NCAA Basketball: Duke, Michigan State fall in latest top 25 power ranking
By Joey Loose
2. Kansas (2-0)
As long as Bill Self is the head coach, these Jayhawks are going to continue to be a national power. Kansas has won a boatload of Big 12 titles and is still only a year and a half removed from their most recent national championship. Adding former All-American Hunter Dickinson from Michigan certainly boosted the Jayhawks chances to get back to the Final Four and beyond; this Kansas squad is really good.
There hasn’t been any drama in Lawrence in the opening week of the season, starting with a 99-56 win over North Carolina Central on opening night. Dickinson had 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists in his Kansas debut while Kevin McCullar Jr. led the way with 22 points. Friday night produced a similar result, as the Jayhawks took down Manhattan with an easy 99-61 victory. It was another solid shooting night for Kansas, with Dickinson’s 18 points and 8 rebounds leading the charge.
If anything, the opening week showed us that the Jayhawks are a talented team who will take care of business against very overmatched opposition. What it didn’t tell us is how Kansas will handle tougher situations, and they’ll certainly get one of those next week. They’ll head to Chicago and take on a ranked Kentucky squad in the Champions Classic, with a trip to the Maui Invitational looming just a week later.