On Dickinson’s rebounding, Furphy and this hoops team’s ceiling | KU Jayhawks Q&A
There are two versions of this season’s Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team.
The first has three wins against teams currently in the AP Top 25 (UConn, Tennessee and Kentucky).
The other one ... has a Quad 3 loss to West Virginia.
This KU team is perplexing, in other words. It’s elite at defense, great at sharing the ball and features two potential All-Americans, in Kevin McCullar and Hunter Dickinson.
On the flip side, KU lacks depth, shoots 3-pointers at the lowest rate in the Bill Self era and is prone to offensive lulls.
Metrics-wise, Kansas is middle of the road. KenPom rates KU No. 18, while the Jayhawks’ net rating is No. 16.
As KU prepares to play Iowa State, this is what coach Bill Self had to say:
“It’s a long season. We’re going to lose again as everybody else in our league is going to lose again,” Self said. “It’s too good a league. So you’re going to put a must-win game in late January when our goal is to be the best we can be in March? I’m not buying it.”
For the most part, I agree. It’s not a must-win game, but it’s the kind of game that could reinforce a narrative that KU struggles to win on the road.
I’ve been a little less bullish on this KU team than most, but the emergence of Johnny Furphy has given me more optimism. Plus, you can never count out Self.
With that, let’s get to another Kansas Jayhawks Q&A!
What’s your favorite Johnny Furphy nickname right now? — @NickSpringer29
I don’t think I have one. His parents told me they call him “Furph”; I’ve liked “Australian Sensation,” but I think there’s a better one for him out there.
How come Self doesn’t stagger HD and KJ’s minutes a bit so that KJ can exploit mismatches at center like last year and HD could get spacing in a 4-out offense? Seems like an obvious solution to the lack of bench juice (especially at the 5) as well as spacing issues on offense? — @JAndrew_Cochran
I think he just wants to play his starting lineup as much as possible and looks at Parker Braun, who has a clearly defined role as Dickinson’s backup.
Braun only plays about eight minutes a game, though, so maybe there’s an opportunity there to stagger minutes and help solve some of those issues, as you said.
Since johnny has started Hunter has had some of his lowest rebounding totals of the year. His 5 vs West Virginia were his lowest since Feb of 2022. What do we think has contributed to this? Lack of effort? Injury? Spacing? — @joeyygrimes
I think it’s two things. First, the knee bruise: It’s clear this has affected his mobility a bit. Second is the heavy load of minutes. It seems that’s caught up to him in the past few games.
