Hunter Dickinson’s pathetic March Insanity exit had school 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 enormous 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Within the outdated days, a participant needed to sit out a yr when transferring to a brand new college, however not anymore. Dickinson led the wave of portal gamers who may legally settle for cash for his or her companies and hunt down their finest scenario personally. Days after he left Michigan, Dickinson supplied a quote that confirmed the brand new actuality of school basketball.

“The folks hating on me would go away their job proper now for a $10,000 improve,” Dickinson stated in a podcast look. “I received, at Michigan, lower than six figures. I received lower than six figures at Michigan for the yr.”

Dickinson’s pay at Kansas was by no means public info, however it was believed to be over $1 million and possibly near $2 million. On the time, it regarded like a hand-in-glove match between participant and program. Kansas had simply gained the 2022 nationwide championship, and suffered a spherical of 32 exit the subsequent yr as a result of they didn’t have a high quality huge man. Dickinson was one of the productive veteran facilities in school basketball, who already had a historical past of offering the inside scoring and pinch of playmaking the Jayhawks wanted to get again on high.

On Thursday, Dickinson performed his ultimate sport of school basketball, and went out unhappy in each manner potential. No. 10 seed Arkansas beat No. 7 seed Kansas, 79-72, in first spherical play on the 2025 males’s NCAA match. 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 sphere to go along with 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers. Dickinson typically regarded moody and entitled throughout his time with the Jayhawks, and this was a premium instance: in a do-or-die NCAA match, 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 a substitute, Kansas completed No. 5 within the Massive 12 in 2024, completed No. 6 within the Massive 12 this season, and gained just one NCAA match sport throughout their two years with the large man.

The Jayhawks had been probably the most disappointing crew in school basketball this yr. Kansas was No. 1 within the preseason polls after protecting their core from final yr (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 stored his finest gamers and hand-picked new items to assist his crew recover from the hump. The problem was trusting his core within the first place.

Dickinson may 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 wished nothing to do with him. He was a bit tender defensively for somebody his dimension, and whereas his post-scoring was efficient with loads of touches, it usually wasn’t resulting in environment friendly offense for his crew.

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 finally simply felt like a crew that lacked versatility because it catered to its highly-paid huge man.

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

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 school for thus lengthy that followers received aggravated listening to about him and watching him, and his antics on the court docket didn’t assist. As Kansas was eradicated on Thursday, school hoops followers celebrated Dickinson’s downfall.

Kansas has Darryn Peterson coming in subsequent yr, 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 crew subsequent season as a substitute of catering to Dickinson, and it will likely be for the higher.

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