Newcomer watch: Gradey Dick
Gradey Dick Recruitment: Gradey Dick, the Gatorade National High School Basketball Player of the Year and five-star prospect, committed to Kansas over serious interest from the likes of Alabama, Baylor, Colorado, Creighton, Florida, Illinois, Iowa State, Kansas State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Wichita State, Xavier, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, SMU, TCU, Texas, Wake Forest, Wisconsin, and others.
Gradey Dick Senior Year: During his senior year at Sunrise Christian Academy, Dick, the No. 27 ranked player in the 2022 class, averaged 17.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Offensively, he shot 51.3 percent from the field and 46.7 percent from behind the arc.
Bill Self on Gradey Dick: "Gradey is a terrific prospect,” said Kansas head coach Bill Self. “He has skill, athleticism, size and I believe he can be an outstanding collegiate player here early in his career. He’s one of the best prospects to come out of our state since I’ve been at Kansas. I anticipate him making an immediate impact and playing a huge role his freshman year."
Bill Self on Gradey Dick: Part II: “I don’t think there’s any doubt that MJ and Gradey are going to fight for starting positions here,” Self said.
Gradey Dick on picking Kansas: “I had a great idea of it just with the history of my family going through it with my siblings, and just going to games when I was younger,” said Gradey Dick earlier in the week. “But fortunately for me, like it was during that COVID time, obviously, where I was getting recruited by my schools that I was interested in, and yeah, fortunately for me, I had most of my unofficial visits already finished before they cut everything off for COVID. Then it just turned into zooms and then I narrowed it down obviously to Kansas.
“Actually, like I said before, Kansas was always in my top two, I'd say,” he added. “And then just from like the fanboyish standpoint of me going the games, but then once I actually got the background information and guys like CB, that already had relationships beforehand, and just seeing the background of everything that goes into the school, I knew it was number one.”
Gradey Dick on his friendship with Zach Clemence: “Yeah. It's a ton of fun,” said Dick when talking about his friendship with Clemence. “I've seen him change tremendously and just upgrade his everything and from Sunrise, me being his roommate, other roommates, and just being with each other that much and then to come in here, like you said, and be back right with him. It's just like we never left.
“It does but I say, my personality is, I get along with everyone, or probably at least I try to, but coming into this team and just seeing how everyone acts with each other,” he added when asked if it helps having a former high school teammate around to help with the transition. “There's no one person that's separate on this team. I've heard from a bunch of guys that just this team is just hitting the ground running and that's like what our goal was. And Coach Self's goal was, after the championship, to leave where we left off or they left off and bring me in the freshman in and just help as much as we can. So the fact that like we get along already at this early stage, I feel like it's just that huge.”