What if Jalen Wilson ‘stuck around?’ Could he score 2,000 points for Kansas Jayhawks?
.JPG "Kansas forward Jalen Wilson (10) drives on Harvard guard Denham Wojcik (55) during the first half on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, in Lawrence, Kan. Kansas won 68-54.")
Kansas redshirt-junior small forward Jalen Wilson on Thursday night became the 21st player in the 20-year Bill Self era and 66th player in KU history to score 1,000 career points.
The 6-foot-8 native of Denton, Texas, tipped in a Dajuan Harris miss with 3:01 remaining to up a 57-51 lead to eight points in the No. 4-ranked Jayhawks’ 68-54 victory over Harvard at Allen Fieldhouse.
Wilson — who led all scorers with 21 points on 10-of-17 shooting and grabbed six rebounds in 34 minutes — has now totaled 1,005 points in two-plus seasons at Kansas.
“I’m very grateful and blessed to reach that,” Wilson said after KU improved to 11-1 heading into the team’s four-day Christmas break. The squad will reassemble on Tuesday to begin preparing for the Big 12 opener against Oklahoma State, a game set for 1 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, at Allen Fieldhouse.
“That’s definitely a great milestone in my career here. I couldn’t do it without my teammates all my years here,” added Wilson, who had 11 points the final 6 1/2 minutes in helping KU subdue the pesky Crimson of the Ivy League.
KU coach Bill Self recognized Wilson’s 1,000-point career achievement.
“It is significant because it’s a great accomplishment to score 1,000 points and be a 1,000-point scorer at your respective school,” Self said. He added that Wilson conceivably could score a lot more points before heading to the pros.
“A guy who has basically 2 2/3 seasons left technically, he could get 2,000 if he stuck around,” Self said.
“He won’t (stick around after this redshirt junior campaign), but if he stuck around he should get 2,000. Maybe you guys (media) should start saying that in March,” Self added with a smile.
Wilson and point guard Harris (four points, four assists, 31 minutes) each could play for the Jayhawks in 2023-24 and 2024-25 if they so desired because of the “COVID year” still available to them.
“We knew Jalen was going to score 1,000 points before the season started. So I’m happy for him and think it’s great,” Self noted. “How many did he need tonight — 16? He had to get hot late to get it. It’s good. He doesn’t have to think about that any more.” .
Wilson was 1 of 6 on three-pointers on Thursday, while Kevin McCullar was 0 for 4 (14 points overall, 11 rebounds). Gradey Dick hit 3 of 7 shots beyond the arc to finish with 11 points.
As a team, KU hit 4 of 20 threes, while Harvard was 7 of 22.
Self said “no” a grand total of four times when asked if KU’s three-point shooting proved “alarming” to him Thursday.
“If we get off 20 good threes I’d think we’d have a great chance to make eight of them,” Self said.
“J-Will hasn’t shot it well the last week or so. Kevin has been shooting the heck out of the ball. He goes 0 for 4 on good looks. I will very rarely judge how we play from a good or poor standpoint on whether or not the ball goes in the hole. Obviously it makes it harder to win when we don’t make shots. We need to keep shooting it.”
McCullar, who transferred to KU from Texas Tech for a super-senior season, on Thursday surpassed the 800-point mark for his career. He has now scored 807 points.
Also for KU, KJ Adams had 10 points and seven rebounds with a career-high four steals.
“Every game should go as planned where you are up 20 at the half, (but) that’s not life,” said Self. His Jayhawks led 32-23 at the break, thanks to a half-ending 16-3 run.
“The key to having great seasons is not winning when you played great, it’s winning when you don’t play great. This team did exactly what we’re supposed to do on a night we didn’t make shots.”
Forward Chris Ledlum scored 17 points on 6-of-18 shooting and guard Evan Nelson added 10 points for the 8-5 Crimson, which hit 39.6% of their shots to KU’s 46.7%. KU forced 16 turnovers while committing 10. KU had 11 steals.
“I thought they played well,” Self said of Harvard. “It seemed we only had a couple chances to kind of stretch it out and deliver at least a standing eight-count or something, maybe not a knockout blow. They responded every time we’d get it to nine or 11 and get it to five. We made some good plays but didn’t play particularly well defensively early. Ledlum was probably the best player in the game until the very end.”
Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said: “We recognize how good and talented (the Jayhawks) are, and especially in this building. I thought our kids fought tooth and nail. We had momentum plays when we tried to cut into their lead to try and stay within striking distance. They are explosive, and that’s one of the things you can’t prepare for, how they can score in bunches, and they get this place revved up. Our kids fought back and kept our heads in the game. They’re really good.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2022 at 10:20 PM with the headline "What if Jalen Wilson ‘stuck around?’ Could he score 2,000 points for Kansas Jayhawks?."
