Why the Big 12 title meant so much to KU’s point guard (on verge of Self-era history)
Devon Dotson smiled, holding up both index fingers as the cameras snapped away.
It was time to soak all this in. Kansas had just defeated TCU, 75-66, with the Jayhawks clinching a share of the Big 12 title.
That meant something special to Dotson.
“They won 14 straight in the past, and we came up short last year, and I was on that team,” Dotson said to reporters afterward, his Big 12 championship hat tucked firmly on his head. “I wanted to make sure that I came and got a title and (wanted) to bring it back to where it belongs.”
Dotson didn’t have to return to KU. He tested the NBA Draft waters last summer, worked out individually for eight teams and was seen as a likely second round pick.
He would later say he took the process “very serious” and was “all in” while trying to decide what he should do.
So why, on May 29, did Dotson announce he was coming back to college?
“I can’t be the one,” Dotson said in June, “who doesn’t win anything here.”
For Dotson, this became personal ... and it’s worth appreciating now that it didn’t have to be.
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Sign upThis season — this journey — would have been completely different for KU if Dotson had made the justifiable decision to stay in the draft.
Remember, that was late May, so KU’s roster was nearly set. Coach Bill Self would have been too late in the process to pull in any major recruit, meaning KU’s point guard position would have been filled by a combination of Marcus Garrett and the twosome of Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun.
The two biggest moments of KU’s offseason, then, were a pair of returners deciding the pros could wait. Center Udoka Azubuike said he was coming back on April 22, with Dotson following that same path just over a month later.
Let’s not pull punches: It was both players’ last game at Allen Fieldhouse on Wednesday night. While KU officially celebrated Azubuike and Isaiah Moss’ Senior Night, only an unforeseeable turn of events would lead Dotson — a first-team All-America candidate and projected second-round NBA Draft pick — back to KU next season.
Dotson said quite a few people repeated the same sorts of encouragement to him before Wednesday’s game: “Just enjoy it. You never know if it’s the end.”
“Coaches have been hinting it — not hinting it, but saying, like, ‘This could be your last (home) game too, so make the most of it,’” Dotson said. “But yeah, I’m not focused on that about my future, but just worried about this team. We’re not done yet.”
Self called Dotson “rock solid” in this win. It wasn’t the point guard’s best night — he scored 18 points on 5-for-12 shooting — but he still was easily KU’s second-best performer behind Azubuike while also swiping four steals.
“When you get 18 and you’re just ‘solid,’ that’s pretty good,” Self said.
Dotson has almost unfailingly been this type of presence for KU the last two months.
Since sitting out because of a hip pointer injury at Oklahoma, he’s scored double digits 14 straight games. Dotson continues to lead Ken Pomeroy’s national player of the year rankings and also is atop the Big 12’s scoring list.
Somewhat quietly, he’s also produced more offensively — at least early — than any other player in the Self era.
After playing in his 65th game on Wednesday, Dotson is 31 points away from 1,000 in his career. The last Jayhawk to accomplish that feat in fewer than 70 games? Former KU guard Rex Walters ... way back in 1992-93.
Dotson hasn’t always basked in the spotlight. Azubuike has rightfully taken some of that away, while Marcus Garrett’s defensive prowess also has stolen some attention too.
So this night perhaps summarized Dotson’s season as well as any.
Azubuike, in the immediate aftermath, held up the Big 12 trophy himself, posing for photos after his 31-point effort.
Dotson was right beside him, though ... grinning widely for any of those cameras capturing the moment.
“Just happy for the team,” Dotson said, “and what we’ve accomplished.”
With that, Dotson has secured part of his legacy, no matter what happens in the month ahead.
The Big 12 trophy might have left Lawrence on his watch ... but it also made its return the next year.
This became personal for Dotson, and because of that, he reached a goal Wednesday some 10 months in the making.
He became a winner — and also a champion — in his final year at KU.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 1:05 AM.
