Last Year: 23-11; 10-8, Fifth in the Big 12 Conference, lost in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament
Head Coach: Bill Self (22nd Year; 603-143 at Kansas, with 20 NCAA Tournament appearances and two national championships)
Projected Starting Lineup
PG Dajuan Harris, Jr – 6’2″, 175 5th-year Senior
G Zeke Mayo – 6’4″, 185 Senior
G AJ Storr – 6’7″, 205 Junior
F KJ Adams – 6’7″, 235 Senior
C Hunter Dickinson – 7’2″, 265 5th-year Senior
Experienced Reserves
G David Coit – 5’11”, 175 Senior
G Shakeel Moore – 6’1″ 190 5th-year Senior
G Jamari McDowell – 6’4″, 180 Sophomore
W Rylan Griffen – 6’6″, 190 Junior
F Zach Clemence – 6’11”, 230 Junior
Freshmen
G Rakease Passmore – 6’5″, 185 / Top 50 recruit
C Flory Bidunga – 6’9″, 220 / 5-star recruit
The thing about being in the NIL era is that when the blue bloods decide to flex, they flex. For instance, Kansas didn’t have as good a season as they prefer to have last year. The team’s 23-11 record marked the first time since 1998-99 that KU’s overall winning percentage dropped below .700, and that simply isn’t something that iconic head coach Bill Self could abide.
So, the Jayhawks waded into the wild west of the offseason with a vengeance, and what a vengeance it was. Kansas signed a fistful of excellent transfers and a pair of elite freshmen, and that’s in addition to three stalwart returning starters. You see, KU wasn’t messing around, and they won’t be once November arrives, either.
There’s a strong returning core in Lawrence, led by one of the nation’s best big men, a rock-solid point guard who’s seen it all, and a forward who, increasingly, does it all. Oh, and Self still stalks the sidelines. The deeper you look, the more it seems like a return to the Final Four lies ahead this winter.
The leading man for this crew is comfortable in that role because he’s been a go-to guy for years already. Two-time consensus All-American pivot Hunter Dickinson is one of the country’s most proven stars. Inside or out, scoring or passing or defending, Dickinson is a high-impact presence. He’s also one of the nation’s most instigatory forces both on and off the floor, and after hearing about KU’s early exit all offseason, the brash Dickinson is looking to go out on a high note.
“Obviously, there are preseason polls but we’re pretty much top-five in most of them. And I think rightfully so because we’ve got a really talented group of guys that potentially could be really good.”
– Hunter Dickinson
“Obviously, there are preseason polls but we’re pretty much top-five in most of them. And I think rightfully so because we’ve got a really talented group of guys that potentially could be really good,” Dickinson reflected this summer. “Obviously, potentially because we’ve got to reach that potential, but the pieces are there. We’ve got to try to make sure they fit. I think Coach Self is probably the best in the country at that job.” In his first year after coming to Kansas from Michigan, the plan was for Dickinson to be the centerpiece of a shot-making chorus on the perimeter. Due to injuries and in-season attrition, that didn’t go quite to plan and Dickinson had to do a bit too much.
With the hope of a dangerous supporting cast deep enough to withstand anything, the Jayhawks will pull defenders outside and off of his back. If allowed to more comfortably feast, Dickinson will do so. Last year, Dickinson finished second only to former teammate Kevin McCullar, Jr, in the Big 12 in scoring average and led the burly league in rebounding – by a margin of 3.4 boards per contest. With the plan of allowing fewer guys to swarm him, Dickinson will hope to raise his overall field goal percentage, which has fallen slightly each of the past three seasons. He can splash three’s as well as do it all inside, and when Dickinson gets cooking from the outside, he can completely take over offensively. His threat as a back-end rim protector is also well known, and Dickinson is comfortable defending while knowing that he’s got to stay on the floor as his team’s primary offensive weapon. It’s tough to name a more complete big man than Dickinson, and he’s out to stamp a lasting legacy beyond his statistical excellence this winter.
Speaking of big guys who will be played for as many minutes as possible, KJ Adams is back for his fourth campaign for the Jayhawks. An explosive, physically imposing dude, Adams developed his halfcourt skills tremendously as a junior. He quickly established a great rapport with Dickinson, and all year long the Jayhawk post players darted slick passes to one another and their friends. Not many teams have a pair of finishers around the rim who can each power through contact for a stuff or be the lob-thrower, but Kansas does. Dickinson and Adams both averaged 32+ minutes per game last season, and while ideally Self won’t be doing that again, both players are capable of being featured weapons.
