Hunter Dickinson will return to Kansas for a second season
What an offseason it’s been for Bill Self and Kansas. After losing to Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Self has the Jayhawks in position, once again, to open up the 2024-25 season as the No. 1 team in college basketball.
While Johnny Furphy (testing the NBA waters, but could potentially return), Kevin McCullar, Jr., Parker Braun, and Nicolas Timberlake have moved on, Kansas, in a short period of time, has added Riley Kugel (committed), Zeke Mayo (signed), AJ Storr (signed), and Rylan Griffen (signed).
Not long after Kansas announced the signing of Rylan Griffen, Self took to Twitter to ask Huter Dickinson when he was going to announce his future plans.
“Yeah, you’re right, Coach,” said Dickinson in his response Tweet. “It’s time to tell everyone that I’m coming back! Rock Chalk!”
Kansas, who has yet to lose any players to the portal at this point (Labaron Philon did back out of his commitment), is set to return one of the nation’s elite big men in college basketball.
A two-time Consensus All-America Second Team and two-time Wooden Award All-American, Dickinson led the Big 12 and ranks eighth nationally in rebounds per game at 10.8 in 2023-24.
The 2024 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and All-Big 12 First Team selection from Alexandria, Virginia, Dickinson recorded his 17 double-doubles which led the Big 12 and ranked 12th nationally. With a 17.9 scoring average, which was second in the Big 12 behind teammate Kevin McCullar Jr.’s 18.3 ppg,
Dickinson was the only player in the Big 12 to average a double-double. Dickinson also led the Big 12 with 14 games of 20-plus points and led Kansas with 47 blocked shots.
“This is great news,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said. “We’ve had a lot of good things happen since the end of the season and Hunter coming back has definitely added to that. Hunter made a huge impact on our team last year. He played and fought through injuries and was still one of the most consistent players in the Big 12 and nationally.
“Not only is Hunter a terrific player, he’s a great leader and teammate,” he added. “We expect him to contend for first-team All-American next season.”
This past season, Dickson scored 20 or more points 14 times. He went for 27 points against Kentucky, 31 points against Chaminade, 30 points against TCU, 24 points against Oklahoma, and 19 points against Samford in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
During that same stretch, Dickinson had 10 or more rebounds 18 times. He finished with 21 against Kentucky, 20 against Tennessee, 16 at Oklahoma, 20 against Kansas State, and 20 against Samford.
Dickinson ended 2023-24 with 2,208 career points and 1,148 career rebounds and was one of four active players in NCAA Division I to surpass both 2,200 points and 1,100 rebounds for his career. Others included Zach Edey (Purdue), Amanda Bacot (North Carolina), and Baylor Schereman (Creighton).