కాన్సాస్ బాస్కెట్‌బాల్ టెక్సాస్ టెక్‌కి ఇద్దరు స్టార్టర్‌లను కోల్పోవచ్చు

Kansas center Hunter Dickinson, who played 32 minutes in Saturday’s 64-61 home win over Baylor, will travel with his men’s basketball teammates and coaches to Lubbock, Texas, on Super Bowl Sunday while cramming for Monday’s 8 p.m. tip against Texas Tech at United Supermarkets Arena.

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“Get in the cold tub, drink this smoothie right here, relax,” Dickinson said of his immediate plans after scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds in a crucial victory over the Bears at Allen Fieldhouse.

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“I don’t feel young any more. I’m an old 23 now,” the 7-foot-2 Alexandria, Virginia native added.

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The Jayhawks (19-5, 7-4) — who won at home against Houston by 13 points, then lost in overtime two days later at Kansas State in the team’s last Saturday-Monday endeavor (Feb. 3 and 5) — on Monday night will meet a Texas Tech team that improved to 6-4 in the league and 17-6 overall Saturday by defeating UCF 66-59 in Lubbock.

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So how can KU prepare for Tech in such a short period of time in an attempt to improve on the Jayhawks’ 1-4 road record?

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“Focus on trying to see the scouting report as quick as possible, tune into Texas Tech as much as we can,” said junior forward KJ Adams. He played 36 minutes against Baylor Saturday, while Dajuan Harris and Johnny Furphy each played 36 minutes and Nick Timberlake 31.

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“We had a game like this, then gave one up to Kansas State,” Adams added. “So we need to try to capitalize on this (game) this week and get that win against Texas Tech.”

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Dickinson — he hit 7 of 19 shots (1-of-3 from 3) while Adams made 6 of 7 shots Saturday — said “we wanted to give some of the other guys that weren’t able to play for most of the season some good reps today. Hopefully they can carry that on and hopefully we carry on this success and make one (good outing turn into) two with a win this time.”

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Senior guard Timberlake, who replaced the injured Kevin McCullar (knee bruise) in the starting lineup, was 2-of-7 from 3 for eight points, with a crucial steal and dunk in the second half, while Elmarko Jackson had one point and four steals in 21 minutes and Parker Braun added two points in eight minutes.

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Coach Bill Self said McCullar was questionable for Monday’s game. Senior point guard Dajuan Harris, who injured an ankle late in the game but returned to hit what Self called the “biggest shot of the game,” also is set for treatment leading up to Monday night’s game.

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“I don’t know anything about Juan, but I cant imagine Kevin being a lot better on Monday if he can hardly move on Saturday,” Self said. “We’ll see. I don’t know about Juan. They said he got it pretty good but he’s a pretty tough kid, so we’ll see if he can come back.”

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Freshman guard Jamari McDowell missed Saturday’s game because of the flu. His presence would obviously be welcome Monday if McCullar and/or Harris are out or limited.

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“We all felt pretty confident in one another to step up and make big plays. I think we did that today,” Dickinson said. “We are at Kansas for a reason. Everybody is talented enough to play at Kansas. It’s not a surprise guys stepped up today. It’s kind of what we expected.”

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Texas Tech, which is 4-1 in league home games, is led by sophomore guard Pop Isaacs, who averages 16.9 points a game. He has cashed 57 of 174 3s for 32.8%. He’s dished 85 assists to 58 turnovers. Senior guard Joe Toussaint averages 12.7 points with 97 assists, 51 turnovers. Other double digit scorers: forward Devan Cambridge (10.5 ppg), guard Chance McMillian (10.3) and forward Warren Washington (10.3).

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“They are a lot like Baylor in they will put four guards around a big,” Self said. “It’s going to be very similar to Baylor. That may be something good from a scouting report standpoint, that we can still probably not have to change a ton in short period of time.”

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KU is 4-3 in its last seven games.

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“We had to get this win,” Self said of the BU contest. “You’ve got to do that because your next one is against a top 25 team (No. 23 this past week) on the road with no time in between. We knew it was going to be this way. It’s a hard part of the schedule not just because of who we play but the timing of when we play them.”

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KU will travel to Oklahoma for a 3 p.m. game Saturday.