Tag: Hunter Dickinson

Kansas All-American Hunter Dickinson to return for 5th college season

Dickinson was named a consensus second-team All-American, averaging 17.9 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.4 blocks.

Kansas senior Hunter Dickinson announced Friday on social media that he will return to school to play the 2024-25 season with the Jayhawks, his fifth season in college.

Dickinson was named a consensus second-team All-American this past season, averaging 17.9 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.4 blocks on 54.8% shooting from the field. He ranked eighth in the country in rebounding and 12th in double-doubles (17).

He was also named to the All-Big 12 first team.

The 7-footer joined the Jayhawks last year after spending his first three seasons in college at Michigan. He was one of four active players in Division I this season with at least 2,200 career points and 1,100 rebounds, joining Zach Edey, Armando Bacot and Baylor Schereman.

Dickinson will return to a team with the sixth-ranked incoming recruiting class, headlined by top-50 prospects Flory Bidunga (No. 11) and Rakease Passmore (No. 50). Jayhawks coach Bill Self is also adding Rylen Griffin (Alabama) and AJ Storr (Wisconsin) via the transfer portal.

Kansas will likely be the front-runner to be the preseason No. 1 team in the country next season, with Dickinson back in the fold. The team also returns starters Dajuan Harris Jr. and K.J. Adams, likely making it the favorite in the Big 12.

The Jayhawks (22-10) made their 51st appearance in the NCAA Tournament this past season as the fourth seed. They lost to No. 5 Gonzaga in the second round.

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With Hunter Dickinson’s return, Kansas has college basketball’s best roster

Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks have made key additions in the transfer portal, and Hunter Dickinson’s return makes them the top team in the sport.

Kansas basketball star Hunter Dickinson confirmed on social media Friday he will return to the Jayhawks for the 2024-25 college basketball season, his final year of eligibility.

Dickinson was an All-American second teamer last year after averaging 17.9 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in Lawrence, having spent the previous three seasons at Michigan.

Kansas was bounced prior to the Sweet 16 by Gonzaga in March, but they are now set to return four of their six leading scorers – Dickinson, KJ Adams, Dajuan Harris, and Elmarko Jackson – and have already made major transfer portal additions.

The most notable is Wisconsin guard AJ Storr, a potential All-American brought in to help replace Kevin McCullar Jr, but Bill Self also went out and landed Riley Kugel from Florida, Zeke Mayo from South Dakota State, and most recently Rylan Griffen from Alabama.

The Jayhawks have a fantastic group of talented players on paper, but putting all the pieces together will be Self’s responsibility to ensure this team reaches their full potential – especially with Baylor, Houston, and Iowa State all boasting incredibly talented rosters of their own.

One thing is for sure: Big 12 basketball will once again be the cream of the crop in the 2024-25 season.

Duke finalizing agreement to take on Kansas in Las Vegas for neutral site game, per Jon Rothstein

Duke and Kansas are finalizing an agreement for a non-conference matchup in November.

Duke’s already challenging non-conference schedule for 2024 is about to get even more difficult.

Jon Scheyer and his soon-to-be-revamped Blue Devils team will take on another college basketball blue blood in Kansas this November.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, one of college basketball’s biggest insiders, confirmed that the two legendary programs are in the process of finalizing a November matchup in Las Vegas.

No official announcement is imminent, and a date and time have yet to be decided upon, but things are in motion behind the scenes.

The last time these two titans faced off was in the Champions Classic in 2022, Jon Scheyer’s first season as Duke’s head coach following the departure of Coach K. Kansas went on to win that game 69-64 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

The Jayhawks finished the game on a 15-5 run over the final 4:37. In total, Duke is 8-6 all-time against the Jayhawks.

Bill Self will bring a revamped roster as he looks to improve upon a less-than-stellar season by Kansas standards. The Jayhawks made the Sweet 16, but they were often injured and didn’t have the depth necessary to compete.

The Jayhawks have been aggressive and active in the transfer portal, landing new names like AJ Storr, Zeke Mayo, and Michael Ajayi for their roster. They also are returning Hunter Dickinson and Dajuan Harris.

If the two schools reach a final agreement, Duke will play Arizona, Kentucky, and Kansas as part of its non-conference schedule in 2024.

Oklahoma runs out of gas in the second half as they fall to No. 6 Kansas 67-57

No. 25 Oklahoma falls 67-57 against No. 6 Kansas as the Jayhawks sweep the season series.

No. 25 Oklahoma entered Saturday with a chance to earn their third win against a top-25 opponent. Instead, they came up short as Bill Self and his sixth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks completed the season sweep of the Oklahoma Sooners 67-57.

Oklahoma entered the day with severe doubt that two trusted rotation members would play. [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag] twisted his ankle in the second half of the Sooners’ 79-62 loss at Baylor on Tuesday after leading the team in scoring with 17 points.

[autotag]John Hugley[/autotag] IV injured his knee against Oklahoma State last Saturday and didn’t even travel for OU’s game vs. the Bears.

Soares tested his ankle pregame but ended up not playing, and he and Hugley were sorely missed.

