Kansas basketball: Hunter Dickinson listed as tallest Jayhawk in Bill Self era
No Kansas basketball player has ever been listed as tall as Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson in the Jayhawks’ Bill Self era.
There have been three 7-footers to play for the Kansas Jayhawks during Bill Self’s 20 seasons as head coach. However, a member of the 2023-24 team towers over every Jayhawk that has played in the 21st century.
The University of Kansas athletic department released the team’s full roster this past week. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, as all the players who were expected to be on there are listed. One thing that stands out is the height of the sought-after transfer Hunter Dickinson.
Dickinson, a native of Alexandra, Virginia, is documented to be 7-foot-2. There have been no players recorded over 7-foot on the Kansas basketball roster since Eric Chenowith, who was listed at 7-foot-1. The big man never played for Bill Self, though — he graduated two years before KU’s head coach moved over from Illinois.
READ: Bill Self calls Kevin McCullar the best player on the roster
These are the three prior players in the Coach Self era that have been reported as 7-footers — Jeff Withey, Joel Embiid, and Udoka Azubuike. Several Jayhawks missed the cut at 6-foot-11 or 6-foot-10, so Dickinson is joining an exclusive list.
The last Kansas basketball player to stand at 7-foot-2 was Greg Ostertag, who played from 1991-1995 with the Jayhawks. He helped lead KU to a Final Four appearance in 1993. Ostertag and Dickinson have two extremely different play styles — one was a rim-protecting defensive specialist, while the other a low-post scoring threat.
KU’s athletic department has not always been accurate with its height listings, so we can take this with a grain of salt. The ESPN website suggests that Azubuike — who was reportedly 7-foot-tall at Kansas — is now 6-foot-10. But in the case that Dickinson’s height is correct, fans should be excited to watch the supposed tallest player we’ve seen in more than two decades.
Next. Five reasons to be excited about Hunter Dickinson. dark
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