Kansas Jayhawks basketball coach Bill Self talks injuries, starters & redshirts
University of Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self provided an optimistic injury report three days before his preseason No. 1-ranked Jayhawks open the 2024-25 season.
KU beat Washburn in an exhibition game Tuesday and play host to Howard University of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference at 7 p.m. Monday in the season opener.
“I anticipate having a full squad,” Self said. “We have not limited reps since the game Tuesday with ‘Hunt’ (Hunter Dickinson) and ‘Shak’ (Shakeel Moore), even though that may be the case moving forward (at practice).
“Unless something unforeseen happens, we should be good. Rylan (Griffen) did fine getting through the game. This is the closest we’ve been to being healthy, even though the timing is off on two (players). Hopefully by next week we’ll be a little bit better.”
Dickinson, a 7-foot-2 senior center who recently missed nine days of practice because of a foot sprain, did not play in KU’s exhibition games against Arkansas and Washburn.
Moore, a 6-1 senior guard, also missed the two practice games as he continues his recovery from surgery — which he had in early September — to repair a hairline fracture in his ankle.
Griffen, a 6-6 junior guard who has been slowed recently because of a hip flexor, scored 14 points while playing 16 minutes in Tuesday’s 84-53 rout of the Ichabods. Griffen missed the Arkansas game, an 85-69 KU loss, on Oct. 25.
“I don’t see any hold-back on minutes as of today in the game (Monday vs. Howard),” Self said. “Let’s be real. Shak’s reps will still be limited — not because he’s injured, just because he has not been out there in nine weeks. I don’t think he’ll play 25 minutes, by any stretch.”
Self said Dickinson has been running with the first team during practice.
‘“Hunt’ always is going to play on the first group,” Self said, “but we’ll probably rotate ‘Shak’ in with different combinations. That will probably be as much as we do. Yesterday was a good long day and both of them (Dickinson, Moore) got through everything fine. They both went through their treatment this morning and are full go this afternoon (for Friday practice) at least based what I was told 10 minutes ago.”
Self said it may take a while for Dickinson to resemble a player who has improved since averaging 17.9 points and 10.9 rebounds a year ago as KU finished 23-11.
“I don’t think it’ll be obvious immediately until he gets his rhythm back,” Self said. “I do think conditioning and rhythm may be a little bit of a factor early on. I think the biggest thing you’ll see, I don’t know if it’s a huge improvement, but we’ll see a better passer just because of the way we are playing a little bit different than last year.”
Self said he didn’t have a starting lineup selected for the opener but offered this: “I would say if health is good you could make a case for ‘Hunt,’ Juan (Harris) and KJ (Adams) starting, but we haven’t decided yet.”
As far as possibly redshirting a player or two — Jamari McDowell and Rakease Passmore have been mentioned as the only possible candidates — Self said, “We haven’t decided, nor do I know for sure that we are going to decide. I think you could make a case that all the guys that could be potential candidates also are guys who could help you win some games.
“I haven’t made that decision yet. I’ll probably put that decision off until Sunday or Monday.”
Of sophomore guard McDowell and freshman guard Passmore, Self said: “I think they’ve both been good. I think that with freshmen a lot of times you can be on an upward trajectory, then you can hit a plateau and then you’ll fight through it and go back up and then hit a plateau.
“I think Rakease is on one of those upward trajectories now. Jamari has been rock-solid consistent all along, plus he understands what we are doing. He’s a good talker. He’s just a good teammate that understands what we are trying to do. I think they both have done extremely well.”
