Darryn Peterson, the top-ranked guard in the class of 2025, is all set to decide between Kansas, Kansas State, Ohio State and USC this Friday.
A 6-foot-5 guard from Ohio who is playing his senior season at Napa (Calif.) Prolific Prep, Peterson’s decision will be carried live on CBS Sports HQ, the CBS Sports app and the 247Sports YouTube Channel at 9 pm ET/6 pm PT.
Peterson has taken official visits to each of his four finalists. Peterson visited Kansas on June 23, USC on Aug. 2, Ohio State on Aug. 30 and Kansas State on Sept. 27.
Peterson is ranked No. 3 overall in the 2025 class and is considered the No. 1 combo guard in the class.
Earlier this week Buckeyes head coach Jake Diebler visited with Peterson’s family while USC head coach Eric Musselman was in on Tuesday. Jayhawks head coach Bill Self was expected to be the last coach to visit with Peterson and his family when he dropped by on Wednesday night.
A high-profile recruitment, Peterson is one of many top-ranked prospects in the 2025 class nearing a decision. Cameron Boozer and Cayden Boozer, ranked No. 2 and No. 21 overall, came off the board on Oct. 11 and committed to Duke.
247Sports National Basketball Analyst Travis Branham provided an update with intel on many of the remaining uncommitted prospects in the 2025 class including AJ Dybantsa, Nate Ament, Koa Peat, Caleb Wilson, Brayden Burries, Chris Cenac, Meelek Thomas, Shelton Henderson, and many more.
247Sports Director of Scouting Adam Finkelstein provides this scouting report on Peterson:
Peterson is a big guard with good positional size, length, and strength. He’s 6-foot-5, with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, and a cut-up and defined frame. What differentiates him most though is an effortless ability to score and make plays from a variety of spots on the floor, all within the flow of the game.
Peterson is extremely versatile. He’s a true combo guard who is equally effective playing on or off the ball. He has natural poise as a handler with now only rare moments when he can be rattled by pressure from smaller guards. He’s also a true multi-level scorer who can simultaneously see the floor, make reads, and pass well. He has a very smooth pull-up game, can overpower most opposing guards off the dribble, take smaller defenders into the post, and also thrive in ball-screens. His understanding of how to get to his spots is second to none and that’s why he’s such an efficient scorer, even in high volume, especially inside the arc (24 points per game in 3SSB play on 50% shooting from the floor and 57% on two-point field goals). He also has good natural instincts and has already developed an NBA caliber intellect when it comes to drawing fouls and getting easy points at the free-throw line.
While he was nearly a 90% shooter at the free-throw line, he was just under 31% from behind the arc. He has a mechanically clean and projectable stroke, but is still working to become a more consistent three-point shooter, particularly off the catch. He’s a good athlete, but doesn’t necessarily have overwhelming or dynamic pop when attempting to separate or explode at the rim. He plays with a ton of on-ball volume right now, and will inevitably have to learn to play less with the ball in his hands at the next level, even as a primary playmaker.
Peterson is a solid and competitive on-ball defender with very good playmaking metrics off the ball as well (3.4 stocks per game). He is also an elite perimeter rebounder (7.4 per game) with the size, strength, and length to eventually be a multi-positional defender.
Overall, there’s just not another guard in the country right now who can match Peterson’s combination of size, length, strength, real functional versatility, and effortless ability to get to his spots that can make the game look easy at times.