The film lasts only 66 seconds, so maybe it’s not as torturous as sitting through “Triangle of Sadness”, but Hunter Dickinson’s performance in the social media video he released to announce his commitment to the Kansas Jayhawks is justifiable only if he got himself paid for so prominently flashing the Ford Bronco and Jordan brand logos.
We’re obviously past the age of sitting with three or four college ballcaps arranged on a rectangular table and the winning team ending up being placed on top of the prospect’s head, but surely someone can do better than this.
That’s about all one can say negatively about the union of Dickinson and KU. It’s the nation’s most skilled offensive big man joining the program that does as well – probably better – with big men than any in NCAA Division I.
It elevates Kansas from a program considered to be top-10ish only because most of us have learned not to underestimate any Bill Self team to Final Four contender, at the least. At BetMGM, KU is up to the second position on the championship futures line, tied with UConn at plus-1200 behind only favorite Duke.
And it demonstrates, once again, the value of the big man at the college level.
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Some of the sport’s biggest brands were involved in the Dickinson recruitment, from Michigan – the school he left after three seasons, 1,617 points, Elite Eight and Sweet 16 appearances – to Kentucky, Villanova, Maryland and KU, each of which has won an NCAA title this century. They were after a 7-1, 255-pound center who is not elite at protecting the rim or defending ball screens. He scores. And that still matters in March.
Denny Crum declared college basketball is a “guard’s game” long before the 3-point revolution occurred within the past decade, but championship teams always have needed significant players at ever position to succeed. Arizona in 1997 was much more oriented toward its astonishing perimeter talent (so good Jason Terry wasn’t even a starter) and Florida 2006 toward the interior power of Joakim Noah and Al Horford. But no one along the way won the dang thing without quality players both inside and out.
The reigning Final Four Most Outstanding Player is Adama Sanogo, Connecticut’s terrific junior center, who averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds in victories over Miami and San Diego State. The year before, it should have been KU’s David McCormack, who averaged 20 points and 9.5 rebounds and scored the two biggest baskets of the title-game victory over North Carolina.
Dickinson was a consensus second-team All-American as a freshman and has been chosen All-Big Ten for three straight years.
Self saw the value of height at the center position throughout the 2022-23 season, when his Jayhawks earned a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed despite being undersized against nearly every high-major opponent. Center KJ Adams was as tough and dynamic as any post player in the nation, but he stands 6-7 and weighs 225 pounds.
In their second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Arkansas, they were outrebounded, 34-27, and gained only 25 percent of the available offensive rebounds. KU wound up attempting eight fewer shots from the field and fell by a single point.
Adams is too good for Self to set aside now that he has a regulation-sized center, so it will be interesting to see how the coach attempts to play them together. There are fewer programs deploying a Silas/Rodman/Faried-style power forward, there to rebound and physically jam the area along the baseline and in the lane. But Self might see if it can work, especially given how adept Dickinson is at functioning on the perimeter as an offensive player.
Dickinson is, foremost, a devastating low-post scorer, but he recognized a while back the need to develop his outside shooting. He made not a single 3-pointer as a freshman, but two years later he was 24-of-57 from deep, a .421 percentage. There might be room for him to try even more of those at KU, especially with Adams inside to help clean up any misses.
At the defensive end, Dickinson's size will have an impact. He needs to continue advancing as a ball screen defender, but that would be true no matter what color of jersey he chose to wear next season. Adams should be better because he’ll be as big as (or bigger than) anyone he is assigned to defend.
The Jayhawks have an exceptional point guard in Dajuan Harris and less certainty at the wing positions, with Gradey Dick and Jalen Wilson gone to the NBA Draft. Transfer Nicolas Timberlake, from Towson, will need to be an immediate success for KU to compete at the level predicted. He shot 41.6 percent on threes, with 98 makes, against Colonial Athletic Association competition.
Dickinson’s 18-plus points per game each of the past two seasons came against a Big Ten loaded with excellent big men: Trayce Jackson-Davis and Zach Edey last season, Kofi Cockburn the year before. He has played in big March Madness games and had success. He can do more, and probably will.
It’ll be best, though, if his next film appearance consists merely of game tape from the Champions Classic.