Hunter Dickinson’s pathetic March Insanity exit had faculty basketball followers celebrating his demise

Hunter Dickinson was the primary true star of school basketball free company within the switch portal. After a productive three-year profession at Michigan the place he put up big counting stats and angered each opposing Massive Ten fan base, Dickinson transferred to Kansas forward of his fourth-year to hitch one of many premier packages within the sport.

Within the outdated days, a participant needed to sit out a 12 months when transferring to a brand new faculty, however not anymore. Dickinson led the wave of portal gamers who might legally settle for cash for his or her providers and hunt down their greatest state of affairs personally. Days after he left Michigan, Dickinson provided a quote that confirmed the brand new actuality of school basketball.

“The folks hating on me would depart their job proper now for a $10,000 improve,” Dickinson mentioned in a podcast look. “I acquired, at Michigan, lower than six figures. I acquired lower than six figures at Michigan for the 12 months.”

Dickinson’s pay at Kansas was by no means public data, but it surely was believed to be over $1 million and possibly near $2 million. On the time, it appeared like a hand-in-glove match between participant and program. Kansas had simply received the 2022 nationwide championship, and suffered a spherical of 32 exit the following 12 months as a result of they didn’t have a top quality large man. Dickinson was one of the crucial productive veteran facilities in faculty basketball, who already had a historical past of offering the inside scoring and pinch of playmaking the Jayhawks wanted to get again on prime.

On Thursday, Dickinson performed his ultimate recreation of school basketball, and went out unhappy in each means potential. No. 10 seed Arkansas beat No. 7 seed Kansas, 79-72, in first spherical play on the 2025 males’s NCAA event. The loss places a cap on the Jayhawks’ extremely disappointing season in addition to Dickinson’s underwhelming profession in Lawrence.

Dickinson was simply terrible in opposition to Arkansas, ending with 11 factors on 4-of-13 taking pictures from the sector to go along with 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers. Dickinson typically appeared moody and entitled throughout his time with the Jayhawks, and this was a premium instance: in a do-or-die NCAA event, he was sloppy with the ball, performed with a low motor, and simply didn’t appear to care that a lot.

Dickinson transferred to Kansas to win championships. As an alternative, Kansas completed No. 5 within the Massive 12 in 2024, completed No. 6 within the Massive 12 this season, and received just one NCAA event recreation throughout their two years with the massive man.

The Jayhawks had been essentially the most disappointing workforce in faculty basketball this 12 months. Kansas was No. 1 within the preseason polls after maintaining their core from final 12 months (Dickinson, KJ Adams, Dajuan Harris) and augmenting it with extra portal additions together with Wisconsin’s AJ Storr, South Dakota State’s Zeke Mayo, Alabama’s Rylan Griffen, and others. Self saved his greatest gamers and hand-picked new items to assist his workforce recover from the hump. The difficulty was trusting his core within the first place.

Dickinson might put up numbers, however he was all the time a tough participant to scheme with. There was a motive why he performed 5 seasons of school basketball regardless of being a productive 7’1 man: he was so slow-footed defending the pick-and-roll that NBA groups needed nothing to do with him. He was a bit tender defensively for somebody his measurement, and whereas his post-scoring was efficient with a number of touches, it typically wasn’t resulting in environment friendly offense for his workforce.

Kansas by no means had sufficient spacing or taking pictures throughout its two years with Dickinson. It was by no means actually nice defensively with him, both, and in the end simply felt like a workforce that lacked versatility because it catered to its highly-paid large man.

Dickinson by no means did himself any favors as he known as opposing packages “scumbags,” bad-mouthed Michigan on quite a few events, and simply carried himself in a means folks discovered unlikable. His largest sin was that Kansas simply wasn’t excellent with him on the roster regardless of his constant manufacturing. Jayhawks followers can be very completely satisfied to get some new blood in this system subsequent 12 months.

Dickinson was in the identical recruiting class with Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley, who’re ending their fourth NBA seasons proper now. He caught round faculty for therefore lengthy that followers acquired aggravated listening to about him and watching him, and his antics on the court docket didn’t assist. As Kansas was eradicated on Thursday, faculty hoops followers celebrated Dickinson’s downfall.

Kansas has Darryn Peterson coming in subsequent 12 months, one of many nice guard prospects I’ve ever evaluated and the front-runner for the No. 1 NBA Draft decide in 2026. The Jayhawks can be Peterson’s workforce subsequent season as an alternative of catering to Dickinson, and it is going to be for the higher.

Dickinson ends his faculty profession with extra factors than JJ Redick, and inside shouting distance of legends Larry Fowl and Tyler Hansbrough. In fact, he performed 5 years, however his manufacturing was nonetheless spectacular. Sadly for him, it seems like Dickinson’s legacy can be falling quick in March Insanity whereas being the participant everybody beloved to hate. He went out unhappy in his ultimate faculty recreation. Perhaps that’s the best way it was all the time meant to be.