Kansas center Hunter Dickinson (1) signals the ball going the Jayhawks’ way during the first half at Delta Center on Thursday, March 21, 2024 in Salt Lake City. Photo by Nick Krug

For the second year in a row, the Big 12 Conference’s coaches picked Kansas to win the league and chose KU center Hunter Dickinson as the preseason player of the year.

The selections were announced on Thursday afternoon. Dickinson is the first player ever to receive the preseason player of the year honor twice, and he was the only unanimous selection to the all-league first team. Point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. was a second-team selection.

In his first of two seasons with the Jayhawks after transferring Michigan, Dickinson excelled during the 2023-24 campaign, averaging a double-double with 17.9 points and a league-high 10.9 rebounds per game on his way to the title of consensus second-team All-American. He ended the year as a first-team All-Big 12 player and newcomer of the year, but lost out on player of the year to then-Houston guard Jamal Shead.

Dickinson had been noncommittal throughout the year about whether he would exercise his fifth year of eligibility (due to COVID-19), but on April 26 announced he was returning to the Jayhawks.

KU coach Bill Self said earlier in the offseason that Dickinson needs to become a more consistent shooter and more athletically set and get out of ball screens.

As for the Jayhawks as a whole, last year they did not deliver on their preseason accolades, resulting in a 23-11 record and one of the worst seasons of the Self era. But they loaded up in the offseason by bringing in significant depth, including a pair of highly touted freshmen in Flory Bidunga and Rakease Passmore and transfers AJ Storr, Zeke Mayo, Rylan Griffen and more.

Harris, an all-league honorable mention and all-defensive selection last year, is entering his sixth and final season of collegiate eligibility. Last year he averaged 8.5 points and 6.5 assists per game.

The rest of the top five in the poll consists of the 2024 champion Houston (which received five first-place votes) followed by Iowa State (one vote), Baylor and newcomer Arizona (one vote).

Next in the standings are Cincinnati, Texas Tech, Kansas State, BYU and TCU, followed by UCF, newcomer Arizona State, and a pair of teams with new coaches in West Virginia and Oklahoma State. The final two spots are occupied by two more first-time participants, Colorado and Utah.

Baylor’s Jeremy Roach, a transfer from Duke, and K-State’s Coleman Hawkins, formerly of Illinois, shared newcomer of the year honors and were both members of the second team. Baylor’s first-year standout VJ Edgecombe earned the title of preseason freshman of the year.