KU Jayhawks’ Hunter Dickinson named preseason AP All-American for 2nd straight season
Fifth-year senior center Hunter Dickinson has been named to the Associated Press preseason All-America men’s basketball team for the second straight season, the AP announced Monday.
Dickinson, who was named second-team All-America as a junior at Michigan and senior at Kansas, was joined on the 2024-25 AP preseason All-America team by Alabama’s Mark Sears, North Carolina’s RJ Davis, Auburn’s Johni Broome, Arizona’s Caleb Love and Duke’s Cooper Flagg.
Dickinson received 42 votes from the 55-member AP panel. Sears was a near unanimous pick with 54 votes, while Davis received 51, Broome 34, Love and Flagg 24 apiece.
The others receiving votes: Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton (15 votes); Alex Karaban, UConn (10); LJ Cryer, Houston (5); Braden Smith, Purdue (5); Kam Jones, Marquette (2); Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State (2); Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M; Johnell Davis, Arkansas; Norchard Omier, Baylor; Ace Bailey, Rutgers; Robbie Avila, Saint Louis; Tucker DeVries, West Virginia and Tre Johnson, Texas.
KU has been ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP poll in Dickinson’s two seasons as a Jayhawk. Dickinson averaged 17.9 points and 10.9 rebounds a game for KU last season. He also is the 2024-25 Big 12 preseason player of the year.
Last week, Dickinson had this to say when named preseason player of the year in the conference: “It’s a great honor but at this point doesn’t mean much other than a social post. I’m just trying to put my team in a position to win it all and win the Big 12. That’s probably the main thing, win the Big 12 and everything else will sort itself out.”
Of the team being No. 1 in the country, Dickinson said: “Since Dr. (James) Naismith came here, there always have been high expectations for Kansas as a program. When you have the best coach in college basketball, a Hall of Famer, there always are going to be people who feel Kansas is going to be really good. This year with talent, experience, youth, athleticism, shooting, it’s hard to pinpoint a couple weaknesses on this team. It’s kind of why expectations are what they are in the poll and stuff.”
In Dickinson’s first year at KU, he recorded 17 double-doubles, which led the Big 12 and was 12th nationally. He was the only player in the Big 12 to average a double-double. He was the sixth player in the 22-year Bill Self era to average a double-double for the season and first since Udoka Azubuike in 2019-20 (13.7 ppg, 10.5 rpg).
Dickinson also led the Big 12 with 14 games of 20-plus points and 18 games of 10-plus rebounds. He led KU with 47 blocked shots. The Alexandria, Virginia native had two games of 30-plus points, including a season-high 31 versus Chaminade (Nov. 20). He had 30 versus TCU (Jan. 6). Dickinson grabbed a career-high 21 rebounds versus Kentucky (Nov. 14). He twice tied his career high with five blocked shots, vs. Oklahoma (Jan. 23) and vs. Kansas State (March 5).
Last year’s preseason All-America team consisted of the 7-foot-2 Dickinson as well as Purdue center Zach Edey, Marquette guard Tyler Kolek, Duke forward Kyle Filipowski and North Carolina forward Armando Bacot.
AP Preseason All-America team
The Associated Press’ 2024-25 preseason All-America men’s basketball team, with school, height, year and votes from a 55-member national media panel (key 2023-24 statistics in parentheses):
Mark Sears, Alabama, 6-1, 190 pounds, senior, 54 of 55 votes (17.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.3 apg, 50.8 fg pct, 85.7 FT pct)
RJ Davis, North Carolina, 6-0, 180, senior, 51 (21.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 3.5 apg, 47 steals, 86.7 FT pct)
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas, 7-2, 265, senior, 42 (17.9 ppg, 10.9 rpg, 2.3 apg, 54.8 fg pct, 47 blocks)
Johni Broome, Auburn, 6-10, 240, junior, 34 (16.5 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 54.8 fg pct, 78 blocks)
Caleb Love, Arizona, 6-4, 205, senior, 24 (18 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 3.5 apg, 93 3-pointers, 44 steals)
Cooper Flagg, Duke, 6-9, 205, freshman, 24 (16.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 3.8 spg, 2.7 bpg at Monteverde Academy in Florida)
