Dajuan Harris will graduate from KU this May. Why he’s already thinking about next year

Dajuan Harris, who will graduate from Kansas in May with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and sciences, will not be giving a Senior Night speech after Tuesday night’s Big 12 battle against Texas Tech at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I’ve still got two more years left,” Harris, KU’s 6-foot-1, 170-pound point guard from Columbia, Missouri, said after scoring 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting, dishing six assists, and swiping six steals in 36 minutes in Kansas’ 76-74 victory over West Virginia on Saturday.

“We’ll see what happens. I hope I’ll be here another two years. Yeah, we’ll see what happens,” he added, speaking on the postgame show on the Jayhawk Radio Network.

Harris sat out the 2019-20 season as a partial qualifier. He’s played the ensuing three seasons, thus he still has a regular senior campaign ahead in 2023-24 followed by a “super-senior” season in 2024-25.

“I was steals leader and assist leader when I left high school,” Harris, a former prep standout at Rock Bridge High School said. “If I stay another two years I’ll try to break that, do that stuff, try to focus on winning and getting better. Right now I’m thinking about hopefully winning Tuesday to clinch that Big 12 title.”

A victory in Tuesday’s 8 p.m. tip against Texas Tech (16-13, 5-11) would assure KU (24-5, 12-4) at least a tie for the conference crown entering into the regular-season finale versus Texas on Saturday in Austin, Texas.

A trophy presentation could conceivably occur prior to the postgame speeches of Kevin McCullar and Jalen Wilson, who both could return to college if they wished but are likely headed to the 2023 NBA Draft.

“Really we’ve got to focus on ourselves because we still have to go to Austin to play and they might beat TCU at TCU (on Wednesday),” Harris said of the Longhorns (22-7, 11-5). Texas will indeed meet TCU at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Fort Worth, then play host to KU on Saturday.

“I’m going to go hard for ‘J-Will.’ I’ve been with ‘J-Will’ for four years, and it’s Kevin’s Senior Night, too,” Harris continued. “I’m going to play hard for them knowing it’s their last game here, try to finish that conference championship here and go out with a bang.”

Harris’ performance on offense and defense helped the Jayhawks secure a narrow win over West Virginia on Saturday. His 17 points were one off a career high.

His six steals were indeed a career-best mark. He’s had four thefts six times, most recently against Texas on Feb. 6 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Harris had five steals in the first half, most by a Jayhawk in one half since Andrew Wiggins had five in the second half against West Virginia on March 18, 2014, in Morgantown. His six steals for the game were the most by a Jayhawk since Marcus Garrett had six against West Virginia on Jan. 19, 2019, also in Morgantown.

Harris currently is in a tie with Sherron Collins for 23rd on KU’s all-time steals list (145). He is 17th on KU’s all-time assist list (413).

“I was playing with active hands — the ball was basically out there in front of me. I was trying get my hands on the ball,” Harris said. “That’s what we needed because we started out pretty slow. Defense is what gets us going. I just wanted to create some defense for our offense.”

Harris currently has 182 assists to 56 turnovers on the season. He has 32 assists to three turnovers over the last four games — wins over West Virginia, TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma State.

“All my credit goes to my teammates. They believe in me. My coaches believe in me. They tell me to be aggressive every day. I know the key for me is to stay aggressive,” Harris said.

Harris recently was not included on the list of 10 finalists for the Cousy Award which goes to the country’s top point guard.

“That doesn’t mean anything to me. I’ll just show them out there, show them how I’ll play. They’ll see the results like they’ve been seeing,” Harris said. “I’m not really too worried about all that. I’m worried about winning more rings, trying to bring more championships to Allen Fieldhouse, our school, my teammates, my coaches. I’m more worried about winning, not all that.”

Harris suffered a foot injury with just over a minute left in Saturday’s win. KU had trouble against West Virginia’s fullcourt pressure without Harris and saw a 75-70 lead dip to one point with 33 seconds left. KU managed to hold on and win to improve to 12-4 in the league. Texas is 11-5 followed by Kansas State and Baylor (10-6), Iowa State and TCU (8-8), Oklahoma State (7-9), West Virginia and Texas Tech (5-11) and Oklahoma (4-12).

Self said he’d likely give Harris a couple days off and hope he’s ready to go versus Texas Tech after treatment. Harris was not asked about the injury on the postgame show.

“I know it helps in press offense having Juan out there,” Self said. “We turned it over and they got a layup to cut it to one. In most situations that’d be Juan catching it instead of somebody else and we probably wouldn’t make those (errors late).”

“(I) just want to be out there for my teammates,” Harris said. “I know I’m the head of the snake on our team. I’ve got to create something. If I can’t create for my teammates I’ve got to create for my own. That’s what I do basically.”