What a night it was for Bill Self and Kansas. On Friday night, Darryn Peterson, the 6-foof-5, 195-pound guard from Prolific Prep in Napa, Calif., became the first player from the 2025 class to commit to the Jayhawks.

“I’ll be taking my talents to the University of Kansas,” said Peterson during his appearance on CBS Sports HQ. “Go Jayhawks.”

When the dust finally settled and it was time to make a decision, Peterson, the No. 1 ranked shooting guard in the class, narrowed his list of schools down to Kansas, Kansas State, Ohio State, and UCS.

WIth visits to each of the schools complete, Peterson, on Friday night, went public with his decision. At the end of the day, turning down the opportunity to play for Self and Kansas simply wasn't an option.

“I just feel it aligned perfectly with my academic and athletic goals,” said Peterson. “Kansas has a strong history of development and success which were huge things for me during this process.

“It’s somewhere I can go develop as a player and have success while doing it and winning,” he added.

According to Peterson, it wasn't just Self that made a difference in his recruitment. His relationship and familiarity clearly made a lasting impression on the elite guard.

“They’ve done a great job recruiting me,” he said. “They’ve been recruiting me since my freshman year. The relationship has been there. He (Self) tells me how he’ll use me in the offense and utilize my talents and what he sees from me

“I saw the same things he’s seeing so,” he added.

It became clear from the very beginning that Kansas would be extremely tough to beat for Peterson. The Jayhawks were always considered a player for Peterson, but following his official visit to Kansas back on June 23, it felt like Kansas had officially emerged as the team to beat for the top-ranked shooting guard in the class.

"The visit went incredible," said Darryl Peterson, the father of Five-Star guard Darryn Peterson. "Coach Self and his staff did an amazing job of laying out the plan they have for Darryn as far development and role he will play on the team as well as opportunities that are going to a place with such a rich basketball history like Kansas could afford a kid like Darryn. Very exciting

"What stood out the most to Darryn is when Coach Self said ask the hard questions, and a question that came from most competitors is why would a guard like Darryn go to a big man driven school like Kansas and Self was prepared, had all stats going back to 2016 of all averages and accolades of players just to prove the facts that he’s had a ton of success with guards and Darryn could have even more at a place like Kansas," he added.