Hunter Dickinson’s five blocked shots spark Kansas in 78-66 victory over Oklahoma
Ever-consistent Kansas Jayhawks big man Hunter Dickinson scored 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, recording his Big 12-leading 10th double-double as No. 3-ranked KU beat No. 9 Oklahoma 78-66 on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
The 7-footer from Alexandria, Virginia impressed in a third statistical category in helping the Jayhawks (14-2, 2-1) bounce back from Wednesday’s loss at unranked UCF.
He tied a career-high with five blocked shots while playing 33 minutes.
That total — his KU high had been four blocks against UConn on Dec. 1 — did not come as a surprise to Dickinson, despite the fact he entered with no blocks in two Big 12 games and five total blocks in his last seven contests.
“They called me ‘Baby Olajuwon’ back in the day,” Dickinson said with a smile, referring to college and NBA shot-blocking machine Hakeem Olajuwon.
“I feel like I might have had more, honestly. They (stat crew) might have shorted me a couple, but coach (Bill Self) is definitely emphasizing me to be more of a rim protector and trying to alter shots,” Dickinson said. “I’m trying to be more aggressive defensively, taking more risks coming over. It helped us out a lot.”
Dickinson had two blocks in the first half and KU led OU (13-3, 1-2) by a point, 38-37, at the break. Dickinson had three rejections in the second half as KU outscored OU, 40-29, in the final 20 minutes.
“Coach (Bill Self) has been emphasizing him to block shots and play defense a lot more than he’s used to, getting him more aggressive all the time in practice,” said KU forward KJ Adams, who had 15 points, 10 rebounds and one of KU’s seven blocks overall while playing 40 minutes.
“It shows when he plays big games like this,” Adams added.
Dickinson had five blocks in a game three times during his three years at Michigan.
“I thought he did a good job of staying down,” Self said. “I don’t think he got lifted as much. I thought his defense was pretty good today. He’s been a decent shot blocker on his man but not as good away from the ball. I thought today he was a better help shot blocker. I bet he got three of them when he came off his man to go make a play.”
Asked how many blocked shots one could expect of Dickinson in games the rest of the way, Self grinned and said: “I think we should be happy with five. He was great today. We practice different things in moving and trying to block shots. The reality of it is he is a position defender but he did a better job helping tonight than what he has been. He was good.”
Dickinson’s five blocks, as well as Kevin McCullar’s 10 free throws in 11 attempts, emerged as the most impressive individual stats from Saturday’s game.
As far as team stats … KU only turned the ball over twice. That’s a school record for fewest turnovers in a game. KU had three at Texas in 2015 and three at home against Iowa State in 1966.
“I feel bad that I was one of them,” said Dickinson, who had one turnover to two assists.
“If we are not turning the ball over and giving teams fast breaks it’s really hard to score on us in the half-court. You go down there and get a shot every possession, defend and rebound, Coach says that’s the key to winning right there.”
KU had 18 turnovers in each of its first two Big 12 games.
“I don’t know we emphasized it near as much as what you guys (media) think we do. We didn’t have to. The players all knew,” Self said. “I thought we did a better job taking care of the basketball.”
In fact, Self said, “one of their turnovers was mine. I told KJ to run post and Kevin (21 points, four assists, one TO) threw it to him right next to me, so that was my turnover. The players really only had one. That’s probably as well as we’ve taken care of the ball and passed it in a long time.”
Self agreed that “two is a low number. We are not good enough offensively to give away possessions. Our number needs to be under 10 — 10 or so.”
Point guard Dajuan Harris dished eight assists against no turnovers while playing all 40 minutes. In all, KU had 17 assists to OU’s eight.
“Two turnovers is kind of unheard of in basketball, especially when you play a 40-minute game,” KU’s Adams said. “Against UCF we made some bonehead plays. Now that we’ve got it cleaned up, I think you’ll start to see this more.”
“Two turnovers is really good efficiency,” OU coach Porter Moser said.
Regarding Dickinson’s blocks, Moser stated: “A block is as good as a turnover. He’s a load.”
KU will next meet Oklahoma State at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Stillwater.
This story was originally published January 13, 2024 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Hunter Dickinson’s five blocked shots spark Kansas in 78-66 victory over Oklahoma."
