Kansas Basketball’s X-Factor: A Guard Not Named Darryn Peterson

All eyes in Lawrence, Kansas, are on incoming freshman Darryn Peterson, and rightfully so. The No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 recruiting class is expected to be one of the most talented players Bill Self has ever coached.

While KU will only go as far as Peterson can take it, fellow combo guard Elmarko Jackson could be the X-factor for the 2025-26 squad.

What Skills Will Elmarko Jackson Bring?

Self knows that with how much attention Peterson is going to attract from opposing defenses, the team needs a secondary creator to orchestrate the offense.

At 6-foot-3, Jackson is an explosive athlete who can jump out of the gym and drive to the basket with ease. Very few guards in the country possess his coast-to-coast speed with the ball.

After a grueling rehab process to work his way back from a torn patellar tendon, Jackson is reportedly nearly fully recovered. He is now looking to display the athleticism and defensive intangibles he flashed in high school.

On3's Jamie Shaw wrote this about Jackson in a 2022 scouting report:

"Elmarko Jackson is a strong framed, long armed lead guard. Built like he’s already been in a college strength and conditioning program for a couple years. Jackson is a jet-quick lead guard, one of the fastest in the country with the ball in his hands. The jump shot can get flat, but he’s shooting it better off the bounce. He has upside on the defensive end and is developing his reads in the half court. At 6-4/200 with great speed one the ball is eye-opening. His dad played football at Temple and uncle played football at Michigan."

By no means was his first year with the Jayhawks a success. He averaged just 4.3 points, 1.7 assists, and 1.4 rebounds on 40.6% field goal shooting, eventually being removed from the starting lineup in place of Johnny Furphy by midseason.

Still, he showed glimpses of his talent and proved he is willing to put in the work to be one of KU's next great backcourt players.

Look at it from Jackson’s perspective — a 5-star recruit and McDonald’s All-American underperforms as a freshman, decides to stay with the school, yet suffers a season-ending injury in the offseason. In today’s college basketball landscape, most players in his situation would hit the transfer portal without hesitation.

For Jackson, it was a second chance to show Jayhawk fans why he chose to wear the crimson and blue in the first place.

Transfer additions Melvin Council Jr. and Jayden Dawson will compete with Jackson for playing time, but the redshirt sophomore has the upper hand since he knows the ins and outs of Coach Self's system.

If he can make the leap that many fans expected him to take last season, Jackson will be an X-factor player for Kansas.