In nearly perfect fashion, Kansas point guard Dajuan Harris eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career in a pretty quiet manner during last Saturday’s 75-60 win over NC State at Allen Fieldhouse.
Never known as a scorer, Harris reached the mark with a tough layup at the 18:41 mark of the second half. He finished the day with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 3 makes from 3-point range, giving him 1,006 career points (and counting), which places him in a tie for 65th on KU’s all-time scoring list as the 67th player in KU history to crack 1,000 points in his career.
Fittingly, no one in the media room asked Harris or KU coach Bill Self about the milestone after Saturday's victory.
Harris became the fifth member of the current roster to reach the milestone — joining Zeke Mayo, Hunter Dickinson, Diggy Coit and Shak Moore — but is the only one who has done all of his scoring as a Jayhawk.
In all likelihood, fellow-KU-senior KJ Adams soon will join Harris on the list. Adams sits at 940 career points entering this week.
Harris is now just 76 points away from reaching the Top 50 and a couple hundred away from Jacque Vaughn, who sits in 40th place with 1,207 career points.
Since taking on a full-time role in 2021-22, Harris has averaged 275 points per season. He already has 111 this season, which puts him on pace for a career-high, surpassing his mark of 320 points during the 2022-23 season.
We’ll get into that a little more as the season plays on. And there’s a real case to be made that says this KU team’s best hope is for Harris to not even come close to reaching that mark.
And he’d probably be the one making the strongest points. Remember, this is a dude who has forever considered himself a pass-first player who would much rather set up his teammates to score than do the scoring himself.
To that point, Harris now has six games of 6 or more assists in the Jayhawks’ first 10 games this season.
However, today we’re talking about Harris the bucket getting, so, in honor of his recent milestone — and, by the way, there are still more ahead — I thought I’d take a quick minute to share with you the five best quotes I’ve ever heard anyone say about the Kansas point guard.
“He is good enough to play on any court he wants.”
— Longtime friend/family member and former KU great Christian Braun on Harris’ pro potential after college
“There's some great ones – Joel, LeBron, KD, but I think I probably would enjoy coaching Dajuan Harris as much as anybody out there.”
— KU coach Bill Self when asked in a recent Junior Reporter episode, 'If you could coach any basketball player, who would it be?'
“I’ll never forget it. Three years ago, when he first joined our 17U team, I asked coach Dave Milliren, ‘What level do you think Dajuan is?’ And he looked at me immediately, like snapping his fingers, and said, ‘Oh, he’s a blue blood. He’s a blue blood on his defense and deflections alone.’ The kind has some Stacey Augmon length, going way back. You don’t want to be defended by this kid.”
— MOKAN Elite AAU coach Chris Neff, back in 2019, when Harris committed to Kansas
“The kid’s just a winner. Somehow, he always finds the finish line.”
— MOKAN Elite AAU coach Drew Molitoris a few years ago on Harris’ best trait
“Family and friends, they would’ve rather had me here than at Mizzou anyway. I mean, it’s KU.”
— Harris himself, in 2023, talking about the KU-Missouri rivalry
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
