Hawking Points: Kansas Rolls Over NC Central 99-56

The Jayhawks catch fire on offense in the season opener.

As it turns out, the exhibition games didn’t really show much. The college basketball regular season began on Monday and the Kansas Jayhawks looked in great form, beating NC Central 99-56.

Key Plays

The Hunter Dickinson era got off to a hot start. Dickinson scored the first seven points of the game – including draining a three – in the first 100 seconds, causing NC Central to call a timeout.

Then it was Kevin McCullar, driving it hard with his left hand for a layup and then knocking down a corner three before finding Elmarko Jackson on a fast break for his first points as a Jayhawk. Dickinson capped off the first five minutes of the game with his second three – and 10th point – to give the Jayhawks a 17-7 lead.

Nick Timberlake was the first Jayhawk off the bench and knocked down a three on his first attempt, KU’s fourth of the game. A few minutes later, on a missed Eagles shot, the ball moved all around the court in transition and ended with Dickinson for a wide-open three at the top of the key for his third three and 15th point, giving Kansas a 27-9 lead. Timberlake got in on the shooting contest, hitting his second three and KU’s sixth in eight tries. Then McCullar knocked down his second three on the next possession to make it 33-11.

McCullar knocked down another three for a 13-0 run and to go up 40-11 with 8:20 left in the first half. The offense cooled off a bit, that is until Johnny Furphy got his first points on a three pointer late in the first half before Parker Braun got his second basket and KU led 49-15.

After a couple of trips to the free-throw line, Dickinson found Braun and Timberlake for a layup and then scored on an assist from Dajuan Harris to give Kansas a 59-18 halftime lead.

If you thought the offensive heater was going to cool off at halftime, you would be mistaken. McCullar, KJ Adams, and Jackson all got layups while McCullar also buried another three and the Jayhawks began the half on a 9-3 run.

Adams took his anger out on the rim a few times and then Furphy again knocked down a three to move Kansas’ lead past the 50-point mark at 79-27. Timberlake hit another three to get Kansas to the 90-point threshold on the 31st assist of the game. And with many of the walk-ons getting run, Michael Jankovich hit his first three of the season with 5:10 left and Kansas leading 95-40. Braun then found a cutting Jankovich for his fifth point. Wilder Evers then got his first points of his Kansas career.

Eye-Catching Stat Lines

For a team that had questions shooting from deep coming into the season, the Jayhawks were red hot from beyond the arc. KU hit eight of its first 10 threes, with those coming from three different players.

And the shooting didn’t happen in a vacuum. Kansas did a great job of moving the ball early in the game, picking up 13 assists on the first 14 field goals and finishing with 34 assists for the game on 39 field goals.

The offense was other-worldly in the first half. KU shot 79% from the field and 75% from three at the break, while NCCU hit just 23% of its shots. The second half wasn’t quite as effective – but the starters didn’t play much – and Kansas ended the game

McCullar led all scorers with 22 points to go along with six rebounds and five assists. Dickinson made the most of his Kansas debut, scoring 21 points, grabbing eight boards, dishing out five assists, and blocking two shots. Timberlake (13), Adams (12), and Braun (10) all finished in double figures, while Harris didn’t score but had 10 assists and four rebounds.

Areas of Improvement

Elmarko Jackson got the start, but the first collegiate game is a difficult position for someone to be in. The biggest challenge was on the defensive end, where Jackson was called for three fouls in the first eight minutes of the game. The freshman rebounded nicely, not picking up a foul the rest of the way

It wasn’t needed in this game, but for further down the road this season, you would like to see Harris take more shots offensively. Harris didn’t attempt a shot in the first 30 minutes of the game as he dished out

This isn’t necessarily a deficit during the game, but it was a shame freshman Jamari McDowell couldn’t play in this game due to an injury picked up in practice. This is the type of competition where he could have played a ton of minutes without fear of making mistakes, and KU is going to need his depth at some point in the season.

Takeaways

It’s just the first game against a brand-new NCCU team, but that was about as good of an effort and execution as you could ask for from the Jayhawks. The ball was moving, shots were falling, and the stars showed up.

Kansas won’t shoot this well in most games, even against the same caliber of opponent, but it was the type of performance that gives confidence moving forward to tougher games.