No. 14 Kansas star Hunter Dickinson dislocates right shoulder in loss to No. 1 Houston
Kansas star Hunter Dickinson suffered a potentially significant shoulder injury in the No. 14 Jayhawks’ loss to No. 1 Houston on Saturday.
Coach Bill Self said after the game that Dickinson had dislocated his right shoulder in the second half of the 76-46 loss. Dickinson had 11 points in 23 minutes before he left the game. Self said that Dickinson was able to get his shoulder popped back into the socket, but was unsure of the severity of the injury.
“Yeah, it’s high," Kansas coach Bill Self said when asked about his level of concern for his team's injuries. "Hunter dislocated his shoulder — popped back in — but he’ll have an MRI to see what the diagnosis [is] and try to get a gameplan moving forward for him. Kevin is, he hadn’t done anything since K-State much. And then today he felt better, thought he’d try and so I wish we wouldn’t have played Kev.”
“But yeah it’s a pretty [high] level of concern when your two best players are probably questionable moving forward.”
The Kevin whom Self referenced is Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas’ leading scorer. He’s been dealing with injuries for much of the second half of the season and played 15 minutes on Saturday. McCullar took four shots and failed to score after he had 19 points in 29 minutes in a 22-point home win over Kansas State on Tuesday.
With McCullar in and out of the lineup during conference play, Dickinson has been Kansas’ most reliable player. Dickinson is averaging 18.2 points and 11 rebounds per game and shooting 55% from the field.
Kansas won’t get its typical extra two days of rest ahead of the Big 12 tournament either. The Jayhawks’ loss Saturday ensured they wouldn’t get a top-four seed in the tournament and will have to play on Wednesday.
Kansas finished 10-8 in Big 12 play and is 22-9 overall after losing three of its final four games of the regular season. With the Jayhawks set to be no better than the fifth seed in the Big 12 tournament, it’s their worst Big 12 regular season finish since the 1999-2000 season. And like Self said, the Jayhawks could be in real postseason trouble if both McCullar and Dickinson aren’t close to 100% going forward.