Oklahoma started Javian McCollum, Milos Uzan, Otega Oweh, Sam Godwin, and Jalen Moore. They raced out to a double-digit first-half lead behind hot shooting and terrific defense on Kansas forward Kevin McCullar Jr., who was returning from an injury. Jalon Moore led the way with 13 of his team-high 17 points. Milos Uzan was aggressive and added 8 points, while McCollum contributed six.

Kansas pushed back towards the end of the half to cut Oklahoma’s lead to 5 at the break. OU entered the locker room up 34-29 after an excellent all-around first half minus 3/8 free throw shooting in the first half.

The second half started, and Kansas began to find themselves.

Kansa and OU played a close game with the game tied on a number of occasions before Hunter Dickinson found McCullar for a three-pointer that gave KU its first lead since 5-4. Kansas would go on a 14-4 run and would not look back.

Oklahoma continued to fight, but their first-half shooting cooled dramatically as they shot 3 of 19 from the field in the second half. The Sooners’ inability to stop Kansas in the half-court, specifically Hunter Dickinson, doomed the them despite having a five-point halftime lead.

Javian McCollum was 3 of 6 from three and finished with 15 points.

Hunter Dickinson posted a 20-point, 16-rebound double-double to set the tone for the Jayhawks. Freshman Johnny Furphy added 15 points on 5/8 shooting with three makes from distance to help his team.

For Oklahoma, the Sooners will have the week off and not play until next Saturday when they make their final Big 12 visit to Stillwater in basketball to wrap up the Bedlam season series.

Kansas will host Texas next Saturday back home in Allen Fieldhouse.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Bryant on Twitter @thatmanbryant.

Hunter Dickinson and the top-50 players who used the NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal

We have a handful of former five-star recruits in the portal.

It is hard to overstate the importance of the transfer portal in college sports.

Although roster continuity is one of the keys to success in March Madness, it’s also incredibly helpful for some programs to use the transfer portal to find ready-to-play contributors.

More than 1,600 men’s college basketball players used the transfer portal last season and some of the players who appeared on last year’s edition of this list (e.g. Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman) played impactful minutes in the NCAA men’s tournament. Several important players in the Final Four (like Miami’s Jordan Miller and Nijel Pack or UConn’s Tristen Newton) were transfers.

Below, we highlighted some of the most notable names in the transfer portal.

We used data from our good friends at Cerebro Sports — you can create a free account to evaluate player performance across all levels globally. Their C-RAM metric grades players on a scale from 0 to 10+ based on their overall performance.

This story references projected impact metrics provided by EvanMiya.com. BPR values are interpreted as the expected points per 100 possessions better than a D1 average player while on the floor.

We have also included projected impact metrics from BartTorvik.com, which you can view here and learn more about it here.

Additionally, NBA likelihood percentages are provided by Nick Kalinowski. You can learn more about the metric here.

You can see a full list of the available players if you click here and you can also check out our rankings for the women’s college basketball transfer portal as well.

Hunter Dickinson tried to have podcast host say he had better college career than Cassius Winston to come on show

Apparently, Hunter Dickinson’s stipulation to come on a podcast was for the hosts to say he had a better career than Cassius Winston…

In one of the most ridiculous stories I’ve heard in a while, the hosts of The Sleepers, a college basketball podcast, shared a story this week that Hunter Dickinson apparently told the hosts that he would only join their podcast if they publicly stated that he had a better college career at Michigan than Cassius Winston had at Michigan State…

Yes, that Cassius Winston, who was the 2019 Big Ten Player of the Year who helped lead the Spartans past one of the most hyped college basketball teams of all time (2019 Duke) in the NCAA tournament and is considered to be one of the best players in Michigan State basketball history.

Completely delusional and hilarious stuff from Dickinson.

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.

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Hunter Dickinson: ‘I feel like Michigan is a fake Midwest’

Starting to see what other fanbases didn’t like him much.

When in Ann Arbor, Hunter Dickinson was beloved — at least by the Michigan basketball fan base. However, now that he’s defected to Kansas, Wolverines fans are getting a taste of what it was like to see the star center from an outside perspective.

After spending three years with the maize and blue, Dickinson has done little to ingratiate himself to those who rooted for him all that time. Now that he’s a Jayhawk, as he’s working to endear himself to fans in Lawrence, he’s certainly going out of his way to say and do things that are likely to rub those in Michigan the wrong way.

Appearing on the “Rock Chalk Unplugged” podcast, Dickinson felt the need to praise the people in his new state, but he did so at the expense of those in the state he just departed.

“Just walking around, the people are super, super welcoming. Super nice. Definitely get those Midwest vibes. I think Michigan, they weren’t as nice. Like, they were nice people but not as nice.

“I feel like Michigan’s like a fake Midwest. Kansas is actually a Midwest town. But you know, I loved my time in Michigan, but the people here at Kansas are especially nice.”

Let’s be clear: that’s not particularly egregious. It’s not a full shot over the bow. But it is diminishing his former home at the expense of another. And it’s unnecessary.

He continued later speaking about practicing at Kansas versus at Michigan and he noted that he thought he was in-shape at Michigan, but after getting to Lawrence, he realized he’s not quite as good as he thought.

