When Kansas opened up the exhibition portion of its schedule at Arkansas back on October, 25, the Jayhawks were without the services of Hunter Dickinson, Rylan Griffen, and Shakeel Moore. Bill Self’s squad fell to John Calipari and the Razorbacks, 85-69.
In returning home for its only exhibition game of the season, Kansas, on October 29, rolled past Washburn, 84-53. With Dickinson and Moore still sidelined with minor injuries, the Jayhawks were led by David Coit (19), Zeke Mayo (16), Griffen (14), and Flory Bidunga (10).
The No. 1 ranked team heading into the regular season, Kansas, will take the court against Howard on Monday night with a complete squad.
“I anticipate having a full squad,” said Kansas head coach Bill Self when addressing the media on Friday. “We have not limited reps since the game Tuesday with Hunt (Hunter Dickinson) and Shak (Shakeel Moore), even though that may be the case kind of moving forward, but we haven’t limited reps. So, yeah, unless something unforeseen happens, then we should be good.
“Rylan did fine getting through the game, and so this is the closest we’ve been to healthy, even though the timing’s off on two of them, but hopefully, by next week, we’ll be a little bit better,” he added.
A season ago, his first in Lawrence, Dickinson averaged 17.9 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. Offensively, he shot 55 percent from the field, 35.4 percent from behind the arc, and 62.4 percent from the free-throw line.
As high as the expectations were a season ago, those expectations might be even higher this season. For the second straight year, Kansas will enter the season as the No. 1 ranked team in college basketball. Furthermore, Dickinson will be the focal point on a team expected to compete for its third National Championship under Self.
Dickinson, at the end of the season, ultimately made the decision to remain in Lawrence to work on and improve different aspects of his game. On Friday morning, Self was asked if any of those improvements would be noticeable right away.
“I don’t think it’ll be obvious immediately until he gets his rhythm back because I do think conditioning and rhythm may be a little bit of a factor early on,” said Self. “But I think the biggest thing that you’ll see is, I don’t know if it’s a huge improvement, we’ll see a better passer just because of the way that we’re playing a little bit different than last year.”
What, if anything, did Dickinson focus on in terms of looking to improve during his time in Lawrence this offseason?
“I would say he continued to work on his athleticism, his body, and I think that what Hunt can do, I think Hunt has an unbelievable touch that if the ball gets on the rim sometimes it just has a tendency to fall in,” he added. “He’s got a soft touch. I don’t think he shot it near as well last year as what he’s capable of shooting it. I think early in the season he did, but I don’t think late in the season he did.
“And so just him to start maybe making some of the same shots that he didn’t make last year,” he added. “And I think a lot of that was legs too, because playing so many minutes.”
When it comes KU’s starting five against Howard on Monday night, Self wasn’t ready to tip his hat by announcing the starting lineup during his weekly press conference on Friday. However, it should come as no surprise that three players in particular were mentioned by Self.
“No, we haven’t decided yet,” said Self. “We haven’t decided yet, but I would say if health is good, you could make a case for Hunt. Juan (Dajuan Harris, Jr.) and KJ (KJ Harris, Jr.) starting, but we haven’t decided.
