Pandemic cost KU’s Devon Dotson a shot at 1,000 career points in just two seasons
The early end to the 2019-20 college basketball season cost University of Kansas point guard Devon Dotson a significant personal milestone.
Dotson, a 6-foot-2 second-year playmaker from Charlotte, North Carolina, needed to score just 14 points in a first-round Big 12 tournament game against Oklahoma State on March 12 in the Sprint Center to reach 1,000 points as a Jayhawk.
He would have become the eighth player in KU history — first in the Bill Self era — to score 1,000 points in his first two years at KU. The others: Wilt Chamberlain (1,433), Dave Robisch (1,178), Danny Manning (1,149), Wayne Hightower (1,128), Clyde Lovellette (1,093), Rex Walters (1,064) and Carl Henry (1,044). In all, 62 players in KU history have finished their college careers with 1,000 or more points.
“I think Devon was the best point guard we’ve had as as a sophomore in college,” 18th-year KU coach Self said on last week’s summertime Hawk Talk radio show. “Sherron (Collins, 669 points first two years, 1,888 in four-year career) can make a case he was as talented. He had some guys on the team that didn’t allow him to be the man like Devon was given the opportunity to,” Self added.
Collins’ teammates his sophomore season — KU’s NCAA title season — included Russell Robinson, Mario Chalmers and Brandon Rush. Collins averaged 23.8 minutes a game his sophomore season; Dotson 34.9 minutes his sophomore campaign.
“Devon made the most of it,” Self noted of being the lead guard on a 28-3, Big 12 championship team. “I don’t think anybody can say he’s not the best at his age that we’ve ever had (at point guard).”
Self mentioned some other standouts at the point guard position.
“Frank (Mason) made a big jump from his sophomore year, junior year, senior year. Devonté (Graham) made a big jump sophomore, junior, senior. Sherron his junior year was an All-American. There were big jumps there,” Self said.
Mason, who scored 643 points through two seasons and 1,885 for his four-year KU career, averaged 20.9 points a game his senior year after averaging 12.6 as a sophomore and 12.9 as a junior. Graham, who scored 594 points through two seasons and 1,750 for his career, averaged 17.3 points per game as a senior compared to 11.3 as a sophomore and 13.4 as a junior.
“Devon since he wasn’t going to be here four years ... for our fans and everybody unable to see those big jumps … I think his legacy probably would have been determined by what we did in the NCAA Tournament,” Self said.
“That (absence of postseason) didn’t change how we feel about him. (But) when you talk all-time greats, if you take Kirk Hinrich off his junior and senior teams, you wouldn’t think of Kirk the same way we think of Kirk or Nick (Collison) or Devonté.”
Graham reached the Final Four his senior year and Hinrich and Collison the Final Four in their junior and senior seasons.
“Devonté … if he didn’t have a chance to do what he did as a senior, you wouldn’t think of Devonté in the same light or Frank (national player of year as senior). I think that opportunity was taken away from Devon as much as anybody including Doke (senior Udoka Azubuike). Those two probably had a chance to go down as two of our all-time greats that nobody at the beginning of the season would think would go down as two of our all-time greats,” Self added.
Self said he will remember Dotson’s “toughness” and the fact “he’s a winner..”
“Devon Dotson was highly recruited, don’t get me wrong,” Self said. “When we recruited him he was a McDonald’s All-American, but people didn’t project him to be a one-and-done guy.”
He was the No. 20 ranked player in the recruiting Class of 2018 by Rivals.com.
“He had a very good freshman year, solid, but there were still some things he needed to do, to tighten some things up. And he worked really hard. He’s an unbelievable competitor. He liked it when it counted the most,” Self said.
Self could heap praise on Dotson, who has decided to leave KU for the NBA after two years in Lawrence, all day.
“He and Tyshawn (Taylor), I don’t know who else, maybe Frank ... they are three of the fastest (guards) we’ve had,” Self said. “You look at all the different ways Frank scored. He would be more versatile than ‘Dot.’ But it didn’t matter. ‘Dot’ still got to where he wanted to go, regardless of how you defended him.
“That was to me what was amazing about him. No matter what you tried to take away he still got there (to the goal). That’s something, that God-given speed, the natural ability to put both feet in the paint I think will do wonders for him moving forward. But to say where he ranks? I don’t think it’s fair to say. I really don’t because it’s incomplete. If this year had ended in a way we all hoped it could of, I think you could make a case he’s the best we’ve had (at point).”
Dotson Is regarded as a late first-round, or early second-round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, which has been moved to Oct. 16. Seven-footer Azubuike, meanwhile, has been listed as a possible second-round pick.
“They could be (first round); they could go second,” Self said of the two players who were accorded first-team all-Big 12 mention. They also both were named consensus second-team All-Americans.
“I think when you can’t go work out for teams (because of pandemic) they (NBA officials) will rely on tape a lot. So many times I think you get enamored with somebody you haven’t seen as much. They (college draft candidates) can wow you in one individual workout. Now there’s none of that.
“They’ll go off tape. I think that helps both their chances. I do,” Self said. “If you are a borderline first-round pick and go to a workout and you shoot it bad, that may knock you out with that team. There’s going to be none of that. You don’t get a chance to better yourself either (at workouts canceled by pandemic), but you don’t get a chance to hurt yourself.
“I think both have a great chance to go first round. I certainly hope that’s the case. If they don’t, it doesn’t mean you haven’t made it. Look at Devonté and Svi (Mykhailiuk, who were second-round picks and made teams).”
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Pandemic cost KU’s Devon Dotson a shot at 1,000 career points in just two seasons."
