Ball Don’t Lie: How Kansas basketball beat Duke despite Hunter Dickinson ejection

The Kansas Jayhawks entered Tuesday night against the Duke Blue Devils still ranked No. 1 in the nation. Even starting off the season 5-0, including wins over Michigan State and North Carolina, KU was projected to be underdogs against Duke in this blue-blooded matchup. Kansas’ best player, Hunter Dickinson, was also ejected in the second half, so how did KU secure win?

Let’s start off with the Dickinson ejection. With 10:26 left in the second half, Kansas’ 7-foot-2 center attempted a short jump hook over Duke’s Maliq Brown. Fighting for the rebound, Dickinson drew a foul on Brown and the two tussled on the ground, where Dickinson made contact with Brown’s face with his right foot. Was it intentional? It’s tough to say, but it certainly looked bad.

The referees separated the teams and reviewed the play, ultimately assessing the action as a flagrant 2 penalty, ejecting Dickinson. Following the game, Coach Bill Self expressed his thoughts on the call stating “the flagrant 2 may have been a little severe.” continuing that he thought “it was definitely a flagrant 1”.

Regardless, the ejection had been made and two Kansas Jayhawks had to fill the void that Dickinson had left.

KJ Adams Jr. outplayed Cooper Flagg and Flory Bidunga came up huge in Dickinson-relief

The first player that made up for the absence of Dickinson was KJ Adams Jr., who was stelar all night. Adams Jr. was doing all of the small things on offense, dishing out three assists and adding eight points (three of which were on jump shots). It was on defense where Adams truly shined however, recording three steals and three blocks, while helping to limit Duke’s phenom, Cooper Flagg.

Flagg was the biggest reason Duke was favored entering the game, and he had some jaw-dropping moments for sure. Following the Dickinson ejection, he recorded seven points in the final 10 and a half minutes of the game, but also missed a crucial free throw with 1:38 left in the game and turned the ball over with 48 seconds left.

On that steal in the final minute of the game, it was freshman Flory Bidunga who bothered Flagg in the paint and swiped the ball. He also showcased a strong offensive and rebounding game in the final 10:26 after Dickinson was removed from the contest, adding 4 points and 4 boards to his game total.

Bidunga did have some trouble hanging onto the ball, stumbling into four turnovers, however his eight rebounds, six points, one steal, and one block helped make up for it as he acted as the Jayhawks Band-Aid at center to finish out the game. Kansas outlasted Duke 75-72 and Bidunga got some valuable experience as well.

The crimson and blue team all came up huge in different ways, most notably Adams and Bidunga, but there should be a special shoutout to Rylan Griffen who was KU’s closer down the stretch. He recorded all eight of his points in the final 5:32 of the game and is another big reason why Kansas remains undefeated.