Jalen Wilson reaches 1,000 career points as Kansas basketball defeats Harvard
LAWRENCE — The moment didn’t come with a lot of fanfare.
Kansas basketball sophomore guard Bobby Pettiford Jr. said postgame Thursday he and his teammates weren’t aware redshirt junior forward Jalen Wilson was that close to scoring 1,000 career points.
But as the No. 4 Jayhawks went on to top Harvard inside Allen Fieldhouse — and remain undefeated at home this season with a 68-54 victory — Wilson reached that milestone during the second half. Wilson, who ended up with a team-high 21 points, became the latest Kansas basketball player to do so. He is the 66th to do it.
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“I’m very grateful and blessed to reach that,” Wilson said. “I know it’s definitely a great milestone in my career here. I couldn’t have done it without teams throughout all my years here.”
It’s an accomplishment that came during a contest that didn’t see Wilson perform his best this season. Jayhawks (11-1) head coach Bill Self even said at times he wasn’t happy with how Wilson was playing, that he saw Wilson not guarding or moving the ball well. But Self added Wilson closed out the game like winners should, that Wilson played like an All-American at the end.
Wilson scored 13 of his 21 points in the second half, and 11 of those in the last six and a half minutes. He said he was trying to be aggressive and attack the paint. He wanted to get the crowd involved as the game wound down in the second half.
Kansas may have won the game by 14 points, winning a game by double digits for the seventh time this season, but at times that final looked anything but probable. Harvard (8-5) led, however closely, late in the first half. And with a little less than four minutes remaining in the second half, the Jayhawks were only up six points.
“As a leader, for a team playing that well on home court, I’m already not in the best mood for that,” said Wilson, referring to Harvard. “They were way too comfortable shooting the ball, and a lot of that was on my part, on my defense. So, it felt like I owed it to the team to just close out as hard as I could, be as aggressive as I could, and win the game.”
Wilson said the way Kansas plays, he’s not going to try to force anything. He’s confident opportunities are going to come for him. So, one would expect one of the most prolific scorers in the nation so far this season is going to see that career total rise far past the 1,005 he has now before the season comes to an end — however that may come.
Self seemed to joke that people need to get the conversation started that Wilson could get to 2,000 career points if he sticks around for the all of his eligibility. Next season wouldn’t even have to be Wilson’s last in Lawrence, should he choose to keep playing at the college level. But the start of a professional career seems much, much more likely, when it comes to Wilson’s future after this season.
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Jalen Wilson reaches 1,000 points as Kansas basketball tops Harvard
