When Kansas opened up the exhibition portion of its schedule at Arkansas back on October, 25, the Jayhawks were without the services of Hunter Dickinson, Rylan Griffen, and Shakeel Moore. Bill Self’s squad fell to John Calipari and the Razorbacks, 85-69.

In returning home for its only exhibition game of the season, Kansas, on October 29, rolled past Washburn, 84-53. With Dickinson and Moore still sidelined with minor injuries, the Jayhawks were led by David Coit (19), Zeke Mayo (16), Griffen (14), and Flory Bidunga (10).

The No. 1 ranked team heading into the regular season, Kansas, will take the court against Howard on Monday night with a complete squad.

“I anticipate having a full squad,” said Kansas head coach Bill Self when addressing the media on Friday. “We have not limited reps since the game Tuesday with Hunt (Hunter Dickinson) and Shak (Shakeel Moore), even though that may be the case kind of moving forward, but we haven’t limited reps. So, yeah, unless something unforeseen happens, then we should be good.

“Rylan did fine getting through the game, and so this is the closest we’ve been to healthy, even though the timing’s off on two of them, but hopefully, by next week, we’ll be a little bit better,” he added.

A season ago, his first in Lawrence, Dickinson averaged 17.9 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. Offensively, he shot 55 percent from the field, 35.4 percent from behind the arc, and 62.4 percent from the free-throw line.

As high as the expectations were a season ago, those expectations might be even higher this season. For the second straight year, Kansas will enter the season as the No. 1 ranked team in college basketball. Furthermore, Dickinson will be the focal point on a team expected to compete for its third National Championship under Self.

Dickinson, at the end of the season, ultimately made the decision to remain in Lawrence to work on and improve different aspects of his game. On Friday morning, Self was asked if any of those improvements would be noticeable right away.

“I don’t think it’ll be obvious immediately until he gets his rhythm back because I do think conditioning and rhythm may be a little bit of a factor early on,” said Self. “But I think the biggest thing that you’ll see is, I don’t know if it’s a huge improvement, we’ll see a better passer just because of the way that we’re playing a little bit different than last year.”

What, if anything, did Dickinson focus on in terms of looking to improve during his time in Lawrence this offseason?

“I would say he continued to work on his athleticism, his body, and I think that what Hunt can do, I think Hunt has an unbelievable touch that if the ball gets on the rim sometimes it just has a tendency to fall in,” he added. “He’s got a soft touch. I don’t think he shot it near as well last year as what he’s capable of shooting it. I think early in the season he did, but I don’t think late in the season he did.

“And so just him to start maybe making some of the same shots that he didn’t make last year,” he added. “And I think a lot of that was legs too, because playing so many minutes.”

When it comes KU’s starting five against Howard on Monday night, Self wasn’t ready to tip his hat by announcing the starting lineup during his weekly press conference on Friday. However, it should come as no surprise that three players in particular were mentioned by Self.

“No, we haven’t decided yet,” said Self. “We haven’t decided yet, but I would say if health is good, you could make a case for Hunt. Juan (Dajuan Harris, Jr.) and KJ (KJ Harris, Jr.) starting, but we haven’t decided.

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – The Kansas National Guard welcomed three new members into their hall of fame on Nov. 3.

“The criteria is based on contributions that they do while in uniform and in service to their county also contributions that they do in their community,” Kansas National Guard Hall of Fame Board Chair Jacob King said.

Colonel Clifford Silsby, Colonel Edward Sykes, and First Sergeant Darrel Haeffele will join the over 130 Kansans in the National Guard Hall of Fame in Topeka.

The ceremony highlighted each honoree’s military career achievement and gave them the podium to thank all who made it possible.

“It‘s less about me, it‘s about everybody I’ve worked with that’s supported me through the years and they really deserve the credit because without them I wouldn’t ever be able to do anything that I’ve done,” Silsby said. “Well, maybe just a little.”

“I think everybody deserves recognition that serves, I just happen to be lucky enough to get in some situation,” Sykes said. “Sometimes I was unlucky getting shout-out was a little unlucky, but I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time and have the right people help me get to where I was.”

They aim to share their legacy by passing it on to the next generation.

“I had a great-grandson that was sitting beside me up front, today he joined the international guard,” Haeffele said.

“The military is the greatest place to start there is,” Sykes said. “You have the opportunity to serve your county and sometimes that can get a little rough but believe me it is part of being an American.”

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The Houston Cougars pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2024 college football season on Saturday, beating No. 17 Kansas 24-19 in a weather-delayed game that was played in a driving rain storm.

Kansas State (7-2, 4-2) came into the game as 13.5-point favorites over Houston (4-5, 3-3), but couldn’t overcome the sloppy playing conditions and the Cougars’ physical, relentless defense.

Houston quarterback Zeon Chriss scored the game-winning touchdown on a 41-yard run with 2:31 to play, and linebacker Michael Batton iced the game with a diving interception less than a minute later.

After the game, Kansas State coach Chris Klieman lamented his team’s lack of fundamentals and praised Houston’s defense.

Here are the highlights from Klieman’s postgame press conference:

Klieman on if the pregame weather delay impacted Kansas State:

“No, we were engaged. You only get 12 opportunities to play, and I don’t want to hear any BS about, well, we had a delay and stuff. It’s football, and this is a pretty damn nice locker room. We’ve been in some bad ones. This is a pretty nice locker room, so I don’t want to hear we didn’t have the ability to lounge out and stuff. We got beat because of our fundamentals today, period.”

Klieman on Kansas State’s lack of technique:

“Those kids care. Those kids want to win. Those kids play their tail off. Nobody’s gonna say we don’t play hard. We play harder than heck man. But we’re not playing with great fundamentals and techniques.”

Klieman on Houston’s defense:

“Being in this league six years right now, we’ve beaten teams that are better than us because we have better fundamentals and techniques. Today, we got beat by a team that was pretty capable, comparable to us … that’s as good a defense, other than BYU, that we’ve played this year. Those guys have dudes up front.”

Klieman on Chriss’ 41-yard touchdown run:

“The kid made a nice cutback and popped it when we were bringing everybody up to stop the run. With that being said, they had 40 rushes for 120 yards (it was officially 39 rushes for 123 yards). We played good run defense. We really did. Give them credit. Give the kid credit. He found a way to make a play. We wish we could’ve had somebody stay in the gap. But that part of it is football.”

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