Via Kansas Athletics
LAWRENCE, Kan. – No. 2 Kansas (8-1) concludes its four-game homestand when it hosts Missouri (7-2) in the HyVee Hoops Border Showdown on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 4:15 p.m. (Central). The contest from Allen Fieldhouse will be televised on ESPN.
Kansas is 8-1 for the sixth-straight season beginning in 2018-19 after its 88-69 win against Kansas City on Dec. 5. Missouri has won four straight games after its 82-72 win against Wichita State on Dec. 3.
This will be the 272nd meeting in the HyVee Hoops Border Showdown rivalry. Kansas and Missouri were conference members from 1907 to 2012. KU leads the overall series 176-95, which includes a 95-67 win last season in Mizzou Arena. The Jayhawks have won four straight and nine of the last 10 meetings with MU.
Kansas will be retiring two jerseys in 2023-24 beginning Dec. 9 with 2012 Consensus All-America and Big 12 Player of the Year Thomas Robinson. A 1933 All-American, Bill “Skinny” Johnson will have his jersey retired Jan. 22.
Kansas enters Saturday’s matchup against Missouri averaging 80.7 points per game with a plus-15.4 scoring margin. The Jayhawks pull down 38.7 rebounds per outing with a plus-5.6 rebound margin. Kansas leads the nation in assists per game at 22.8 and in field goal percentage (53.6%). KU also averages 7.2 steals and 4.9 blocked shots per contest.
On most every national player of the year watch list, senior center Hunter Dickinson leads Kansas in scoring at 20.1 ppg and is second in the nation in rebounds per game at 12.2 rpg. He is the only player in the Big 12 to average a double-double. A three-time Big 12 weekly award honoree, Dickinson is 11-for-19 (57.9%) from three-point range and leads KU with 13 blocked shots and 12 steals.
Named the Big 12 Player of the Week and an Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week Nov. 28, graduate-senior Kevin McCullar Jr. leads the nation in triple doubles with two. He is coming off a career-high 25 points against Kansas City (12/5) and is second on the KU team in scoring at 19.2 points per contest. McCullar has made a team-high 13 threes made.
Junior KJ Adams Jr. leads the Big 12 and is fifth nationally in field goal percentage at 70.6%. Adams has scored a season-high 18 points in each of his last two games against UConn (12/1) and Kansas City (12/5). Adams averages 12.4 points and 4.0 rebounds per contest.
Redshirt-senior Dajuan Harris Jr. leads the Big 12 with 7.2 assists per game, which is fifth nationally. Harris averages 5.9 points per contest. Freshman Elmarko Jackson (5.7 ppg, 3.3 assists per game) rounds out the KU starters. Other KU regulars include Johnny Furphy (6.3 ppg, 12 3FGs), graduate-senior Nicolas Timberlake (3.6 ppg, six 3FGs), graduate-senior Parker Braun (3.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg, eight blocked shots), and freshman Jamari McDowell (2.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg).
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Kansas has a week break for final exams before going to Indiana on Saturday, Dec. 16. Tip from Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall will be at 11:30 a.m. CT and the game will be televised on CBS.
Indiana leads the overall series, 8-7, but the Jayhawks have won seven of the last nine matchups dating back to Dec. 29, 1981. IU won the first six meetings from 1940 to 1974. Last year, No. 8 Kansas defeated No. 14 Indiana, 84-62, on Dec. 17, 2022, in Allen Fieldhouse.