photo by: AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Kansas center Hunter Dickinson gestures after scoring a basket late in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Colorado, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, in Boulder, Colo.

Boulder, Colo. — The 32 points Kansas center Hunter Dickinson scored on Monday night in a victory over Colorado were his highest total as a Jayhawk, and one short of his career high in nearly five full seasons of college basketball.

The dominant performance showcased both his soft touch from mid-range and his physicality inside — where he frequently got swarmed by two or three Buffaloes at a time.

It had been some time since Dickinson took over a game in that fashion, but KU coach Bill Self knew he had it in him.

“I actually thought he would do it multiple times a year,” Self said following the 71-64 win. “And he’s been inconsistent in doing it like that, but we’ve also been inconsistent on helping him. It’s hard when you have a hard time spacing the floor, and doing some different things when you have your best players in the game. But tonight, he scored a variety of ways. He was a power player and a finesse player tonight.”

With the exception of a few missed free throws that plunged the Jayhawks into an uneasy early-second-half slump (and gave the Colorado fans free Shake Shack via an in-arena promotion), Dickinson was practically perfect. He shot 13-for-18 from the field and also grabbed 13 rebounds, more than 40% of the Jayhawks’ total on a night when they got outrebounded by 15. If it weren’t for him, as Self put it, CU would have “annihilated” KU on the glass.

Thankfully, they had “the best player in the game,” as Self noted, who performed like “an All-American tonight.”

Teammate KJ Adams concurred: “He’s a beast. He’s my All-American for the season.”

And here was Colorado center Bangot Dak, the best player on the Buffaloes’ side on Monday night: “It’s hard because he’s an All-American player and he’s 7-2. Just trying to go out there and push him out of spots is hard because he knows where to get. He knows where to get touches. I just try to think of the next play with him. But it’s hard to get him out of the paint.”

Of course Dickinson already has an All-American pedigree. He was a consensus second-team selection in 2024, just as he was after his freshman season in 2021.

But he hadn’t quite performed like one of the best in the country of late. He’s only averaging about one point and one rebound less than he did in the 2023-24 season — on a team with a vastly greater array of scoring options than that one had. However, Dickinson’s combined 9-for-25 shooting in undistinguished 12-point road showings at Utah and BYU contributed to KU’s losses in each of those contests, losses so demoralizing that they prompted KU to effectively reset its season from zero over the course of the ensuing week.

On Monday, Dickinson was a steady presence throughout. He scored thrice in three different ways as part of the 14-4 start that, as he noted, served as “the telltale (sign) of how the game’s going to go.” He went coast to coast for a three-point play that helped counter an early momentum-shifting 3-pointer by Colorado’s Andrej Jakimovski. And he outscored Colorado as a team with his five points in the final two minutes, including an alley-oop dunk assisted by Dajuan Harris Jr.

“It was a very good win versus a tough opponent on the road,” Dickinson said. “My teammates really found me in good positions, especially that pass late with Juan. He had two really good assists to me.”

The result was Dickinson’s eighth game with at least 25 points since he came to KU, but his first since Jan. 18.

“He’s going to have a really, really good end of the season,” Adams said.