How did Creighton silence KU basketball star Hunter Dickinson in Wednesday’s loss?
Preseason All-American Hunter Dickinson attempted just four shots in his much-anticipated matchup against Creighton basketball big man Ryan Kalkbrenner on Wednesday night at CHI Health Center.
Two of those attempts were missed 3s, meaning the Kansas Jayhawks’ 7-foot center managed to take just two inside shots in the No. 1-ranked Jayhawks’ 76-63 loss to the unranked Bluejays.
The 260-pound Dickinson finished with six points on 2-of-4 shooting, his second-lowest point total in his two years as a Jayhawk. He had five points in a loss to Texas Tech last season.
His four shots were his fewest in a game at KU. He took seven versus Cincinnati a year ago.
Why was Dickinson not involved in the offense during his 25 minutes on the court Wednesday?
“They basically had four guys in the paint, so we know we’ll see that moving forward,” KU coach Bill Self said after the Jayhawks suffered their first loss of the season against seven victories. Creighton improved to 6-3. “They just dared us to shoot (from the outside), which was a good game plan.”
Point guard Dajuan Harris hoisted 21 shots, hitting six, good for 15 points. Harris was 3-of-9 from 3.
“Obviously we didn’t exercise enough patience to still give our offense a chance to work a lot,” Self stated, noting he was OK with Harris putting up more than 20 shot attempts.
“We thought we could get our guards to five or six feet and we were going to have to make some of those shots,” Self said. “Juan just didn’t have it tonight (and wasn’t) making the six-footers like he usually does.”
The 7-1, 270-pound Kalkbrenner in his matchup versus Dickinson had 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting. He was 7-of-8 from the line and had 10 rebounds to Dickinson’s eight boards.
“He did do a good job,” Self said when asked about Kalkbrenner’s defense, “but let’s call it like it is: We’ve got to figure out a way to get the ball to him (Dickinson) when they’ve got four guys in the paint, too. There was a reason why he didn’t get as many touches, too. We’ve got to do a better job of getting him the ball.”
Self was asked if Dickinson could have done anything better to get open for inside buckets.
“As far as catching the ball in tight? Probably not,” Self said. “We can do some things better to make sure the right guys are passing it. To start the second half we made KJ (Adams, four points on 2-of-6 shooting) the passer. Hunter caught it at 3 feet and threw it to Juan for an uncontested 3. He (Dickinson) still wasn’t going to get the shot, but he at least got a touch.”
The Jayhawks, who cut a 13 point deficit to one in the second half only to get buried — 35-23 from that point on — after making it a close game, wound up hitting 35.7% of their shots to CU’s 47.2%. KU was 8-of-23 from 3; Creighton 12-of-29.
Former Texas Tech Red Raider Pop Isaacs hit a career high 6 3s on nine attempts and finished with a season-high 27 points. He had 25 against both Nebraska and Texas A&M this season.
Steven Ashworth hit three deep 3s and scored 17 points.
“Our inability to guard their two guards. They wore us out,” Self lamented as keys to the lopsided defeat. “Pop was great. We’ve known Pop going back to when he was 5-years-old. I’ve known his dad forever. He was terrific tonight. If he continues to be a threat shooting the ball like that, they will be hard to guard. Ashworth was great too. It felt like he made more than three. His 3s were ones you remember. They’d be four-point plays if they were playing with those goofy rules, 3 on 3 (basketball). Those two guys were the two best players in the game.”
This was a game Self was hit with a technical foul during a second-half timeout. He first complained but was not hit with a T after contact on a Zeke Mayo shot was not ruled a foul.
“I thought obviously Zeke got fouled on the one play that turned out to be a seven-point swing, which was a pretty big play,” Self said. Isaacs hit a 3 after the non-call on the Mayo shot and Creighton hit two free throws.
The Jayhawks, who made it off the court safely after the Bluejay student body stormed the court when the final horn sounded, were playing without guard Rylan Griffen who had the flu this week and didn’t make the trip to Omaha.
“Without Rylan, we are not as good a perimeter shooting team,” Self said. “You could say we should be patient enough to drive, kick and play to a 3 more often. But our best offense is still putting the ball in our best players’ hands.”
Senior guard Diggy Coit who had eight points in 21 minutes said the Jayhawks missed Griffen.
“Obviously it hurt. He’s a great player on both ends,” Coit said. “We missed one of our best shooters in a game we missed shots. (But) I don’t think the game was on him not being here.”
Instead, Coit said: “We didn’t come out ready to play. Credit to them. They came out ready to play. They made tough shots. When you play a good team at home and give them open looks, this happens. Our energy was not there. Our intensity was not there. Our identity was not there.”
Creighton now has beaten a No. 1 team two straight seasons at home. The Bluejays defeated then-No. 1 UConn last season.
KU will next meet Missouri at noon Sunday in Columbia. Creighton next will play host to UNLV on Saturday.
