With similar circumstances, No. 1 Kansas hoping for different results in supersized Big 12

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - In a lot of ways, this season’s Big 12 Media Day experience looked like a carbon copy of last year’s for the Kansas Jayhawks.

Head coach Bill Self and the Jayhawks arrived at the event as the preseason No. 1 team in the country for back-to-back seasons. They also brought senior center Hunter Dickinson, graduate guard Dajuan Harris, and senior forward KJ Adams to the T-Mobile Center, just as they had a year prior.

And just as it was a year ago, Kansas is picked to win the league and Dickinson is tabbed as the Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year.

But the Jayhawks are hoping the results of the 2024-25 season are different following a 23-11 season that didn’t meet the lofty expectations of the KU program in 2023-24. What started last year with the same optimism of conference and national title runs ended with the Jayhawks as the No. 6 seed in the Big 12 Tournament, the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and early, uncompetitive losses in both.

“We had two scholarships taken from us last year. We had an off the court incident. We had a season-ending injury to a First Team All-American, (Kevin McCullar) was going to be a First-Team All-American,” Self said, acknowledging that he went into the portal to add around Dickinson, Harris and Adams as if to double down on the talent he believed the trio could fulfill last year. “There were some things that happened that didn’t fall our way. No excuses, but those things happened.

“There was a time last year that you could make a case that Kansas was probably as consistent as anybody in the country. There was a time last year you could say, ‘Oh my God, these guys have fallen off and they’re not very good at all.’”

What Kansas hopes is the difference this season largely comes down to its ability to shoot the ball from deep and ability to win on the road. In 2023-24, the Jayhawks were 325th in the nation among the 364 Division 1 programs in 3-point attempts. They were 229th in 3-point percentage. They also lost seven times on the road in league play, by far the most times in KU history under Self.

The additions of South Dakota State transfer Zeke Mayo, Alabama transfer Rylan Griffen and Wisconsin transfer AJ Storr give the Jayhawks the pieces to shoot the ball better around their imposing interior duo of Dickinson and Adams.

“You can make a case where they’ve all been one of our better players on any particular day thus far,” Self said Wednesday of his class of transfers. “I think we have more talent. I think we’re more athletic. I think we shoot it a little bit better. I think all those things. But do they fit exactly the way we’ve won over time? I think that still remains to be seen.”

The deterioration of Kansas’ season a year ago led Self on a quest to find eight starting-caliber players for his roster this go around.

“I think we’ve done pretty well in getting us to that goal,” said Self.

READ MORE: Kansas center Hunter Dickinson named AP Preseason All-American

Harris, a Columbia, Missouri, native heading into his sixth year at Kansas is sick of losing early in the NCAA Tournament. Despite a national title run he played a key part of in the 2021-22 season, Harris’ other three NCAA Tournament appearances have all featured exits in the Round of 32.

“I’m tired of losing in the first weekend and then watching everybody else play the next weekends,” said Harris, who averaged 8.5 points and 6.5 assists per game last year. “I want to go out with a bang. I know (Dickinson and Adams) do, too. We’re an older team and I think that’s going to help with us the experience.”

Self is no stranger to scheduling tough and said he thinks a 20-game league slate -- as the Big 12 is scheduled to play -- is overkill for a program like his. This year, the Jayhawks play North Carolina, Michigan State, Duke, Creighton, NC State and Mizzou, all prior to conference play in a league that was the first to have five teams in the top 10 of the preseason AP poll.

“I don’t like the 20 (game league schedule) at all. But hopefully it’s not going to stay there,” said Self. “I think the 20 is too much. Maybe not too much if you don’t play a competitive non-conference schedule... It’s a lot.”

Dickinson, a former Michigan star who joked the Champions Classic game against Michigan State is his most anticipated game of a loaded out-of-conference slate, said he understood the frustration of the fanbase following last season.

“There’s a lot of hot takes after losses,” Dickinson said, “but I mean, deservingly so. They are used to a standard that’s been set here, especially with coach Self and the coaches before him. There’s a standard that we have to uphold here.

“With NIL and guys making money, expectations are even higher.”

The Jayhawks open the regular season on Monday, Nov. 4, with a visit from the Howard Bison at Allen Fieldhouse.

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