This year, Adams will be hoping to take steps as a shooter. He’s well-known as one of the country’s fiercest and most regular dunk artists, and Adams began to expand his game out away from the rim last winter. In his third season, Adams hammered home 59 dunks, converted 46.3% of his 121 mid-range tries, and made a Big 12-best 60.1% of his shots overall. He only made 61.0% of his foul shots, and with Dickinson slumping to a career-low 62.4% rate himself, KU would have really loved to cash in a few more free points. Further range on his jumper would also really help KU’s spacing. After leading the Big 12 in fouls two years ago, Adams cleaned up his act as a junior despite a jump of almost six minutes per contest, and he played the eighth-most minutes in the league on average. He’s a bouncy, any-area defender who combines with Dickinson to give an advantage around the rim at both ends, too. If Adams cable continue to improve in new ways, he’s going to be the type of elite supporting actor who pushes a team towards great things.
Having been the maestro of Self’s attack for three years already, Dajuan Harris, Jr, returns to give KU a veritable coach on the floor. He’s already played 140 collegiate games, started 111 of them, dished out 676 assists (fourth in KU history), and won a natty. Though he’s never been a primary scoring threat, Kansas has other guys who can do the scoring. The greatest gifts Harris has are his ability to pressure the opposition defensively and then create great opportunities for his buddies, and it’s for those things he is incredibly valuable. Besides, Harris runs as smooth and tidy a point as anyone out there. He’s handed out 445 helpers against just 153 turnovers over the past two years, ranking 11th and 12th, respectively in the nation in assists per game over those campaigns. Though he doesn’t shoot. Put simply, any coach in America would love to have a fella like Harris on their team, and Self has that luxury. For his part, Harris is out to return to the mountain top in March, and he’s taking a veteran’s pragmatic approach.
“Every game is gonna be a battle test, even like the schools that are not ranked,” Harris told the University Daily Kansan this summer. “You know how they are at home and away, but you don’t ever know [when] you’ll get upset…My goal this year is to win all three, the conference, the Big 12 [tournament] and of course the national championship, but I just gotta take it day-by-day.”
To augment that fantastic trio, Self and his staff sought bucket-getters in the portal and found them. The trio of AJ Storr, Zeke Mayo, and Rylan Griffen are each coming off of the best seasons of their careers, and each was highly impressive at their previous stops. Best of all, they’re still improving.
Even the stodgy, slowdown Wisconsin offense couldn’t prevent Storr from shining last year. In his first season after coming over from St. John’s, Storr went wild. He wasn’t always the nation’s most efficient scorer for the Badgers, but when Storr was hot, he was en fuego. He went for 20+ points 11 times in 36 games played, and Storr saved some of his biggest performances for when the lights were brightest. He hung 28 points on Michigan State in key late-January win as Wisconsin tried to break out of a mid-season slump, and was even better in the Big Ten tournament. In three straight wins to send the Badgers to the title game, Storr put up 30, 20, and then 24 points. A true fill-it-up off-guard, Storr’s focus has generally been on getting his shot, and he can open up space for himself off the bounce and finish creatively near the rim. With a more consistent deep ball, Storr should be able to take his turn leading the Kansas offense some nights, and if his trajectory thus far continues, Self may have landed one of the Big 12’s biggest stars.
A Lawrence native, Mayo is living a dream in joining the Jayhawks. Over the past three seasons, Mayo became the best player in the Summit League at South Dakota State. A do-everything star, Mayo plays a rather complete game and arrives back home with a focus on continuing to improve. According to Self, Mayo has been the most impressive player on the floor for most of KU’s summer and fall practices. He often ran the show for NDSU, but Mayo should slide smoothly off the ball for most of his minutes for Kansas without becoming any less a playmaker. A terrific outside shooter who’s improved the speed of his release over the past couple of years, Mayo looks like a fantastic intermediary between Harris and the Jayhawks’ top scorers. Despite being the constant focus of defensive attention for the Bison, Mayo usually got his points with impressive efficiency, and his talents look like they’ll transfer easily to KU.
| Five Stats Which Tell The Tale (with national ranks) |
| 48.8% – Team FG Percentage (13th) |
| 8.2 – Offensive Rebounds Per Game (321st) |
| 19.0 – Assists Per Game (1st) |
| 33.2% – Team 3FG Percentage (229th) |
| 34.0% – Opponent 3FG Percentage (220th) |
The Jayhawks and Crimson Tide pulled off something of a swap this spring when Rylan Griffen and incoming star rookie Labaron Philon switched teams. As a freshman at Alabama, Griffen was a fairly inefficient long-range bomber. In his second season, though, Griffen has emerged as a reliable secondary scorer. He started 33 games and racked up 74 triples at a 39.2% rate for the Tide as they went on a run to the Final Four. He’s an athletic, slashing guard who will use the threat of his jumper to set up runs to the rim. Griffen shot an excellent 69.2% on tries close to the basket last year, per Bart Torvik, and will give the Jayhawks the ability to go big on the perimeter without sacrificing any quickness or shooting. If Griffen can bring his efficient ‘no mid-range’ repertoire from Bama to Lawrence in new and even more exciting ways, Self will have an embarrassment of riches when he needs a bucket.
That’s not all, though. With the loss thus spring of rising sophomore Elmarko to a Patellar tendon injury which will force him to redshirt, Self wasn’t leaving anything to chance depth-wise. The day after Jackson’s injury was confirmed, Self landed Mississippi State transfer Shakeel Moore. A few weeks later, Kansas landed Northern Illinois sharpshooter David Coit, Jr. Both can run the point or score, and Coit is coming off of a huge year. He finished second in the Mid-American Conference with a 20.8 scoring average last season, and Coit splashed a MAC-leading 94 triples. He’s not a big guard, but with all of the weapons ahead of him, Coit could become the type of microwave scorer off the bench who delivers knockout blows.
An aggressive defender with sticky fingers and a bold approach, Moore stole 135 pases over his 99 career games in Starkville. Moore’s 3FG% had been in a steady decline prior to last year, as he posted a career-best 36.3% mark on 29 makes from downtown a year ago. Just as on defense, Moore moves well without the ball and knows how to be in the right place at the right time when he doesn’t have the ball. Moore is great at both cutting towards the cup while his teammates are running the pick-and-roll, and finishing good looks with both hands once he gets there. Moore shot 60.9% at the rim three years ago, 65.9% two years back, and then returned to a 60.9% rate last winter, per Bart Torvik. If Moore can chip in efficient buckets, run a mistake-free point, and assure that there’s no drop-off defensively when Harris checks out, Self will be pleased.
| Five Out-of-Conference Games to Keep an Eye on |
| N Duke – November 26 |
| vs North Carolina – November 8 |
| @ Creighton – December 4 |
| N Michigan State – November 12 |
| vs NC State – December 14 |
The Jayhawks are also adding Rakease Passmore, a Top 50 freshman who can offer similar size and some similar skills to what Storr will bring. A hard-driving, athletic youngster whose jumper is on its way, Passmore is an exciting scorer who should be able to learn some of the finer points of bucket-getting from his experienced new friends. He’s got a flair for the dramatic, too. With his tremendous leaping ability and explosiveness as he gets through the lane, Passmore knows how to bring the people out of their seats with thunderous dunks. Jamari McDowell will also be back to swe how many minutes he can carve out on a loaded perimeter after struggling to shoot well as a freshman. SMU transfer Noah Shelby will take a redshirt of his own.
It’s good that Dickinson and Adams are comfortable playing lots of minutes, because the biggest question on this team is its post depth. Still, it’s not as though Self lacks talent to throw into the fray. KU’s third big man will be 5-star freshman Florida Bidunga, and he’s a superfreak. Not only is Bidunga tall, long, and quick, he gets off the ground effortlessly whether it’s to block a shot or cram home a lob. With a go-go-Gadget wingspan of well over seven feet, Bidunga affects shots and snatches rebounds in his space and out of it. If he can show the strength to set good screens and defend without fouling, Bidunga should be a very good reserve inside with oodles of potential going forward. Zach Clemence returned to Lawrence after nearly leaving for UC Santa Barbara last spring, and took a redshirt to hone his game. Now, he’ll look to show what the time off has done to improve his skills. Two years ago, Clemence saw action in 20 games, averaged just over five minutes per game, and didn’t shoot the ball terribly well. He showed off shooting range out to the perimeter and can protect the rim, though, and Clemence will likely see some more action this time around.
Is it possible that KU will win it all as a result of plying the portal so successfully? Time has taught, across the sports spectrum, that it’s not always a sure thing that adding big-name players to big-name players will produce the biggest and best of results. The things which give confidence in things working out are that this is a Bill Self team, and it’s Kansas. People don’t come to Kansas to fall short of expectations. With guys like Mayo, Adams, Dickinson, and Harris in particular as leaders, this group will have both extraordinary potential and extraordinary drive. It’s tough to feel the weight of huge anticipation, but KU has worn the crown before, and the Jayhawks won’t mind the weight of putting it on again.
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