What Darryn Peterson Said in His First Media Availability of the Season

Freshman phenom Darryn Peterson had not been made available to the media since late October during Big 12 Basketball Media Days. This was likely due to the extensive discourse surrounding his lingering leg injury, which forced him to miss nine nonconference games.

However, now that he is close to full health and most of the speculation has halted, Peterson finally answered questions with reporters following Kansas' 84-63 win over No. 2 Iowa State on Tuesday evening. Here is everything the 18-year-old star said.

On how he felt during the game and the importance of the win:

"Feeling better. It's coming back slowly to me. I was out for a while, but every game, feel I’m getting better. So that was a great win, especially coming off a loss to West Virginia, we knew we had to come here and get a win, so that's what we did."

On how the locker room reacted to the victory:

"We was a little bit turnt up, but now we're ready to beat Baylor now."

On his critics and how it feels to finally get through a game healthy:

"It was definitely frustrating because I wanted to be out there with my guys, wanted to be out there for Coach, and also for myself at the end of the day. But it is what it is, I got to kind of just keep going forward and get better every day, so that's all I can ask for."

On whether this was as "free" as he had felt all season:

"Yeah, I would say so. I felt pretty free today. Probably felt better [against] TCU, but it's a battle every day. I’m going to keep getting better."

On if his dunk attempts were an indication that he is feeling better:

"Yeah, I would say so. I probably wasn't capable of that in some of the other games, but yeah. I think that’s a good sign for me."

On if he has ever dealt with cramps like this in the past:

"No."

On the balance of preserving his health and being on the court for his team:

"My goal when I'm out there is to give it all that I’ve got, and then if I need to come out, I ask for a sub because I don’t want to be a sore thumb out there. So when I need to come out, I ask for it, but when I'm out there, I try to go 110%."

On Coach Self's speeches:

"Yeah, we get a speech probably — out of seven days a week, six. But he's good at getting stuff out of us like that. That other play before with Elmarko, we talked about that in the locker room... He's a goat, so it would be wrong not to listen to him."