Kansas basketball: Ranking each of the Jayhawks one and done players

No. 5: Xavier Henry (2009-2010)

Kansas basketball career stats: 36 games, 13.4 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 1.5 SPG, 45.8% FG

After initially committing to Memphis out of high school, Henry flipped to Kansas in what was a wild saga. The southpaw from Oklahoma City was particularly mature as a freshman and had a fully developed frame. He was the prototypical 3-and-D wing that has become so popular in the NBA, which was what led him to become a lottery pick in the 2010 draft.

Like any other freshman, his season had several ups and downs, but we’ll try to focus on the positives. He earned Big 12 All-Freshman First Team honors, leading Kansas in scoring in nine different contests and leaving campus with the most points scored by a Jayhawks freshman since Danny Manning.

His defensive ability was criminally underrated, and his aggressiveness on that end of the floor opened up more opportunities for the rest of KU’s offense. He could space the floor at an elite level with the threat of his outside shooting and rim-running capability.

I wrote an article a few months back comparing Gradey Dick and Henry’s lone seasons at KU. If you look at it, their counting stats were eerily similar — and so were their play styles. They both were the second-leading scorers on their respective teams. Henry gets the slight advantage because he played on a better squad that featured eight eventual NBA players and lost just two regular season games.