Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Who Will Score the Most Points for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball in 2023-2024 Besides Hunter Dickinson?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to start a series. Who will be leading KU basketball in some of their statistical profiles for the 2023 to 2024 season? We're going to start today. Who's going to be KU's leader in points? Probably an obvious answer, but who would be second on the team in points for this upcoming season as well? Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:00:24 Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. Thank you to all the everydayers out there tuning in to all the content. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio if you have a question for the show or something you want to reach out about.

Starting point is 00:01:00 And you can also like and subscribe to the show on our YouTube page. On today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're talking KU basketball. Who's going to lead the team in scoring in 2023 to 2024? Probably an obvious answer. Probably know who you're going to go with, but who would be second on the team? You know, who else is in contention? Who are some possible dark horses for maybe second on the team with today's edition of the show? So where I want to start with this is with the top. Who is going to be KU basketball's leading scorer for this upcoming season? Very obvious answer is Hunter Dickinson. Hunter Dickinson is by far the easy favorite to lead the team in scoring this year.

Starting point is 00:01:51 You think about him coming in at a position where he's going to get a lot of touches. He's going to get a lot of shots. He's going to be the focal point of the offense and there's not really the other guy that you look to and are like, yeah, that guy is a clear 15, 16 point per game score. It's just so obvious that Hunter Dickinson is going to be the answer here. You know, it's actually funny. Bart Torvik, the metric site, has projections on like individual stats for players. And I don't know how this gets put together, how reliable it is,

Starting point is 00:02:26 but maybe it gives you at least a little bit of a blueprint, at least a little bit of an entry-level view into how this could go. It has Hunter Dickinson leading the team with 18 points per game. It has, which, I don't know, that sounds about right to me. DeJuan Harris, it has him at 13.1 points per game. I might take a little bit of the under on that one, but I could see it being double digits. KJ Adams is third on the Bartorvik projections with 11 points per game. Kevin McCuller is fourth at 9.8 points per game.

Starting point is 00:03:00 You got Nick Timberlake at fifth at 7.7. Elmarco Jackson behind that at six and a half points per game. You got Nick Timberlake at fifth at 7.7. Elmarco Jackson behind that at six and a half points per game. Then you go down to Artario Morris at five points per game. Zach Clements at 2.7 points per game. That obviously hasn't factored in yet that he's going to be redshirting. Parker Brown at 2.4 points per game and Jamari McDowell at 1.5 points per game. And who knows, he might redshirt too. So I don't say all those numbers are going to be super accurate like i would be pounding the over on arterial morris over five points um i would probably take the under on dewan harris 13.1 i would take the over on kevin mcculler 9.8 points per game but it gives you at least a blueprint a little bit of a roadmap of maybe like you know

Starting point is 00:03:41 certain public projections there right i'm not even sure there's a debate though about Hunter Dickinson not being your leading scorer this season like what's the floor for what Hunter Dickinson's going to average points per game wise 16 points per game you know 15 and a half points per game that's like the floor and I'm not sure you look at anybody else as having a realistic season where they're going to even get to what his floor is in terms of points per game. His ceiling in terms of points per game is 20 points per game, right? Like 21, 20 and a half, 20 points per game, somewhere in that range. That's the ceiling there that you're looking at.

Starting point is 00:04:15 And realistically, yeah, I think somewhere in that 17 to 19 range is probably the most expected outcome. That pretty surely to me is going to lead KU in points per game so he is the guy maybe the better question there with Hunter Dickinson then just becomes what should the over-under for his points end up being on the season I mean you look at it and those other guys that I named like DeJuan Harris if he's your second leading scorer you could convince me DeJuan's going to average eight nine ten points per game KJ Adams you could convince me DeJuan's going to average 8, 9, 10 points per game. KJ Adams, you could convince me 8, 9, 10 points per game. Kevin McCuller, 10, 11 points per game. You go down the list, there's a very real case to be made with how much Bill Self wants

Starting point is 00:04:54 to use the big man, with how skilled he is on the block, with his ability to stretch out from three, catch in the high post, to be a passer, somebody who's going to have the ball in his hands a lot, that it could be closer to those 20 points per game. But I think that's a good number. What Bart Torvik said it at, even though I don't agree with necessarily all of those numbers, I think that one specifically is a good number. If you put the over-under on Hunter Dickinson points at like 18, 18.5, I think you'd get pretty close to split action, maybe more on 18.5,

