2024 Kansas Jayhawks

The 2024 Kansas Jayhawks were 23-11 (10-8) and earned a 4-seed in the NCAA Tournament. They made the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament before losing. The team’s Sports Reference page is here.

Offense

Defense

Total Adjusted PPGAB +/-

Value Seen 4 Ways

Cumulative Points Above Bubble on the Season Chart

Summary

KU’s big 3 of McCullar, Adams, and Dickinson accounted for 100.1% of the team’s WAR this season, making it the first time since at least 1993 where a Kansas team had its three best players be over 100% of total WAR.
Similarly, KU only has 3 rotation players (10%+ minutes played) with a positive value-score. This was the fewest above-bubble players on any KU team since 1993 (2017 had 4). On average, KU has 6.1 rotation players per season achieve a positive, or above-bubble, value.
The above waterfall chart does a great job showing where KU was getting its value from and where it was losing its value. This chart makes those who blame K.J. Adams or Hunter Dickinson look silly. The team’s struggles stemmed from Elmarko Jackson, Nick Timberlake, Parker Braun, and Jamari McDowell. Harris and Furphy, slightly sub-bubble, were overused due to the team’s lack of depth but still basically KU-level rotation guys.
To Harris’s credit, he did play better in higher-leverage game (positive 0.53 POCWAB).
The following players accounted for team-MVP games: K.J. Adams (11), Hunter Dickinson (9), Kevin McCullar (7), Dajuan Harris (3), Johnny Furphy (2), and Nicolas Timberlake (2).
KU’s average game-score at home (+8.34) was far superior to its average game-score in true road games (-0.59).
The injury to Kevin McCullar hurt the Jayhawks. Kansas was a +5.51 team in games where Kevin McCullar played, and -2.39 team in games where he did not (8 total games missed).
In a similar vein, KU was a +5.35 team through the Iowa State game. Kevin would miss the next game due to injury, while playing off-and-on and through pain some nights the rest of the season. In these final fourteen games, KU was a +1.23 team.

2024 Season blog-posts:

Wrapping Up the 2024 Season (3/25/2024)

Beware the Slides of March (3/14/2024)

The Final Push (3/11/2024)

K.J. Adams’ Defense (2/16/2024)

Hunter Dickinson’s Defense (2/7/2024)

KenPom Rankings, Game Score, Determining Best Teams (1/17/2024)

A Tale of Two Juans (1/11/2024)

Wrapping Up the Non-Con (1/2/2024)

Three’s Company (12/21/2023)

Dajuan, Dajuan, What is Wrong (12/11/2023)

The Battle for Net Extra Possessions (11/28/2023)