Kansas Jayhawks’ Devon Dotson closes in on rare feat: 1,000 points in two seasons
Devon Dotson enters the Big 12 Tournament needing just 14 points to reach the 1,000-point milestone at Kansas.
The 6-foot-2 sophomore point guard from Charlotte, North Carolina, who scored 442 points in 36 games his freshman season and 544 so far in 30 games in 2019-20, is vying to become the first player in the Bill Self era to join the 1,000-point club in just two seasons and eighth player to accomplish that feat in school history.
The last KU player to score 1,000 points in two campaigns was Rex Walters (1993). Other Jayhawks to score 1,000 points in their first two years of college: Wilt Chamberlain, Carl Henry, Wayne Hightower, Clyde Lovellette, Danny Manning and Dave Robisch.
“To think he has scored 18 a game with the Big 12 by far the best defensive conference in the country is great,” 17th-year KU coach Self said of Dotson. The Jayhawks (28-3) will meet either Oklahoma State (17-14) or Iowa State (12-19) in a quarterfinal around 2 p.m. Thursday in the Sprint Center. “He certainly improved this year over last year and he was good last year.”
Dotson is KU’s leading scorer at 18.1 points a game. In Big 12 play, he’s averaged 17.5 points per game.
He also has a team-leading 63 steals, which is seven more than Marcus Garrett.
“One thing that is a little misleading,” Self said, “is ‘Dot’ didn’t make the Big 12 all-defensive team.”
That team consisted of Garrett and Udoka Azubuike of KU, plus Davion Mitchell, Mark Vital and Freddie Gillespie of Baylor.
“He was nominated and all that,” Self said of Dotson. “Those five who did make it could almost be an all-defensive All-America team. Those are five hard-rocking guys as far as guarding. Devon would have been the sixth. He’s had a good year on both ends, not just on offense.”
Dotson was a unanimous first-team all-league selection by both the AP and Big 12 coaches.
“It means a lot, your work being recognized,” Dotson said. “All the hard work you put in the season, just to be recognized is cool. In the locker room we have one common goal, a team goal, that’s winning the national championship. That’s our best goal now.”
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Sign upDotson said the Jayhawks do have incentive entering the Big 12 Tournament. If KU wins Thursday, it would advance into Friday’s 6 p.m. semifinal game against Texas or Texas Tech. The title game is 5 p.m. Saturday.
“The season is not done with. It’s a big week. We take every game seriously and try to come out on top,” Dotson said. “Anytime we are playing a game or tournament, we are going to try to win. It’s the competitiveness we have. We’re going to try to win.”
Self has said the Jayhawks would like to “validate” what the team accomplished during the regular season, which was winning the league title by two games over Baylor.
“It’s win or go home now,” Dotson said of the postseason. “Each game from here on out … each game matters really, so we have to be locked in and really focus in on what to do.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 10:05 AM.
