Freshly off a #1 ranking in the first official AP Poll of the regular season, the Kansas Jayhawks continued their winning ways with a 77-69 victory over the Michigan State Spartans in the State Farm Champions Classic in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday night. It was a historic win for head coach Bill Self, who won his 591st game at Kansas. The win over Michigan State put Self ahead of legendary head coach Phog Allen for most wins in program history. His response to achieving that milestone directly after the game during the on-the-court interview: “It means I’m old.”
Self may be older, but he’s also wiser and continues to dominate the coaching game. It took him a couple of seasons, but he has officially taken the next step in his coaching career by dominating the transfer portal this past offseason. Those portal moves are already paying dividends early in the season.
Self has already gone through one change in the starting lineup, moving shooting guard Zeke Mayo from a bench role to a starting role. Mayo, a transfer from South Dakota State, took over the starting role from David Coit, a transfer from Northern Illinois. Alabama transfer Rylan Griffen has started the first three games for the Jayhawks after AJ Storr, a Wisconsin transfer, started initially during preseason exhibition games. Self continues to start three members of last year’s, starting five with Hunter Dickinson, Dejuan Harris, and KJ Adams.
There’s a chance Self will continue to tinker with the lineup to get things set in place before conference play begins. There’s been some speculation that Adams could move to an off-the-bench spark-type role, and Storr could be restored to the starting lineup. Time will tell with some of these moves, but for now, the Jayhawks continue winning with the formula of trial and error.
Mayo dominated the first two games off-the-bench, which led to his insertion to the starting lineup. Mayo led the team in scoring with 19, including 5-8 from beyond the arch, in a win over Howard University to open the season. In the second game of the season, a 92-89 win over North Carolina, Mayo led the team in scoring again with 21 points. He played equal or more minutes than every starter except Adams in that game against the Tar Heels and proved yet again that he will be a critical piece to this team. In his first start of the season, the shots weren’t falling and he ended the game with six points, but was able to effect the game in other ways, adding 10 rebounds and leading the team with seven assists.
Dickinson, who was bouncing back from a preseason injury, was limited to 21 minutes against Howard in the season opener. He still finished the game with 16 points and six rebounds. Against North Carolina and Michigan State, he had back-to-back double-doubles, the 49th and 50th double-doubles of his career. He finished with 20 points and ten rebounds against UNC and was the only dominant player for the Jayhawks in their win over the Spartans, leading the team with 28 points and 12 rebounds.
Dickinson, who was a transfer from Michigan a year and a half ago, had the game against his former rival circled on his calendar since the schedule was released. Dickinson was a preseason favorite to win the Wooden Award, given to college basketball’s top player at the end of the season. Dickinson’s start to the season has certainly cemented his preseason status as one of the best in the nation.
DeJuan Harris continues to climb the ladder of success in the all-time assist rankings in program history. He added six assists to his total in the win over Michigan State and moved up to third place on the all-time assist leaders in Kansas basketball history with 685. He passed Cedric Hunter but still has a ways to go before catching Jacque Vaugh, who is second on the list with 804 career assists. It will be virtually impossible for anyone to ever catch Aaron Miles who has 954 career assists as a Jayhawk.
Kansas is off to a great start, but the schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Jayhawks. They’ll face Top 10 ranked Duke in the Vegas Showdown at the end of November before back-to-back road games against Creighton and Missouri. By the time KU gets to conference play, they’ll be battle-tested, and the punches will keep coming as they play against a tough Big 12 conference slate. The Jayhawks are #1 for a reason. Their coaching, quality starters, and depth may be unmatched this season. A 3-0 record to start the season is nice. Still, they’ll continue working toward bigger goals for the team for the season, including winning the Big 12, getting one-seed in the NCAA Tournament, making it back to the Final Four, and ultimately winning a National Championship. They are lofty but realistic goals for a Kansas team looking to bounce back from a disappointing ending to last season.
