Family members of William “Skinny” Johnson stand at half court as the late Jayhawk great’s number unveiled from the rafters during halftime on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas staged its second jersey retirement of the season Monday night when it unveiled Bill “Skinny” Johnson’s No. 33 in the rafters at Allen Fieldhouse.

Johnson, the late Naismith Hall of Famer, took his place in the southeast corner of the arena, among other Jayhawks of his era. He starred as a center at KU in the early 1930s and was renowned for his leaping ability, which allowed him to win jump balls — which at that time took place after every successful basket.

KU coach Bill Self previously told the Journal-World he felt the jersey retirement was long overdue. Skinny’s son, Bill Johnson Jr., credited Self for his respect for tradition, but said Monday the retirement was timed just fine.

“We think this is an incredible event,” Johnson said. “It’s happening at a good time, and would only happen at KU, because KU has a history, a tradition, they care about what happened back in the 1930s.”

An assembled 18 descendants gathered on the James Naismith Court to commemorate the occasion; some traveled from far-flung locales, whereas others, like daughter JoAnn Johnson Trenary, came from close by in Lawrence.

“Of all the people that we’ve had jersey retirements for,” Self said on his pregame radio appearance, “I don’t know that I’ve talked to one that’s more proud than this family.”

Bill Jr. noted the long-term repercussions of his father’s decision to pick KU over hometown Oklahoma for college.

“It’s been amazing, as you will see, how many Jayhawks have been created out of that decision,” he said.

Off on the glass

A KU squad that showed plenty of promise rebounding in recent weeks — combining a reliable Hunter Dickinson with a vastly improved KJ Adams — has suddenly fallen flat on the glass, getting outrebounded 31-22 by West Virginia on Saturday and 40-29 by Cincinnati on Monday.

In both games, particularly in their respective first halves, the freshman guard Johnny Furphy has gone down as a rather unexpected leading rebounder, with seven Saturday and 11 Monday, using his size and athleticism in ways he hadn’t prior to earning his place in the starting lineup. He had only exceeded four rebounds in a game once prior to the last week.

“That’s two games in a row he’s been our best rebounder, which is a bad sign for other guys,” Self said.

The disparity between his production on the boards and that of the 7-foot-2 center Dickinson — for much of the year one of the nation’s leading rebounders — has been rather stark in recent days. Earlier in the year, of course, the question had been who would step up to help Dickinson out in that domain.

“We’re not going to be a great rebounding team,” Self said. “We need to be a good rebounding team. That’s what our ceiling is, to be a real good rebounding team, and an opportunistic offensive rebounding team, which we’ve actually done a decent job of.”

He also made sure to note that Cincinnati is among the best rebounding teams in the country.

Despite Furphy’s considerable improvement in this facet of his game — just one aspect of the rapid growth the freshman has demonstrated in the last week and a half — Self did note that his rebounding performance could feed into his offense more effectively.

“A lot of times it seems to me, just go up and score when he gets an offensive rebound,” Self said. “But he usually at this point in time has just secured possession and kind of played conservatively.”

The family Furphy

Furphy’s parents, Richard Furphy and Liza Alpers, were in attendance Monday for their first game at Allen Fieldhouse, and they witnessed a command performance by their son, whom Self called “the best player in the game” — he had a career-high 23 points to go along with those 11 rebounds, including a 3-pointer from the left wing with two minutes to go that put away Cincinnati, off an excellent find by Dajuan Harris Jr.

“I saw Juan driving in, and everyone kind of collapsed in,” Furphy said, “so I knew I was going to have a bit of space, but yeah, it was a hell of a pass.”

He mentioned that he had been telling his parents about the Fieldhouse but was glad they got to experience it in person with “a packed house and good energy,” and added, “I think they’ll kind of remember this for a long time.”

Picking up knocks

Self alluded in his postgame press conference to minor injuries plaguing Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr.

Dickinson had already been dealing with a bruised knee in the early stages of conference play, as was discussed following KU’s loss to UCF on Jan. 10. Now McCullar has picked up the same ailment, Self said.

“This needed to be a game where maybe we could take those guys out but we couldn’t,” Self said, although he added that “Hunter took himself out by fouling.” Indeed, Dickinson’s rather low totals of 10 points and six rebounds were hampered by significant foul trouble; that said, he did play 29 minutes.

McCullar, who had also dealt with neck injuries earlier in the season, still finished with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists.

This and that

Self shed some light on the decision to move Furphy into the starting lineup when he noted that Furphy’s time away from the team — when he returned to Australia for a family matter following the Indiana game on Dec. 16 — actually delayed his prospective elevation into the starting role.

KU has now gone over a year without a loss at Allen Fieldhouse. Its last defeat there came against TCU on Jan. 21, 2023.