Update Information

With the exception of Passmore, KU freshmen have struggled in the unrepresentative exhibition at Arkansas

Kathleen William October 26, 2024

Missy Minear/Kansas Athletics

Rakease Passmore during the camp scrimmage in Lawrence on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The central concept of this year's Kansas men's basketball team was that it would bear no resemblance to the depleted and ineffective roster the Jayhawks fielded at the end of last season.

By stocking up on 3-point shooting, more athleticism and, most importantly, significant depth, KU would protect itself from ever fielding a group like that again and the unfavorable results that come with it.

But albeit in a meaningless exhibition setting, KU posted a similar performance Friday night in a 16-point exhibition loss at Arkansas – with three key players, highlighted by center Hunter Dickinson, out. The result prompted head coach Bill Self to say after the game, “That's what our team looked like at the end of last year, and it wasn't any fun.”

He does not expect this to remain the case in the future.

“I’m not going to leave here happy by any means,” Self said, “but I’m also not going to leave here discouraged because I know we’re not like that and our team isn’t like that.”

Self went on to say that KU's freshmen looked “slow and lost,” taking some of the blame himself because the Jayhawks didn't have much of a plan offensively in the preseason, and also added, “The way the way we practiced playing. “Without Hunter out there, it hasn’t been the same for a long time.”

Transfers Zeke Mayo and AJ Storr, who were starters, combined for 15 points on 6-for-17 shooting, numbers that looked much bleaker before a few baskets late in the game. David Coit came on as a substitute and remained goalless in the 24th minute of the game.

Freshman Flory Bidunga also got a starting spot at center when Dickinson was sidelined and posted six points and seven rebounds, but was prone to fouls and looked overwhelmed on defense at times in his first collegiate action.

Asked after the game whether Zach Clemence, not a freshman but a redshirt returnee, would get a rotation spot, Self responded generally: “I don't think our guys really did a lot to show me that they deserve a lot.” .” Things.”

The bright spot, as Self told it, was another rookie, Rakease Passmore.

“For his role, he was the best player in the game for us,” Self said.

Passmore started the game as one of the Jayhawks' last players off the bench, but scored a respectable 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting off the bench and grabbed six rebounds in 19 minutes – which ended up being more action than Storr. In general, the freshman from Palatka, Florida, matched up well on both sides of the ball and avoided the obvious mistakes or rash shot selections that befell his teammates.

He didn't put up the eye-popping numbers of point guard Dajuan Harris Jr., who had a (not counted) career night on offense, but Harris, on the other hand, couldn't do much to limit Arkansas' Boogie Fland or DJ Wagner. As Self put it, “Juan's benchmark as a player for us is that his defense is better than the offense of the other team's best defender, and that wasn't the case tonight.”

“I scored 26 points, but the things that (Passmore) did without the ball, rebounding, trying to play defense, that's what he does and what the coach expects from a guy like him,” said Harris. “So he had a pretty good game.”

Passmore's performance provided a concrete insight in a game that Self couldn't draw much more from – positive, negative or neutral – given the state of his squad.