Hunter Dickinson opens up on generating new rivalries at Kansas

Hunter Dickinson spent three seasons playing in the Big Ten at Michigan and faced off against and learned about all of the Wolverines’ rivals along the way.

Dickinson transferred to Kansas this offseason and will now be a part of new rivalries in 2023-24. He opened up about those when he appeared on the Barstool Roundball Podcast earlier this week.

“The new ones with Kansas State, and then even Missouri, honestly… obviously Kansas State’s our rival, but I think like for a lot of people here in Lawrence… Missouri is probably even more of a rival. And that goes back like years.”

The Jayhawks and Dickinson will play against Missouri on Dec. 9 in a home game. Kansas has won three straight, eight of the past nine and 13 of the past 15 in the series.

Later in the season, Kansas has a pair of matchups against Kansas State. The rivals will play for the first time this upcoming season on Feb. 5 at Kansas State, and the Jayhawks will host the Wildcats at Allen Fieldhouse on March 5.

Hunter Dickinson now has a couple of new rivals, in addition to the ones he will maintain from his days playing at Michigan.

“It’s tough, because it’s like, you have your rivalries for the three years at Michigan, and it’s like, they’re pretty ingrained into you,” Dickinson said. “Like obviously the Michigan State one, I think that one will last forever for me.”

Hunter Dickinson shares excitement to play for Bill Self

Hunter Dickinson isn’t just excited for new rivalries this season, he’s also looking forward to playing for Jayhawks head coach Bill Self.

Dickinson had high praise for his new head coach with the Jayhawks during The Roundball Podcast. He started by considering himself blessed to have played for the coaches that he has from his high school years, through his three collegiate seasons, as he heads into his fourth year of college basketball.

“I’ve been really fortunate. I always think about this, being really fortunate just playing for great coaches throughout my career,” said Dickinson. “From AAU basketball to high school to at Michigan and then now at Kansas, I feel like I’ve just had great coaches.”

“I think I’ve done that on purpose,” Dickinson added. “Just having older brothers that played the game, knowing how much a coach can influence and help you or deter you. Like, having a bad head coach can really stunt your growth and kind of just make basketball not fun.”

However, Self has been at another level in Dickinson’s opinion. As he said, there are moments when he’s in awe around him based on the accomplished man that he gets to play for.

“Now, at Kansas, having Coach Self, I do think about it, like, sometimes when we start off practice. We do some, like, just light dribbling, kind of just getting the body loose. And I’ll really think about, like, ‘Damn, like, he is a Hall of Fame head coach,’” said Dickinson. “I was listening to somebody talking about, like, yeah, I think if you were to do a poll, a lot of people would probably rank him the best head coach in college now, especially since, like you said, a lot of them have left.”

“He has got two championships, a couple of Final Fours and we’re going to try to, hopefully, add to that this year,” said Dickinson.