***** Official '24/'25 KU Men's BBall Repository Thread *****

[cmh6476]

The Team:

https://kuathletics.com/sports/mbball/roster/

The Schedule:

https://kuathletics.com/sports/mbball/schedule/

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Great screenshot! Really goes to show just how poor the excuses are around "sPaCiNg!" and how everything else like needing NBA talent, perfect coaching, etc; just isn't true when you're willing to fight through even a triple team to score and/or draw a foul.

Forcing your will is a big part of what makes great players great and it's exactly the kind of effort you want to see from the leaders of the team... and instead of making everyone around him a little worse, I'm sure it has the opposite impact (not to say everyone around him has a high ceiling, of course).

Yeah, that's totally his problem. He needs to be grittier and fight through the triple teams more

Feels like it would be easier to just play him with players other teams will actually guard though. Might lead to, I don't know, something resembling an efficient offense?

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by George Liquor

He's the only one on the team that can score consistently, why not when you have 3 bricklayers and KJ?

It was happening quite a bit last year but now every coach in the country plays this team exactly the same way. They force the ball out of Dickinson's hands (or ideally, don't let him catch it at all) and back into the hands of the guy who can't do anything at all with it.

[Mr. Plow]

Originally Posted by George Liquor

He's the only one on the team that can score consistently, why not when you have 3 bricklayers and KJ?

True.

[Mr. Plow]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

He's literally been the 3rd best player statistically in NCAA this season already while playing with a player who nobody guards. Do you want him to be Wilt Chamberlain or something? Because not even Wilt averaged 30 a game at KU.

Statistically, he's down in every category from last year. Actually, he's statistically gotten a little worse each year he's been in college. Again, nobody is expecting last nights performance from Dickinson routinely. He's proven he can't do it on night in/night out basis.

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Dickinson is one of the toughest 1 on 1 matchups for anybody in the country

You mean people struggle to guard his patented "try to run through you and if that doesn't work try to shoot a one handed shot over them" post move?

[Bearcat]

Weird how the screenshots of him going hard to the basket only show up when he scores 30... it's almost like those two things are related.

[rfaulk34]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Weird how the screenshots of him going hard to the basket only show up when he scores 30... it's almost like those two things are related.

Effort, athleticism and the ability to get your shot is different from being able to put the ball in the basket. I'm not arguing for or against what you're saying, just weighing in, in general and relating to Dickenson.

Basketball courts are strewn with the bodies of hyper althletic guys who can get to the basket and get open shots and hustle their ass off, but can't finish. Dickenson is very good putting the ball in the basket. He has a couple moves down low but he's not really athletic...at all. He simply has the innate ability to put the ball in the hole from multiple angles.

Combine that with his height and you have a frustrating player who is what he is.

#trustme
#iknowball

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

They expect him to be one of the best college basketball players in history and average a 30 point double double? Because the guy already averages 17 and 10 for KU while getting doubled/tripled regularly all game because his teammates are these two:

pic.twitter.com/AcRvUepYEf

— Mike Vernon (@M_Vernon) February 25, 2025

Dickinson criticism remains absolutely bizarre, he's their most consistent performer (and does it with very little help) and it isn't all that close. Hence the tweet about the haters being in their feelings after that one.

I don't have much criticism for Hunter Dickinson for his production on offense, though he was not good at the FT line last night.

My biggest complaint is that he doesn't always hustle back on defense or play hard on d, in general.

Also, he sometimes hedges was too far and it screws up the entire team defense.

[Lzen]

While we're talking about player complaints, I like Zeke Mayo but he has some issues as well. I noticed in the first half last night that he was playing hard on defense. Hell, the whole team was, at least for about the first 10-12 minutes. And it really showed.

But Mayo then will get caught peaking inside and completely lose track of his man cutting to the basket.
Also, his 3 point shooting is way less on the road. That has to be a mental thing.

And he needs to drive to the basket looking to score at the rim more often. Hell, all of the guards need to do that.