I’d say they were definitely harder than Michigan, especially at this point. I mean, Michigan — wouldn’t even get the campus to like to July 1. So had way more of a head start here. But I remember the first couple of practices, I was so out of shape and I felt like coming in I was in pretty solid shape, but no, I needed a lot more growth in that area.

Again, not necessarily egregious. But certainly not going to ingratiate himself to any of those he’s left behind in Ann Arbor.

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Top transfer portal center Hunter Dickinson reveals transfer destination

Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks landed one of the transfer portal’s top players on Thursday.

One of the top players in the transfer portal has made his commitment. On Thursday, Michigan transfer center Hunter Dickinson transfer center Hunter Dickinson on Thursday, announced his commitment to the University of Kansas via his Twitter account.

In a video that he posted, Dickinson said, “This decision might even be harder than the first one, coming out of high school.” Before selecting the Jayhawks, Dickinson considered Georgetown, Kentucky, and Maryland. His video ends with him telling Kansas head coach Bill Self that “I just wanted to tell you that I’m gonna come to play with you next year at Kansas.”

This past season, Dickinson started in all 34 of Michigan’s games, averaging 18.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game. He shot 56% from the floor including 42% on a limited amount of three-point attempts as well. All in all, he’s one of the best centers in the country, dominant on both ends, with career offensive and defensive ratings of 118.9 and 98.3.

The consensus All-American and three-time All-Big Ten selection will join a Kansas squad coming off a 28-8 season including 13-5 in Big 12 play, helping lead to a Big 12 Regular Season Championship. The Jayhawks would earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, defeating No. 16 Howard in the first round 96-68 before falling to No. 8 Arkansas in the Round of 32, 72-71.

Dickinson will step in at a major spot of need for the Jayhawks. Last year, the Jayhawks only had one true center on the roster freshman Ernest Udeh. the Jayhawks did not sign a center either as part of their 2023 recruiting class. The Maryland native will join former Texas point guard Arterio Morris and former Towson shooting guard Nicolas Timberlake as transfers to join the Kansas program this offseason.

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Michigan basketball C Hunter Dickinson announces transfer decision

Best of luck to him.

It was a shock to the system in Ann Arbor when Michigan basketball center Hunter Dickinson, the engine of the team the past three years, was announced to be staying in the college ranks — but not with the Wolverines.

The expectation was that Dickinson would return for his senior season, fueled by NIL — but name, image, and likeness seem to be the reason why the star center opted to find a new opportunity via the NCAA transfer portal.

After entering the portal, Dickinson had several options on the table. Kansas appeared to be recruiting him the hardest, Maryland — which now has his former high school coach from DeMatha on-staff — was a strong option, Kentucky threw its hat into the ring, as did Villanova. And then there was also the possibility of a return to Michigan.

But only one school could win out. And that school ended up being Kansas.

Dickinson technically has two seasons of eligibility remaining, as his freshman season — 2020-21 — was the COVID year.

After starting 89-straight games for the Wolverines, Dickinson’s departure was abrupt and shocking. He burst onto the scene his freshman season as the AP Newcomer of the Year, Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and a member of the Big Ten All-Freshman team. He was a two-time All-Big Ten first-team member (2021, 2023), and a second-team All-American in 2021. He’s also a two-time Academic All-Big Ten member. He’s 12th all-time in points for a Wolverine, 10th in rebounds, and sixth in double-doubles. He’s seventh in blocks with 149.

With Dickinson gone, Tarris Reed Jr. will need to step up into the center role in his upcoming sophomore season.

Though the Wolverines lost a lot via the transfer portal, it also brought in three players, including former five-star point guard Caleb Love, former four-star combo guard Nimari Burnett, and former four-star forward Tray Jackson.

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Top prospect in the transfer portal sets up visit with Kentucky

Kentucky, Kansas setting up for an epic ‘blue blood’ arms race in the transfer portal.

The [autotag]Kentucky Wildcats[/autotag] were one of several “blue blood” programs that didn’t make a very deep run in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Now they are set to host the No. 1 player in the transfer portal as they look to return to the national championship scene.

Just over a month after Oscar Tshiebwe and the Wildcats fell to No. 3 Kansas State Wildcats in the round of 32, Kentucky is set to host former Michigan Wolverines center, Hunter Dickinson. The 7-foot-1-inch center was the No. 43 overall prospect in the 2020 recruiting class according to 247Sports. Dickinson averaged 18.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 34 games last season. Those numbers were slightly above his career average of 17.2 points and 8.4 rebounds in 94 games.

Dickinson also was reported to visit with the Kansas Jayhawks, who recently beat out several teams for former Towson point guard Nick Timberlake. It could come down to these two basketball powers for Dickinson’s commitment. Based on how it went in Ann Arbor, the top big man would likely need to head elsewhere to win a national championship before trying his luck at the next level.

The Kentucky Wildcats and head coach John Calipari signed the No. 1 recruiting class in 2023 with four five-star signees. They have yet to land a transfer for next season, that could change with Dickinson.

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