SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — In the aftermath of Kansas basketball’s loss against Gonzaga, KU coach Bill Self spoke to the toughness Hunter Dickinson exhibited.

Dickinson, a senior center for the Jayhawks, rehabbed a shoulder injury to the point he could be available for the NCAA tournament. He did so with an attitude and work ethic that drew praise from Self. And even though Kansas’ March Madness run ended in the round of 32 against the Bulldogs, with Self describing Dickinson as “one tired dude,” the Jayhawks coach also mentioned Dickinson gave everything he had.

So now the focus turns to next season, and in doing so the future Dickinson has with the program. Should he choose to use it, he has one more season of eligibility remaining. And while Dickinson didn’t reveal if he’d leave college for the start of his professional career, he did outline how he’s thinking.

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“I feel like I’ve got a good timeline,” Dickinson said. “Now that the season’s over, that’s probably what I have to think about now. I’ve been able to not have to worry about that until, I guess, now. But I’ll probably take some time off, just kind of relax a little bit, and then take a — make a decision whenever I’m ready.”

Dickinson transferred in from Michigan as an All-America caliber talent, and in his first season at Kansas became a consensus second team All-American. He started all 33 of the games he played in, with his only absence being the Jayhawks’ lone Big 12 Conference tournament game. He averaged a double-double at 17.9 points and 10.9 rebounds per game.

Those statistics haven’t necessarily led to the same sort of pre-draft hype in NBA discussions that teammates of Dickinson’s have had. Both graduate senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr. and freshman guard Johnny Furphy have been described at times as potential first-round selections in various mock drafts. But Dickinson has been productive enough at the college level that he’ll receive attention this year or next year, depending on when he turns pro, and his 7-foot-2, 260-pound frame helps with that.

If Dickinson returns, Kansas would likely need him to become a more consistent threat shooting the ball from behind the arc and a more reliable defensive presence around the rim. His 35.4% mark on 3s is a good one but he averaged only about two attempts from there per game, and he could deliver more than the 1.4 blocks he averaged per game. But his presence this past season made the Jayhawks a national championship contender for a reason, and his return would keep them in that conversation.

“I had high expectations coming in, of what it was going to be like, and it was even better than I expected,” Dickinson said about the season. “To be able to play for coach Self and to be able to play with these guys, just be able to play in Allen Fieldhouse, all of that stuff, it was something that you could kind of almost dream of when you’re growing up playing basketball. To be able to play on this stage with this program, and obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted to, but I had a lot of fun this year and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Will Hunter Dickinson return to Kansas basketball for one more year?