Starting point is 00:05:20 of people taking the over or the under. So that's probably what I would go with. But he is very clearly the team favorite to lead the team in points per game. If it doesn't end up happening, if he doesn't end up leading the team in points per game, I think that probably is a good thing, I guess, because maybe that ends up meaning that he averaged 14 and a half, 15 points per game, 15 and a half, I guess, is what I said the floor was. And that just like Kevin McCuller went off and averaged 16 points per game, 15 and a half, I guess is what I said the floor was. And that just like

Starting point is 00:05:45 Kevin McCuller went off and averaged 16 points per game or something like that. So I guess that could be taken as a good thing. I just don't think that's really realistic. So that's kind of what I'm expecting here. I think the more interesting conversation though, is who will finish second on the team in points per game? Who will finish second on the team in scoring this year for KU? I want to get to that. Who are some of the favorites there? Who are some of the dark horse picks there? First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by eBay Motors. For a championship team, it is all about making sure every player is a perfect fit. It's the same when it comes to your vehicle. Every part needs to fit just right. You know, just like Bill Self, Kansas, bringing in all these new players.

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Starting point is 00:07:37 Torvik. Projections has DeJuan Harris second on the team. I don't think that's the correct answer. Now, I don't think it would surprise me. We know DeJuan has been a good at least set three-point shooter with open threes, and he has that good little running hook play, and there are times when he's get that scoop shot kind of layup going, and he can get those teardrop floaters going. He has enough in his game that if he wanted to, yeah, he could average those 12, 13 points per

Starting point is 00:08:04 game and finish second on the team. But I think from DeJuan Harris' perspective, he likes being a facilitator, and it works to the benefit of KU with him being a facilitator and exerting so much energy on the defensive side of the ball that I kind of expect with DeJuan Harris, you know, last year he was around the nine point per game mark. I'd probably expect that to go up a little, but not quite to 13. I'd probably more view it as like 10 points per game for DeJuan Harris next season. Like that's kind of the mark I'm looking at. And if that's the mark that I'm looking at, do I think somebody else can get more than 10 points per game? Yeah, I do. You know,

Starting point is 00:08:38 with Jamari McDowell, I don't think that's really in the conversation here. Parker Brown, you're not going to play enough minutes. Zach Clements is red-shirting, right? Okay. What is Artario Morris going to do? You know, when I did my minutes projection a couple weeks ago, I had Nick Timberlake in the starting lineup. It feels like there's a wave, a movement, some momentum kind of going to maybe Artario Morris being the other starter, going DeJuan, Artario, Kevin McCuller, KJ Adams, Hunter Dickinson, as far as the starting five goes. Arterio Morris could be a good little dark horse pick here. You know, Bartorvik only has it at five points per game, but if you're saying he's going

Starting point is 00:09:12 to play closer to 25, 28, maybe even 30 minutes per game, he averaged about two and a half threes per game last year in just about 11 minutes. He's going to be getting up a lot of threes. He'll be one of your better three-point shooters. I don't think it's crazy that Arterio could average 12 points per game, and you end up with a kind of clump of three or four players behind Hunter Dickinson who are between that nine to 12 points per game, and that ends up being second on the team. So I think that would be a good dark horse guess. I think with Elmarco Jackson, I think he'll give you good production and be a good player, be a really talented player, but I'm not expecting the scoring to be that high. If you told me Nick Timberlake is going to play close to high 20s, 30 minutes per game, he would be a good dark horse pick here too, because if you're getting that many minutes, he's going to be your top three-point shooter. We know he does have more to his game, right? He is good in transition.

Starting point is 00:10:06 He can dunk the basketball. Some other stuff that he can do on the offensive end that, yeah, if he was playing 30 minutes per game, it wouldn't be crazy that he gets 10, 11, 12 points per game. And he could be a dark horse in this conversation. But I think Timberlake and Morris would be the two, depending which one you think is going to start as the dark horse there. The favorites to be second, it would be DeJuan Harris, KJ Adams,

Starting point is 00:10:24 and Kevin McCuller. And that's the exact order it has in Bart Torvik. Again, I would have DeJuan a little bit lower. With KJ and Kevin, it's an interesting story. Heard really good things so far about what Kevin McCuller has done in the offseason and what he's looked like so far. But the big question is going to be, what is he going to shoot from three? You know, so far, it's been kind of a plateau for Kevin McCuller in the three-point shooting, high 20s, low 30%. You're looking for that breakout season. Now, is he just who he is from three, or can that improve to 35% or something like that, right?

