Peterson, whenever he began feeling cramps coming on, he would signal to head coach Bill Self to take him out of the game.

“Whenever I felt anything like that come on, my initial thought was that it might get to that again,” Peterson said. “And I can’t let that happen and be embarrassed and have that on TV and all that.

“It kind of put me in a tizzy because I didn’t know what was causing it. Nothing has ever been wrong with me before. Basketball is my life. What I love to do. But something was going on and I couldn’t figure it out.”

Ultimately, Peterson figured out how to manage the issue and played very well down the stretch for Kansas.

Still, his time with the Jayhawks lasted just one season, as he’s now headed to the NBA and remains projected to be a top-three pick in this summer's draft.

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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 8:32 AM.