Bill Self challenged Hunter Dickinson before ‘unbelievable’ Senior Day game vs. Arizona
Kansas Hall of Fame basketball coach Bill Self offered some words of wisdom to various Jayhawk players — including senior center Hunter Dickinson — after a Friday night film session held in the players’ apartment complex, McCarthy Hall.
“I told him last night in front of the team, ‘You’ve done a lot of good things since you’ve been here, but I haven’t seen you put a team on your back and carry us over an extended period of time,’” Self said after 7-foot-2 senior center Dickinson’s epic performance in an 83-76 Senior Day victory over the No. 24-ranked Arizona Wildcats on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Today was a pretty good start because he definitely did that,” Self added.
Dickinson’s sturdy back felt fine after one of the finest games of his two-year KU career. He tied a career high with 33 points on 15-of-23 shooting. He also had 10 rebounds, an assist and a steal while playing 34 minutes.
“Hunt was unbelievable,” Self stated.
It seems the big man from Alexandria, Virginia, who started his college career at Michigan, where he also had 33 points in a game (against Michigan State), took Self’s words to heart. He recently scored a previous-KU best 32 points in a win at Colorado.
“Coach was saying it’s the last time we’re going to go out there and play in front of the fans,” Dickinson said of the home finale. “And after this game we only have two more guaranteed games left in our season (one in Big 12 Tournament; one in NCAAs). He said whatever we have given up to this point, we still have 10%, 5%, 20% more to give. Just give it. He went down the line with players and did say that to me. He did.”
Dickinson was asked if he’s motivated to carry the squad in upcoming tourney action.
“I feel like when we get to March Madness, all you need to do is have one guy play really great each game.” Dickinson said. “If we just have one guy play really good each game, (that) would be fine. I think we’re talented enough. We were the preseason No. 1 team in the country for a reason.”
Dickinson did admit playing so well individually on his own Senior Day was “super special.”
“Coach said yesterday or today, ‘You might not remember certain games, but you always will remember your last game.’ So being able to go out like this, in style, being able to win versus a ranked team, which will really help us with our seedings coming into March … it was special for me, the guys and I feel it’s something we’ll always remember.”
Dickinson said he indeed is motivated for his last collegiate postseason. KU finished the regular season 20-11 overall and 11-9 in the league; Arizona finished 20-11, 14-6.
“I’ll be trying to soak it all in and really try to resonate with it all. Because it is for sure my last year,” Dickinson said. “Just trying to go out with a bang. I’m trying to make sure I don’t leave anything on the table, making sure that if we go down, we go down swinging. That’s kind of my mindset, like I don’t want to be playing on my on my heels anymore. I just try to be aggressive as much as I can and really try to take charge and help my teammates any way I can.”
Dickinson was one of four seniors to have big games against Arizona.
KJ Adams scored 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting with eight rebounds in 32 minutes. He skied to flush a lob from senior point guard Dajuan Harris with just over a minute to play.
Harris had nine assists against just one turnover to go with nine points in 36 minutes.
Zeke Mayo hit five 3-pointers in seven attempts and scored 20 points with six assists, no turnovers and a steal in 34 minutes.
KU’s guards also were busy on defense trying to guard the duo of Caleb Love (16 points, 5-of-12 shooting) and Jaden Bradley (21 points, 7-of-11 shooting). Love and Bradley combined to go 11 of 11 from the line on a day Arizona hit 18 of 21 free throws to KU’s 9 of 14.
“I just wanted to help send KJ and Juan out right,” Dickinson said. “They did so much for me as well as this school, this university, this program. They deserve to go out like that in their final game.”
KU coach Self — he told the media sixth-year senior Harris almost couldn’t take the court for the start of the game because he couldn’t stop crying after pregame introductions — lauded the performance of all the seniors on Senior Day. KU now has won 42 season finales in a row.
“They played great. That was about as well as I can remember seniors playing on Senior Night,” Self said. “It was nice. We needed that bad, and we needed our best player to carry us, and we needed everybody else to play well, really well. And that’s exactly what happened.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 7:55 PM with the headline "Bill Self challenged Hunter Dickinson before ‘unbelievable’ Senior Day game vs. Arizona."