Starting point is 00:10:56 That could be the difference between averaging 10 to 11 points per game or something like that. I do think we saw Kevin McCuller show a lot of a more complete game on the offensive end, especially as the season went on. You saw him being even more comfortable driving, taking it to the rim, taking a defender. You saw that spin move once he would get into the lane a little bit. We always knew he was a good cutter. He's good in transition, whether it's his ball handler and kind of facilitating out or taking it himself. I think Kevin McCuller would be a very logical answer here. You also look at the fact that, yeah, he's that senior-type leader player,

Starting point is 00:11:32 and those players are going to get plays drawn up for them and are going to be asked to make big plays and make big moments. I mean, Kevin McCuller hit a lot of big shots last year. There were a lot of games where it was like, oh man, he's just not hitting from the outside, and then he just hits a big one. I think the Oklahoma State game comes to mind in that regard. He obviously had the big shot against Texas Tech on kind of the cleanup. Kevin McCuller would probably be the name for me that makes the most sense here,

Starting point is 00:11:59 that I could see Kevin, yeah, averaging 12.5, 13, 13.5 points per game, that for me, he would be the betting favorite on who's going to finish second on the team in scoring behind Hunter Dickinson. But I am open to hearing KJ Adams. I think that would be the one that I would, I don't know, maybe it'd be Artario Morris or KJ that I'd have the most fight with for Kevin McCuller, because I do view DeJuan more in that 9 to 10, 10.5 point range. With KJ, you are looking at somebody who averaged like 11 points per game a season ago. And part of it depends on how the fit goes, how everything works. With him playing next to Hunter Dickinson, I kind of think that Kansas is going to figure it out just fine.

Starting point is 00:12:39 Like Bill Self played for a long period of time, high-low basketball with too big basketball, right? KJ Adams does at least have a little bit of guard skills. He is a really good passer. Now, he doesn't have guard skills in terms of the shooting, at least from what we've seen. Who knows? We'll see where that's at development-wise. I'd be interested to see where the dribbling's at. For a center, he had good dribbling ability from what you had last year,

Starting point is 00:13:04 but if you're viewing him more as a four four-man, a wing slash guard type, then maybe the dribbling needs more honing in. We do know he was a very good driver of the basketball. You get him on straight line drives, you head him toward the rim, the defender's sagging off him. He was able to get a running start. Good driver of the basketball, taking it to the rim. And now when he's driving the basketball, when he's trying to finish around the rim,

Starting point is 00:13:24 a lot of those shots last year year he was having to take more so when a defender was you know six foot nine six foot ten six foot eleven guarding him right now he's going to be going up against more four men who are six foot six six foot seven six foot eight that he'll be able to finish those at an even higher clip which he already finished at a pretty high clip around the rim last year. So I can actually see KJ just being this monster driver. And even though the three-point shot, even if it's not there, him being with high-low basketball, Hunter Dickinson being able to space the floor out, they're able to get open dunks for him, him catching lobs from DeJuan Harris, him being someone who is that elite driver of the basketball, just getting cleanup plays.

Starting point is 00:14:04 He is a good offensive rebounder and getting some put-back points that way, that he does actually get to even more points per game than he had last year. But again, it depends on the fit. If the fit doesn't work and he's not able to stay on the floor as long and you can't play him at the floor as much as you wanted to, then this number goes down. So that's the one among all these that is maybe most dependent on the playing time and

Starting point is 00:14:26 the fit specifically of the offense and how everything meshes together from that end of things. But I think the potential is there that, yeah, what if KJ just is like one of the best drivers of the basketball in the conference and is one of the best finishers around the rim in the conference and you're inverting the offense where Hunter Dickinson basically offensively is your four and KJJ. Adams is your five and then defensively it's kind of switched from that, then I don't think it would be crazy for K.J. to finish second on the team

Starting point is 00:14:50 in points per game. But I think right now the betting favorite, I would put Kevin McCuller in that regard. All right, let's finish things up here. What is the most likely scenario for maybe points per game? And going back to those Bart Torvik numbers for what KU puts up points per game-wise on Locked on Jayhawks. Finishing things up with Locked on Jayhawks, most likely scenario for points.

