Here’s how the Kansas Jayhawks can reach their peak in this NCAA Tournament
The doors popped open to the Kansas men’s basketball locker room last week at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. And in a row of cushioned chairs, one beside another, sat Zeke Mayo, Dajuan Harris, Hunter Dickinson and K.J. Adams.
The seniors.
The core.
But together: the outlier.
The streak had to end at some point, a ridiculous span of more than two decades with head coach Bill Self never entering an NCAA Tournament with a seed worse than No. 4. But that this group, literally the most experienced in Division I basketball among 364 teams, will enter Thursday evening as a No. 7 seed against Arkansas is some kind of backwards result.
In totality, there’s very little that’s been typical about the past five months in Lawrence, the home of a program that for two decades resembled Dr. Jekyll but this year decided to split custody with Mr. Hyde.
KU has beaten some of the best teams the nation has to offer. It’s also turned in some complete duds.
OK, a lot of the latter.
“This is probably the most inconsistent feelings that I’ve had going through a season that I can remember,” Self acknowledged.
It’s a bit fascinating, if only for its abnormality. And this is nothing if not abnormal.
Self would probably prefer another word. He did a few weeks ago when I visited his office: Frustrating. As frustrating as it’s been, he told me then.
So as those locker room doors popped open last week, I walked through them to find the root of the better days. When KU is at its peak, what does that look like? What does that entail?
“We’re definitely confusing a lot of our Kansas fans,” Adams said. “I think it’s all about energy.”
“I think it’s when we’re playing and defending the ball with a lot of energy,” Dickinson said, and there’s such similarity in the response that I’ll note Dickinson did not hear Adams’ reply first. “That’s when we’re at our best.”
Their best.
It’s in there. In here. In these four players.
We’ve seen it.
There’s a lot of talk about KU basketball right now, and for the first time in a generation, that sentence is not a compliment to the present but rather a reflection of how good it’s been in the past. The Jayhawks, and notably Self, have set their own bar for so long that it stands out when they crawl under it rather than step over.
There are the faults in the roster construction. There are questions over whether KU’s program strengths have been swallowed by a new era of college basketball that encompasses NIL and the transfer portal.
All relevant.
But we have seen KU at a pretty high level, enough that it’s hard to ignore. There is some selectivity with the endpoints, I’ll acknowledge, but the Jayhawks totaled four wins against the top-14 teams in KenPom during the regular season. There are zero No. 1 or No. 2 seeds in this tourney that totaled more.
Zero.
Only Auburn so much as matched that number. St. John’s, the No. 2 seed in the West and a potential second-round opponent for Kansas, had none.
The Jayhawks’ very best has been plenty good enough. What derailed their regular season — what they must somehow figure out with one last gasp in the 2025 tournament — is how to reach it consistently.
There are ways that KU can reach its ceiling this month. Mayo hitting shots. A defense that returns to form. An unlikely contributor, perhaps.
But nothing has been more indicative of KU at its best than its best playing at his best.
Dickinson.
A week ago, before stepping into that locker room, Dickinson referred to Kansas as “one of the more volatile teams in the country.”
Yes, that’s this team.
But that’s him.
When Dickinson shoots at least 55% from the floor, Kansas is 13-0. When he shoots worse than 55%, KU is just 8-12.
When he grabs double-digit rebounds, KU is 11-5, a .688 win percentage. When he falls under that number, KU is just 10-7 (.588).
Dickinson scores 4.4 more points per game in wins than he does in losses. If that seems obvious, I’ll offer a comparative point: The remainder of the Jayhawks’ starting lineup (Mayo, Harris, Adams and Rylan Griffen) combined to score just 4.1 more points per game in wins.
Minutes after the bracket was unveiled Sunday, Dickinson referred to Griffen and AJ Storr as the X-factors in this tournament. It’s a good thought.
But KU goes as its star goes.
Wasn’t that the idea, after all?
After building his iteration of the program through development, a quality unmatched by his peers, Self jumped into the NIL/portal era with one big splash: It was Dickinson.
The culmination of Self’s first spin at the wheel in this era arrives now. And it’s quite fitting that his old way could be staring back at him in the second round.
Zuby Ejiofor has sure developed into a fine player for St. John’s, has he not? That was the one-for-one switch, the immediate fix over the long-term solution. The long-term foundation, actually. There will be — needs to be — lessons derived from these past two years, though it’s not as though Kansas is operating in the same landscape. It’s changed.
Quick fixes are part of darn near everyone’s blueprint. KU’s plan drew up Dickinson. Those numbers, the axis on which this team spins, should surprise no one — least of all those who put the team together.
They banked on it.
KU’s fate has always hinged on Dickinson playing well. Energy, body language, whatever leadership quality you want to mention — he needs to have it.
These next few weeks could seesaw his legacy between Dedric Lawson and Thomas Robinson or perhaps David McCormack. Maybe that’s too lofty. But then again, maybe it’s not.
There are two pieces of good news tucked into that thought.
For starters, the committee smiled on this team. The Jayhawks couldn’t have asked for a more favorable draw, even as they’ve shown us an ability to lose any game. They are favored against Arkansas on Thursday night. St. John’s has had a terrific year but sure has its offensive flaws for a No. 2 seed (and the fact that one of those flaws is perimeter shooting ought to please KU).
Oh, and there’s another piece of news Dickinson might find favorable:
The legacy stuff? The culmination of it all?
It goes back to what this year has shown us:
It’s in his control.
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM.