Bill Self approves of KU’s nonconference showing ... save this pair of road games
Bill Self, the University of Kansas’ professor of basketball, was asked to grade the Jayhawks’ performance during their just-completed nonconference season.
“Well, if you remove basically five days, it was A-plus,” Self declared after Sunday’s 87-53 victory over Brown, a win that pushed the Jayhawks’ record to 9-2 entering a three-day mini-Christmas vacation.
“We played really well,” added the coach of the KU team that defeated Michigan State, Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State, “but those five days were so poor, it’d be like getting the first 80 right on your test, and then the last 20, you missed 18 of the last 20. So, I would probably give it a B-minus or something like that because we certainly didn’t perform well in those two games whatsoever.”
He was referring to a pair of losses that occurred on the road: a 76-63 defeat on Dec. 4 at Creighton followed by a 76-67 loss on Dec. 8 at Missouri.
“Overall it’s a hard schedule. but we had five crap days,” Self reflected. “If you could drop two tests, if you took the right class where you could drop your worst two tests we would’ve probably had a pretty good semester, but not all professors allow that.”
The Jayhawks opened the season with a preseason No. 1 ranking and will start conference play at No. 7 in the Associated Press poll.
“If it wasn’t for those seven days, I think it would’ve been A-plus,” said senior forward KJ Adams, “but I think we’re still trying to find our identity in the defensive end and just try to keep building as we come into conference play.”
KU has four players averaging nine or more points entering the Big 12 portion of the 2024-25 season.
Senior center Hunter Dickinson leads the team in scoring (15.5 ppg) and rebounding (10.3 rpg). Senior guard Zeke Mayo averages 13.5 points and 4.2 rebounds with 36 assists to 22 turnovers. Senior guard Dajuan Harris averages 10.3 points with 62 assists to 16 turnovers and Adams 9.5 points and 2.0 rebounds with 25 assists to 10 turnovers.
The 7-foot-2, 265-pound Dickinson, who has 31 assists to 19 turnovers this season, has done better in his last two games, with a combined 12 assists to zero turnovers in games against Brown and N.C. State.
“I’m still trying to make up for the Missouri game,” he said. “I’m starting to get into good graces again with that.”
Dickinson had seven turnovers to four assists in KU’s loss to the rival Tigers.
“I think I’m just seeing the ball, seeing the floor better,” he said. “Guys are making really good cuts and putting me in position to make easy passes.”
KU enters the break hopeful that senior guard Shakeel Moore is ready to make a huge contribution in conference play. Moore — he played sparingly in the nonconference season because of a foot injury that required surgery in early September — scored five points with two blocked shots and an assist in a season-high 14 minutes Sunday.
He had one assist and two turnovers.
“The way I’d see it right now, I’d say ‘Shak’ would be in the game when Juan’s not, and the way I’d see it Diggy (Coit, senior guard) would probably be in the game when Zeke’s not,” Self said of possible future lineups.
“So you almost have those two guys sharing 40 minutes. But you don’t know if it’s going to still be that way if Rylan (Griffen) and AJ (Storr) get going, because now maybe Juan and AJ and Rylan and KJ can play together.
“I just think it (Moore’s possible emergence) gives us options. I’m looking at going nine players deep. And, you know, I don’t know who it is going to be each night, but, but we definitely have more bodies we can put out there.”
Added Self: “I thought Flory (Bidunga, freshman forward) the last two games looked like, Flory too. I mean athletic and defensively. He stayed down, blocked a couple of shots when their post guys were trying to score, where he’s been effective in the past. I thought that was a good sign.”
Meanwhile, Mayo has scored 51 points in the past two games.
“I think for Zeke, getting that confidence back (from five-game stretch in which he was 4-of-21 from 3) ... I think during the middle of that nonconference stretch it (confidence) might have been wavering a little bit,” Dickinson said.
“We know we need him. I think he knows that too, and the coaching staff has been appreciative to him (regarding his play of late). You know he and Rylan (Griffen) are our best shooters, and so when they’re hitting 3s, we’re really hard to stop.”
The Jayhawks, who have returned to their hometowns for Christmas, are expected back on campus for practice Thursday night. KU’s next game is against West Virginia, a 1 p.m. tip on New Year’s Eve at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published December 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Bill Self approves of KU’s nonconference showing ... save this pair of road games."
