The Kansas Jayhawks got ready for the regular season with their last of a whopping five exhibition games, polishing off Division II Fort Hays State 73-55 at Allen Fieldhouse Wednesday night.
Center Hunter Dickinson rode a strong first half to a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Kevin McCullar Jr. was his team’s leading scorer for the second exhibition in a row with 21 points, including four 3-pointers. KJ Adams Jr. added 14 on 5-for-6 shooting.
The Tigers, who got hot from deep late to help narrow the margin, were led by 14 points from Elijah Nnanabu.
Dickinson got off to a much stronger start than he had at Illinois, when three quick misses and a travel set a poor tone for his night. Instead, he was involved in all five of the Jayhawks’ opening baskets, with four scores and an assist to Adams. He dunked, he made layups in the post and he drained a quick-fire jumper to help KU build a lead early.
“You hear 7-2, you don’t know how big 7-2 is until you’re out there next to him,” FHSU guard Kaleb Hammeke said postgame.
The Jayhawks got a few reserves some significant playing time early, including Johnny Furphy, who made his first appearance in game action (albeit unofficially) for KU, and Parker Braun, who finished hard between two defenders for a contested alley-oop from Dajuan Harris Jr. McCullar made a 3 after a couple of early misfires to put KU up 19-8 at the second media timeout.
He helped KU extend its lead further with a spinning jumper in the post through a foul by Fort Hays State’s RJ Crawford and completed a three-point play to extend the lead to 13. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks cranked up the defensive intensity, aided by some strong minutes from Jamari McDowell, and allowed just one field goal in six minutes.
Furphy scored his first basket by snagging a well-placed pass at the rim from KJ Adams and converting, raised his arms for a steal at the end, then returned the favor with a bounce pass to Adams for a score moments later. It was a strong early showing in his return after missing two weeks of practice due to severe shin splints.
The Jayhawks hit a cold streak late in the half with Clemence, Dickinson, Furphy and McCullar all missing good looks from deep and Traejon Davis connecting on one for the Tigers. But KU still managed to enter the half up 43-23.
FHSU came out firing in the second half and added a Bjarni Jonsson 3 amid some poor play from the Jayhawks’ starters. But McCullar halted KU’s drought three minutes in with his own third 3-pointer of the game and added another one not long after, shortly before the media timeout.
“Kevin’s an unbelievably tough player,” said Adams of McCullar, who had been dealing with a stiff neck in the aftermath of the Illinois exhibition, and who head coach Bill Self said hit his neck again in the first half. “He really helps on the offensive and defensive end.”
The Jayhawks stretched their lead past 20 points on a hard-fought Adams layup late in the shot clock with less than 15 minutes remaining. Braun rattled in a 3, to which he reacted with a somewhat baffled shrug, and it seemed KU was rolling.
But the Tigers kept the margin respectable with an 8-0 run culminating in a 3-pointer by Kyle Grill.
“We just got to be connected, stay together and come every day and get better, to be honest, and get better on defense,” Harris said postgame. “That’s our main focus, is defense right now. That’s what coach loves, so we got to give it to him.”
Added Adams: “I think we just got to work on playing with more energy, playing with more fun.”
The game’s pace slowed down, though, as FHSU had players start to foul out and KU gave extended playing time to multiple walk-ons. At one point the Jayhawks missed eight consecutive attempts from beyond the arc before Nick Timberlake finally made one with just over two minutes remaining.
Self acknowledged the shooting struggles postgame but said that if the Jayhawks couldn’t shoot, they needed to be better on defense, echoing Harris’ sentiments: “You can still have a terrific team and not make a lot of shots.”
The Jayhawks will host North Carolina Central to open the regular season Monday at 7 p.m. The game is part of the inaugural McLendon Classic, a new multi-day event beginning Sunday that honors the KU alum and trailblazing basketball coach John McLendon, who began his coaching career with North Carolina Central.
