T.J. stands for Terry Jr., as in the son of Terry Cummings, the former NBA and DePaul standout.

All Cummings did on Thursday night against Kansas was score more points in his debut game than any UCLA player in history. That’s right more than Lew Alcindor, more than Bill Walton, more than Marques Johnson, more than Baron Davis.

Cummings, a 6-foot-9 product of a suburban Chicago high school, scored a team-high 24 points by making 8 of 10 shots and 8 of 10 free throw attempts in the 99-98 loss to the Jayhawks.

As KU coach Roy Williams was winding up his postgame interview session somewhere in the bowels of Madison Square Garden, he stood up, started to walk out and said: “Oh, I didn’t say anything about T.J. Cummings. Whew.”

Whew fit, and so did phew.

“I was huffing and puffing a little bit,” Cummings said. “I know I need to work harder to get in condition.”

Cummings, who picked UCLA over Duke he considered Kansas and others has, said UCLA coach Steve Lavin, “brought a great work ethic and great attitude. The key for him is not to be a one-day wonder in practice or a one-game wonder.”

Cummings logged 29 minutes mainly because regular front-liners Matt Barnes and Dan Gadzuric were ineffective. Barnes and Gadzuric combined for 13 points and five rebounds. Barnes also missed three critical free throws late.

“We didn’t get much post play from Dan or Matt,” Lavin said, “so we found out a lot about T.J. And I think we found some things about ourselves.”

For one thing, Lavin learned his team can remain competitive even though it falls behind by as many as 16 points in the early going as the Bruins did Thursday night.

“What I like is this team has great chemistry,” Lavin said. “They’re a throwback team. It’s rare to have this many kids who have stayed together for so long.”

Particularly senior point guard Earl Watson, the Kansas City Washington product who played all but two minutes, scored 21 points and had eight assists.

Sure, Watson would have loved to have defeated Kansas but, as he said, “I was after a team victory, not a personal one.”

Curiously, even though UCLA scored 98 points, Watson gave his team only a C-minus for its performance.

“It just shows our potential,” Watson said. “It’s a long season so we have to build off this.”

Lavin pointed to three stick-back baskets two by Drew Gooden and one by Eric Chenowith in the last four minutes, and Barnes’ missed charities as critical.

“Our kids are disappointed,” Lavin said. “A couple of box-outs and a couple of free throws, and we have a nice win to start our season. We didn’t box out and we missed free throws late, and that’s the recipe for a loss.”