The Kansas basketball program has always seemed to have incredible point guards who knew how to distribute the ball to their teammates. The current Jayhawks rendition is no different with Dajuan Harris Jr. serving as the floor general.
Harris currently sits in seventh place on the all-time list of career leaders at Kansas with 585. KU has at least 14 more games to go, and up 21, depending on how deep they go in the Big 12 Conference Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. Depending on how things go down the stretch, it is possible Harris can finish the season at number three on that list.
Dajuan Harris currently ranks #7 on KU’s all-time leaderboard for career assists! pic.twitter.com/aCJI9C32Nw
— Kansas Jayhawk Fans (@FansOfKU) January 25, 2024
He's currently averaging 6.8 assists a game. If he continues at that pace, he would need 15 games to pass Cedric Hunter into that third spot. With another year of eligibility, there is an excellent chance he can surpass Aaron Miles' absolutely incredible school record of 954.
Let's take a quick Aaron Miles appreciation moment. Miles achieved his assist mark with incredible consistency, averaging 6.8 assists as a freshman, 6.4 as a sophomore, 7.3 as a junior and 7.2 his final year. That's 6.9 assists a game over his 138-game career at Kansas.
Despite all that, Harris has a legitimate chance to break Miles' record. If he were to do so, Harris' accomplishment would carry the caveat of having five years to pull off the feat. While this is very true, it should not diminish the record in any way.
Harris, like Miles, is a pass-first point guard. Miles averaged 8.6 points a game for the Jayhawks, while Harris averages 5.9 points per game. Harris doesn't need to be super aggressive offensively because there are scorers around him, just like the cast that surrounded Miles. Kirk Hinrich, Drew Gooden, Keith Langford, Nick Collison, Jeff Boshee, and Wayne Simien were the just some of the stars to receive passes from Miles.
As great as Miles was as a point guard, Harris turns the ball over about half as much as Miles did. The current Jayhawk has averaged just 1.6 turnovers a games, but Miles averaged 3 a game. So while Harris' assist per game average is a little lower than his predecessor, his turnover rate is much lower.
Having scorers around him who can finish will only help Harris as he tries to accomplish this amazing feat. The Jayhawks tend to run very smoothly when Harris playing well, which just means more assists. This particular Kansas basketball team is outstanding at sharing the ball, leading the country in assists per game, and Harris' mindset and the ability to give the ball to his teammates in a position to score sets the example.
Self's team tend to improve throughout the Big 12 portion of their schedule, so look for Harris to continue to get his teammates involved. If Kansas can play deep into both tournaments and Harris can firmly establish himself in that third spot on the all-time assists list, he will have an outstanding chance to break Miles' incredible record. Harris even has a chance to exceed 1,000 career assists, which would be an amazing accomplishment and nearly impossible to exceed.