If KJ was a bench player again, I'd actually believe this team could win a national title with these guards around Dickinson. As it is though...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kansas&#39; lead went from 9 to 17 once they went to the four-out lineup. Hunter Dickinson got one-on-one matchups almost every possession and, predictably, his statline went to the moon. <br><br>He&#39;s their best player. Build your system around your best player. Free the 4-out lineup.</p>&mdash; Rock Chalk Blog (@RockChalkBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/RockChalkBlog/status/1868054146735296913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024/a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Seems prudent.

Please

Where do we find + - numbers for the year for college?

Dickinson certainly can be an exploited player, but not nearly as much so as KJ or DaJuan. KJ can only be on a very specific team and he should just be used as a spark plug off the bench and situationally based on match ups. But Bill Self clearly has a soft spot for him. And he's not a bad player. Plays good defense, can score efficiently with the right match ups but obviously since he can't rebound and can't shoot he's just a very flawed player. Always will be. He's playing the wrong sport.

You won’t want to hear what Self said post-game about the non-KJ lineup, I suspect

Don’t know but Dickinson would dominate that stat

Oh, I'm sure.

There's definitely a huge difference between when Dickinson gives a shit and when he doesn't.... it just didn't seem like he did most of last year and the line was "he can't do it all himself!", and then this year he's had the stretch of kicking dude on the ground and getting kicked out of the game, not really giving a shit against Creighton (and yeah I know he was getting doubled/tripled at times, but then would be slow as **** to play defense or do much of anything), and then whatever the **** happened against Missouri.

He's the type of player who should make everyone around him better (or at least give them the chance to), and he did today... he was moving the ball with anticipation, didn't look slow as **** getting to his spot.

When he's mailing it in though, he just brings down the entire team and we get 20 point blowouts.

He looks like a Tight End or an Edge Rusher who is a pretty good but limited basketball player.

I don’t doubt that we’d all be very impressed with him if we sat through every practice and workout like Self. No doubt in my mind he goes balls out and does everything the coaches ask. Coaches tend to overvalue those guys.

Reid and Spags are no different with guys they trust. Pretty typical flaw of the great coaching minds.

“kicking” LMAO

KU doesn’t even make the tournament last year without Dickinson (that’s how bad they were without him on the court) and they certainly wouldn’t be a top 10 team without him this year either

Also, if you give Dickinson space to work with on the court (i.e. bench KJ and play a shooter in his place), he will be assisting and creating baskets for his teammates all the time as he did today. Unfortunately we have a coach that doesn’t properly utilize his skillet because he’s stuck on playing a starter 35 minutes a game who teams don’t even guard.

Well shit, dude elevated a team all the way to getting embarrassed in the 2nd round of the tournament, he must be the best player in CBB. LMAO

It's the same lazy argument when Mahomes is crazy indecisive and not playing well for weeks at a time and people can't take off the homer glasses for a second and simply call a spade a spade (except of course Mahomes actually elevates his game when it really matters)..... the best of the best don't need excuses when it comes to "well, if only they had better talent around them, better coaching (? LMAO), better everything". We already know what THAT looks like, when Mahomes or any 'best player in the league' puts forth a monumental effort to overcome their own team.

And that wasn't Dickinson last year... at all. He wasn't Caitlin Clark throwing dimes to shit players over and over, making crazy shots or going well above and beyond despite the talent around them (and if you're that ****ing reeruned, it's not a literal comparison where Dickinson is supposed to be a PG, so shut the **** up). He's just a 7'2"/270 dude who can walk onto the court and get his 20/10 because he's 7'2"/270.

I don't hate the guy and I certainly don't want to hate him... but, if you have to reduce everything/everyone around him and make enough excuses to make him look better, then what are you even watching?

Not sure I've ever once seen anyone comment about Dickinson having some monstrous effort/game to will his team to.... anything. He shoots his 50% from under the basket and gets his 10 rebounds and that's that.

Like I said though, he did look significantly better today, probably his best game since Michigan State.. and who cares if that was a month ago, heh.

A team that had 6 playable NCAA scholarship players with no shooting on it, yes. Without Dickinson, they’re missing that tournament for the first time in over 3 decades.

The lazy argument I see regularly here is from those who pretend (or perhaps don’t know any better) that because Mahomes makes a bad throw or two behind a shit offensive line in a regular season game that he is playing poorly compared to nearly any other QB not named Josh Allen or that he has somehow ceased to be the best player in football and not the guy literally every other fanbase would trade their entire franchise for.

What a silly and specious argument. It’s basketball. Is Shaq somehow less of a dominant NBA player because of his immense size? Dickinson got 20/10 even on a team with no depth or shooting because he’s one of the best players in the sport.

There’s nothing to make excuses about. He was statistically one of the best players in college basketball last year and has been so again this year. Without him on the court in both of the last two seasons, the team has been very poor offensively.

Dickinson is 4th in KPOY this year behind only Broome, Flagg, and Kam Jones. If you think he’s playing poorly, I wonder what you think about literally every other player on this KU team (including the guy we are paying over a million a year to average 6 points a game).

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hunter Dickinson&#39;s final line: 21 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists. He also was a +28 in a game Kansas won by 15.<br><br>He&#39;s not a perfect player, but he&#39;s Kansas&#39; best, and he&#39;s one of the best players in the country, and anybody who says otherwise is kidding themselves.</p>&mdash; Rock Chalk Blog (@RockChalkBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/RockChalkBlog/status/1868056465669292096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rough day for the &quot;Hunter Dickinson makes KU worse&quot; crowd.<br><br>21/14/7 against one of the better post-defending teams in the country. Kansas was +28 with him on the floor and -13 with him on the bench.<br><br>And for all the talk about his defense, how&#39;d KU&#39;s defense look when he was out?</p>&mdash; Rock Chalk Blog (@RockChalkBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/RockChalkBlog/status/1868092915760914525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Give him spacing like he had today and watch lines like this happen all the time.