West Virginia’s Hall of Fame coach impressed with KU Jayhawks’ Gradey Dick
Hall of Fame basketball coach Bob Huggins praised Kansas freshman Gradey Dick following the guard’s outstanding shooting performance in the Jayhawks’ 76-62 victory over the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday night at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Dick, a 6-foot-8, 205-pound guard from Wichita, went 4-of-6 from three en route to a game-high 16 points.
He also grabbed five rebounds with two assists against no turnovers and one steal in 26 minutes.
“Well obviously he’s pretty good,” Huggins said of Dick after the Mountaineers fell to 0-3 in the league and 10-5 overall. No. 3-ranked KU improved to 14-1, 3-0. “I don’t know. Did he miss a shot? Didn’t seem like he did.”
The former Sunrise Christian Academy standout, who is averaging 14.6 points a game on 47.9% shooting (41-of-85 for 48.2% from three), led a three-point KU attack that accounted for 11 threes in 24 tries. The Mountaineers, who went just 4-of-20 from three, hit 35.1% of their shots to KU’s 42.1%.
“We seemingly miss more two-footers than any team in American history,” Huggins said. “They (Mountaineers) won’t make shots.”
WVU guard Erik Stevenson hit 4 of 19 shots and scored 12 points. Forward Tre Mitchell was 5-of-12 shooting for 15 points.
“We had shots. It wasn’t like we didn’t have shots. We just don’t make them but it’s hard to make a shot from two feet, four feet or eight feet if you’re not looking where you are shooting it,” Huggins said. “As much as we’ve talked about it and drilled about it we still don’t look at the rim. It’s hard to get it in if you can never get it over the rim. It has to go over the rim before it can go in.”
The Mountaineers are 0-3 in the league entering a game against Baylor on Wednesday in Morgantown. KU, 3-0, will play host to Oklahoma at 8 p.m., Tuesday.
“When you are playing the No. 1 team in the country, everything is important,” Huggins said. The Mountaineers, who did not press during the game, committed 11 turnovers to KU’s 13. KU outrebounded WVU 43-35.
“Every pass that you throw, that you make your guys turn your hands over, hurts you. Every time you dribbled off your foot, every time you miss a wide open cutter, it hurts. We didn’t make shots. Their best player, their All-American, made shots. Our guys didn’t,” Huggins added.
KU junior forward Jalen Wilson hit 3 of 7 shots the first half and finished 4-of-12 shooting (2-of-6 from three) for 14 points. Wilson and Kevin McCullar (12 points) had 14 and eight rebounds respectively.
“I think we did a decent job,” KU coach Bill Self said of playing defense. “I don’t think it was unbelievable. I think they missed some good looks but I thought our defense was not poor. The thing about it is we rebounded the ball decent against a team that is a good rebounding team. That’s a big positive for us.”
Big 12 standings
After weekend action, KU, Kansas State and Iowa State remain unbeaten at 3-0. Texas and TCU are 2-1 followed by Oklahoma (1-2) and Oklahoma State (1-2). Baylor, West Virginia and Texas Tech are 0-3.
This and that
Kansas’ 14-point win was its largest margin of victory ever in Morgantown (previously 13 in a 71-58 win on Feb. 19, 2022). ... Kansas has won four in a row and nine of 10 games against West Virginia. KU is now 5-6 all-time in Morgantown, all games coached by Self and Huggins. ... Kansas has made at least 11 three-pointers in three consecutive conference games for the first time in program history. The three-point line was introduced to college basketball prior to the 1986-87 season.
This story was originally published January 8, 2023 at 10:46 AM with the headline "West Virginia’s Hall of Fame coach impressed with KU Jayhawks’ Gradey Dick."