Starting point is 00:15:12 We go back to those Bart Torvik numbers, Hunter Dickinson at 18 points per game. That sounds about right for me. DeJuan Harris was about at 13 points per game. I would swap him with what Kevin McCuller is at. Kevin McCuller is at about 9.8 points per game. I think if you just swap those two, you say Kevin at 13, DeJuan at 9.8, that sounds right to me. KJ at 11 points per game, we'll stick it right there.

Starting point is 00:15:33 Like I said, I think you have potential to maybe get that up to 12 or 13 points per game and maybe be second on the team in points per game, but I think that's the fair estimate because there's also a chance that what if it is more closer to 8 or 9 points per game because there isn't the spacing or there isn't the fit. So I think those make sense there. Nick Timberlake at 7.7 points per game. I would probably, I don't know, maybe shave off like a point there and give it to Artario Morris, who was at five. That gets Artario to six.

Starting point is 00:16:00 Timberlake closer to like seven than he is eight. Maybe shave off half a point for El Marco give it to Arterio and then the point per game for Zach Clements at 2.7 just give those to Arterio so now what you end up with is you get 18 points per game for Hunter Dickinson you get about 13 points per game for Kevin McCuller

Starting point is 00:16:21 11 for KJ Adams about 10 for DeJuan Harris you wind up with about nine nine and a half ten for Arterio Morris and then you get about seven for Timberlake six for El Marco and then basically about four points per game for the combination of Parker Brown and Jamari McDowell I don't know what that adds up to, like total point-wise. I don't know if that's low or high, but that's just based off the Bart Torvik projections. Those seem fine to me. Those seem about right.

Starting point is 00:16:52 You might pick hairs and be like, well, this guy's going to average even more than that, but I don't think anybody would be way off in any of those projections necessarily. Hunter Dickinson, the very clear favorite to finish first in points per game. I think at second points per game, who would be most beneficial to favorite to finish first in points per game. I think it's second points per game. You know, who would be most beneficial to KU finishing second in points per game? Honestly, maybe it is KJ Adams or Artaria Morris or Nick Timberlake. If you're just talking about what would be best for KU, I guess, you know, if you have Kevin McCuller being second on the points per game, it's not a bad thing.

Starting point is 00:17:20 But why I say most beneficial, if KJ Adams finishes second on your team in points per game, the reason that would be super beneficial is because that means for him to get there, the pairing of KJ Adams and Hunter Dickinson worked. It is working, right? That means that if he is doing that and having that much success, that everything you're putting together is working. It is coming together. That lineup that you're going to need to come together at some level is doing just that. So that might be really beneficial from that standpoint. If it was Timberlake or Morris, that would be really beneficial because that means that you have someone who's basically being a shooting guard for you that is hitting a lot of shots, that is hitting a lot of three-pointers, that if that guy ends up second on the team in scoring, that's a good sign because you have that scoring option. It also is never a bad sign if it's just a guard in general. Guards win in March.

Starting point is 00:18:10 Do you have enough guard scoring guys who can create for themselves? And if it is Artario Morris, that's probably the answer there. So maybe most beneficial it would be one of those guys. But yeah, betting odds for the second guy, I'd probably say Kevin McCuller, one. K.J. Adams, two. Arterio Morris, DeJuan Harris would be three or four in some order. And then you'd have Nick Timberlake, I think, right after that.

Starting point is 00:18:34 But it would just be between those probably five guys for who would be that spot. I think with El Marco, I do expect him to play a lot of minutes and be very impactful. But I think it's going to be more of a not just scoring, being a facilitator, being a defender, doing some of these other things. With Parker Brown, Jamari McDowell, the minutes probably just won't be there to necessarily have that impact. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We're going to continue on with this series tomorrow or our next show, who will be KU's top rebounders and assist men

Starting point is 00:19:08 for 2023 to 2024? Again, feels like obvious answers for both those, but we're going to kind of like this. How far away are some of the other players? You know, who would finish second in both of those regards? How does it come together to help the team for next year? We'll also do one with best defenders and kind of look ahead to what's to look for, because a week from Tuesday will be the start of the trip down to Puerto Rico for the KU basketball team, what we can maybe have to learn or what to watch for for that week-long

Starting point is 00:19:38 trip with three games for KU basketball. But that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can give me a shout or follow me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. You can give us a subscribe on our YouTube page. Hit the like button if you could. And you can also find us wherever you get any of your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:19:55 See you next time with Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Who Will Score the Most Points for Kansas Jayhawks Basketball in 2023-2024 Besides Hunter Dickinson?

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