Kansas Jayhawks Number Rankings: Three

Let's see how Dajuan Harris stacks up against the best KU players to ever wear number three

Author:
Derek Noll
Publish date:
Apr 13, 2023 11:31 AM EDT

In this story:

Last week we started a new series ranking current KU players against other KU stars who have worn the same number. Jalen Wilson fared pretty well against other number tens, so let’s see how Dajuan Harris stacks up against his fellow number threes.

Here’s how it works: I’ll list the guys who wore the same number (since 1983, the year Larry Brown took over), give a few blurbs about each player, and ultimately find a place where the current Jayhawk ranks, and I’ll try to keep recency bias out of it, so these rankings should be as unbiased as possible.

Other recent number threes:

“Downtown” Terry Brown. Two seasons, 1989-1991.

Terry Brown was KU’s first true three point sharpshooter, nailing over 41% from downtown on 485 attempts. He also went to one Final Four with Kansas.

Lester Earl. Three seasons, 1997-2000.

Back in the era of “controversial transfers,” Lester Earl’s time at Kansas was ultimately one of disappointment. At KU, Lester averaged 5.1 PPG and 4.2 RPG.

Russell Robinson. Four seasons, 2004-2008.

The point guard from New York, NEW YORK won a national title in his senior campaign, giving up minutes to Sherron Collins in the process. Robinson averaged 3.7 assists per game over four years and scored 7.1 points per contest.

Andrew White III. Two seasons, 2012-2014.

A great what if. His scoring prowess really hit its stride when he played regularly at Nebraska and Syracuse.

Brett Olson. Two seasons, 2002-04.

A red shirt from Chanute, Kansas that only played in mop up minutes.

Sam Cunliffe. One season, 2017-18.

Averaged over 25 minutes per game at Arizona State before coming to KU and over 27 at Evansville after leaving KU. Played 74 total minutes as a Jayhawk.

How does Dajuan Harris stack up?

Dajuan Harris was (for some reason) a controversial figure for most of 2021-22. He took over Remy Martin’s spot, ran the offense well, killed it on defense, and allowed Remy to become a supersub sharp shooter that helped Kansas win it all. Not bad.

In the 2022-23 regular season, Harris was downright dominant at times. Sure, he got shafted by somehow not even being on the Cousey Award list, but Dajuan still won Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and was (arguably) Kansas’ most important player. When he wasn’t on the court, KU was a different team, many times it was an ugly, discombobulated team.

Over the course of a superb 2022-23 campaign, Juan averaged 8.9 points and 6.2 assists per game. He has solidified his place as one of the best pure point guards in college basketball, and when asked to shoot it, Harris made 40% of his tries from deep this past season. Over the course of his career, his numbers drop a bit, but with two more eligible seasons to go, Dajuan Harris can cement his legacy as a true Kansas legend.

With all of that and the fact that Dajuan is also a national champ, he vaults into the number one spot and narrowly edges out Russell Robinson as the best to wear the number three at Kansas in the modern era.