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KU embraces the challenge of playing without Dickinson, builds ‘more of an identity’ in the process

KU embraces the challenge of playing without Dickinson, builds ‘more of an identity’ in the process

On November 27, 2024By Littum

Photo by AP/Lucas Peltier

Kansas forward Flory Bidunga (40) celebrates after defeating Duke during an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas – When Kansas’ preseason All-American center Hunter Dickinson was ejected midway through the second half of Tuesday night’s game, head coach Bill Self recalled telling his team, “Now we’re going to find out how tough we are.”

The Jayhawks, as it turned out, were just tough enough to scrape together a few exceptional defensive possessions late and beat No. 11 Duke, 75-72. In the process of doing so, they could have carved out an identity that they had long sought.

“This team had no identity yet,” Self said. “I think maybe we could be proud to say that we got more of an identity now because we won a little bit ugly down the stretch that we had to play that way to have a chance to win without Hunt out there.”

How did the Jayhawks pull off the ugly win? They largely accepted their adverse circumstances and welcomed the challenge of playing in Dickinson’s absence.

“We really did it for our big man,” said point guard Dajuan Harris Jr.. “He was out half the game in the second half, so we just wanted the tough win for him.”

“It brought us together a little bit more, really,” added guard AJ Storr, a first-time starter Tuesday night. “It energized us. Hunter is our best player. When he went down, it just energized the whole team.”

Once they shook off initial surprise that Dickinson was actually ejected for the call — it appeared he kicked Duke’s Maliq Brown in the head after coming down with an offensive rebound through a foul, but as Storr said : “It didn’t look like he did it on purpose” — they were ready to pull ahead with their two-point lead and 10 minutes to play.

Perhaps no one more prepared than “really jacked” freshman center Flory Bidunga.

“Everybody was grabbed after Hunt got out,” Bidunga said. “You’ve got to do it for Kansas, because it’s not like anything personal, it’s Duke against Kansas. And then I think we put on a show when Hunt came out. You know, we played our ass. They also played off, but it ended with us (winning) the match.”

Bidunga, who would play straight through the rest of the second half, finished the game with six points, a team-high eight rebounds, one block and one steal. Self said: “The best thing about Hunter not being in the game was that Flory was. So we’ll look at that as a positive.”

“I think he played really well,” senior KJ Adams said. “Obviously it’s a bummer that an American like Hunter had to go out, but it makes me happy that Flo got a chance to show the world what he can do and it’s incredible what he did out there, especially a rookie who comes in. , in the big environment, a huge game and he did really well.”

Adams did quite well himself, finishing with three blocks and three steals to go with his eight points and three assists. Self said he “showed a lot of people tonight that you can be an elite player at this level and not be a prolific scorer because he did it all.”

A particularly exemplary display of the work Adams and Bidunga did was possibly the game’s most significant defensive play, a massive stand with KU holding a one-point lead with just seconds remaining. Adams stuck to Duke guard Kon Knueppel like glue as the freshman from Wisconsin tried to go for the kind of spinning, off-balance he had attempted with some success all game.

“That defensive possession late when we were ahead by one, that’s about as good a defense as KJ can play,” Self said.

And just as Knueppel started to go up against Adams, there was Bidunga, using his full length to stop him from lobbing a shot himself. The ball deflected off Knueppel to KU wing Rylan Griffen, who made a pair of free throws to push KU’s final margin to 75-72.

“As soon as I saw the ball, I was just like, ‘Get it,'” Griffen said.

Griffen had his own redemption arc in the second half, as it happened. After pulling up what Self called a “terrible” 3 with the shot clock off at the end of the first half — one that resulted in KU going into halftime with two points instead of between five and eight — the Alabama transfer knew he “owed” his teammates.

“My teammates just told me, ‘Don’t worry about it,'” Griffen said. “Just keep shooting, keep playing hard,” and I told them I was going to make up for it, so that’s what I tried to do when I came back in the second half.

He ended up being the primary reason Duke couldn’t pull away in the final minutes. The Blue Devils took a two-point lead for the first time all night (they had led by one point twice) on a dunk by Cooper Flagg that forced a Self timeout with six minutes left. On the other side of the break, Griffen hit a clear 3-pointer; two minutes later, he got the offensive rebound that led to an old-fashioned three-point play.

“I tried to wreck the boards even more,” Griffen said. “When I got open shots I focused on making them and then defensively I was focused on that end as well.”

KU ended up scoring just one more bucket, a floater by Zeke Mayo, before Griffen’s final free throw, so he actually accounted for eight of the Jayhawks’ final 10 points.

After the win, both Self and Adams refrained from putting too much stock in a lone November victory. As Adams noted, both KU and Duke will look very different come March. But the Jayhawks laid out a plan to win ugly, and did so without a player, Dickinson, whose production is usually a prerequisite for any major KU success.

Photo by AP/Lucas Peltier

Kansas forward KJ Adams (24) reacts after scoring against Duke in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Las Vegas.

Photo by AP/Lucas Peltier

Duke guard/forward Cooper Flagg (2) dives for the ball against Kansas forwards Flory Bidunga (40), KJ Adams (24) and guard Zeke Mayo (5) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Nov. 26, , 2024, in Las Vegas.

Photo by AP/Lucas Peltier

Kansas forward Flory Bidunga (40) dunks the ball against Duke during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Las Vegas.