Heck, even KJ was doing that early on last night with some success. Later in the game, you could tell he wasn't even going to try that. And the other team knew it, as well.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by rfaulk34

Effort, athleticism and the ability to get your shot is different from being able to put the ball in the basket. I'm not arguing for or against what you're saying, just weighing in, in general and relating to Dickenson.

Basketball courts are strewn with the bodies of hyper althletic guys who can get to the basket and get open shots and hustle their ass off, but can't finish. Dickenson is very good putting the ball in the basket. He has a couple moves down low but he's not really athletic...at all. He simply has the innate ability to put the ball in the hole from multiple angles.

Combine that with his height and you have a frustrating player who is what he is.

#trustme
#iknowball

This is a good post.

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by Lzen

I don't have much criticism for Hunter Dickinson for his production on offense, though he was not good at the FT line last night.

My biggest complaint is that he doesn't always hustle back on defense or play hard on d, in general.

Also, he sometimes hedges was too far and it screws up the entire team defense.

The extended hard hedges have been a Bill Self special for as long as i can remember. He usually has athletic bigs that can recover and play D. Don't really have that outside of Flory and his 4 minutes a game (did i do that right?)

[Lzen]

Does anyone else think that Dak guy on Colorado is one of the most annoying opposing players we have played? He's like an NBA guy, every single foul called on him he reacts like he never does anything. GMFB

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by Fansy the Famous Bard

The extended hard hedges have been a Bill Self special for as long as i can remember. He usually has athletic bigs that can recover and play D. Don't really have that outside of Flory and his 4 minutes a game (did i do that right?)

I understand Self's hedge defense, it works when done right. The problem is that sometimes, Hunter goes way beyond what is reasonable.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Flory was blocking too many shots and helping KU take a lead, had to pull him

At this point and this season, we should just sit him on the bench and hope that the NBA scouts dont have enough film to make him a lottery pick.

[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by Lzen

I understand Self's hedge defense, it works when done right. The problem is that sometimes, Hunter goes way beyond what is reasonable.

He goes way beyond what he's CAPABLE. Yes agreed.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by rfaulk34

Effort, athleticism and the ability to get your shot is different from being able to put the ball in the basket. I'm not arguing for or against what you're saying, just weighing in, in general and relating to Dickenson.

Basketball courts are strewn with the bodies of hyper althletic guys who can get to the basket and get open shots and hustle their ass off, but can't finish. Dickenson is very good putting the ball in the basket. He has a couple moves down low but he's not really athletic...at all. He simply has the innate ability to put the ball in the hole from multiple angles.

Combine that with his height and you have a frustrating player who is what he is.

#trustme
#iknowball

The other half of that coin is athletics are also strewn with guys who made it look crazy easy at lower levels because they were just that much better than everyone else, then either Peter Principle themselves out of sports or don't know how/don't care to raise their game/effort/prep/etc for the first time in their life when they're met with relatively close competition. And now with NIL, we get to ponder players showing up just for the paycheck, too.

I'd imagine it has to be the most frustrating aspect of being a coach. You want your try hard guys to try hard and make the most out of their college sports experience before they start their career selling insurance, but you really want your good to great players to elevate their game to the highest level possible and not waste great potential.

Watching Mahomes **** around in a regular season game for 3 quarters just to win the game on the final drive is fine, but that doesn't mean it's also not frustrating when you know Mahomes can play at a far higher level for four quarters.

Given the talent around Dickinson and the fact he's not Mahomes, Dickinson ****ing around leads to 30 point losses to decent teams and losing at home to shitty teams, so it's that much more frustrating when he's proven he has extra gears that he hasn't used most of the season.

Yeah, he can walk onto the court and get a double double, nobody is saying he sucks... that's fine. It's not crazy impressive at the college level for a 7' center so I'm not going to give a handjob to the guy every time he excels at being tall and more talented than the average college player who often struggles with layups.... granted, stats are kind of irrelevant to the discussion anyway. Bust your ass and if you and/or your team still weren't good enough, so be it.