A night for upperclassmen

Hunter Dickinson carried No. 1 Kansas, while Kentucky rallied past No. 6 Duke. Takeaways from the Champions Classic. Plus, Villanova's in a freefall, Washington and Auburn land Top 75 commits and the under-the-radar players to know thus far.

Author

Sean Paul
November 13, 2024

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Good morning. I’m still trying to figure out what was covering the rim early last last night at the Champions Classic.

I’ll get to Tuesday’s news below.

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1. Should Kansas stay at No. 1?

No. 1 Kansas now has wins over Michigan State and North Carolina. It’s 3-0. But it’s not clear the Jayhawks are actually deserving of that top spot.

The Jayhawks secured a 77-69 win over Michigan State, mostly thanks to the heavy lifting of senior big man Hunter Dickinson. He scored the Jayhawks’ first 8 points and finished with a game-high 28 points on 13-of-21 shooting, along with 12 rebounds. He was the only consistent scoring threat all night for KU.

Maybe it’s because the former Michigan star was motivated to face a familiar program.

"I'll be honest. I definitely circled this one when the schedule came out." Dickinson said "Just because of rivalry, man. Like this is why you play the game to play in games like this."

Kansas needed him to carry the load. The rest of the roster was 15-of-48. Zeke Mayo made two shots (but did have 10 rebounds and 7 assists). Ryland Griffen was 4-of-10. KJ Adams and Dajuan Harris combined for 3-of-14. KU scored .97 points per possession. For reference, it scored at a 1.18 clip vs. UNC.

It wasn’t pretty. But there’s something to be said for not only finding a way to win on a rough night, but even cover the spread (Rob’s nodding his head in agreement).

Michigan State has the same issues. The Spartans (2-1) went 3-of-23 from 3; one coming from Jaxon Kohler and the other from Jase Richardson. Their leading scorer, Jaden Akins, went 1-of-7 from the field for two points. It's hard to beat Kansas when your star struggles and you score just .87 ppp.

The Jayhawks got a dazzling performance from their best player, and the Spartans' best player never found a rhythm. That's the difference in a tight game like this.

In the end, it wasn’t just another win for Kansas, though. Bill Self passed Phog Allen as the school’s all-time winningest coach with 591 victories. (Per the official NCAA record book.)

Self just laughed. "It means I'm old, and I've had a lot of really good players. Phog Allen is still going to be the greatest coach in Kansas history." But he did revel a bit.

Kansas will work out some of those issues over the next week when it faces Oakland and UNC Wilmington before playing Duke in Las Vegas on Nov. 26.

Seems like the Devils have their own issues.

2. Kentucky rallies past Duke, Cooper Flagg

If you turned off the Champions Classic because the shots weren’t fall, shame on you. The nightcap had all the fireworks.

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