Peterson transferring to UA from Iowa

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. –-The Arkansas men’s basketball program has added a guard to the roster for the 2010-11 season with the addition of junior Jeff Peterson of Hyattsville, Md., head coach John Pelphrey announced.

Peterson, who is originally from Springfield, Mo., played at Iowa this year. By transferring to Arkansas, he must sit out the 2010 season, but will be able to practice with the team.

As a sophomore, he started all 25 games in which he played for the Hawkeyes. He missed the final seven games of the season with a hamstring injury.

“Jeff Peterson is a very good addition to the Razorback program and we’re excited to have him,” Pelphrey says. “He obviously has to sit out next year, but he started in the Big Ten this year and had a good season. In two years, we’ll be adding a guard who played in more than 50 games at Iowa and averaged more than 10 points as a sophomore. He’s an outstanding student as well and will have a positive impact on and off the court even this upcoming season while he’s sitting out but practicing with us.”

The 6-0, 192-pounder averaged 10.6 points, 4.2 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game in 2009. He was 24th in the Big Ten in scoring, seventh in assists, seventh in free throw percentage (.825), 13th in steals, 10th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.34) and 11th in minutes played (32.96). His three-point percentage of .397 would have ranked sixth with two more made shots to qualify for the statistic. Overall, he shot 45 percent (81-180), which was the best on the team for players with 100 or more attempts.

He was third on the team in scoring, first in assists and second in steals as Iowa went 15-17 overall and 5-13 in the Big Ten.

In conference play, he was third on the team in scoring (11.6), and first in assists (4.9) and steals (1.2) while adding 2.6 rebounds. He shot 40.4 percent from the field (42-104), which was third on the team, 78.8 percent at the line (41-52), which was also third, and 36.8 percent on threes (14-38), which was second.

Peterson, who was named to the all-tournament team at the Las Vegas Invitational, led the team in scoring five times, in assists 17 times and in steals 11 times.

He averaged 13.5 points, 5.3 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals in the four full games prior to his injury.

As a freshman in 2008, he played in 30 games with 11 starts. He averaged 5.2 points, 3.1 assists and 2.0 rebounds. He had highs of 20 points against Northern Colorado, five rebounds three times, nine assists against Michigan and Idaho State, and two steals three times.

Peterson prepped at DeMatha High School in the Washington, D.C., area, and earned first-team all-conference and honorable mention all-metro honors as a senior. As a senior, he was team captain and team MVP, and averaged 13.9 points, 7.7 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals. He shot 43 percent on threes and 79 percent at the line in leading DeMatha to a 33-6 record and a third straight Washington, D.C, city championship. DHS was ranked as high as second in the nation before finishing the year at No. 16.

As a junior, he averaged 10.1 points on a team going 34-1 and ending the year ranked No. 3 in the country. His team’s sixth man as a sophomore, he averaged 7.0 points on a 29-2 club with a final ranking of No. 9.

A business major, he had a 3.98 cumulative grade point average in high school.