KU basketball cruises past Fort Hays State in exhibition game. Here are 3 takeaways
The Kansas men’s basketball team made it look easy on Wednesday night against Fort Hays State.
It was precisely what the doctor ordered — a drubbing of an inferior opponent before KU’s regular season begins Monday.
The No. 1-ranked Jayhawks had a wire-to-wire 73-55 victory over the FHSU Tigers at Allen Fieldhouse.
Kevin McCullar scored 21 points and Hunter Dickinson added 17 points for the Jayhawks, who start the season Monday against NC Central.
Elijah Nnanabu led all Fort Hays State scorers with 14 points. The Tigers begin their regular season on Nov. 10 against Southwestern Oklahoma State.
The game was the Hunter Dickinson show early on. He started 4-for-4 with eight points as KU led 10-4 at the game’s first media timeout. Kansas went into the half with a 43-23 lead.
Fort Hays State never threatened at any point in the second half.
Here are three takeaways from the game...
Kevin McCullar embraces increased scoring load
All offseason, McCullar has talked about the Jayhawks being his team and how he’s ready to embrace extra scoring responsibilities.
Well, he’s lived up to his promise in KU’s last two exhibition games. After scoring 25 points against Illinois, McCullar had another nice performance against Fort Hays State.
He scored in various ways to lead all players with 21 points, including 13 in the first half. Perhaps most impressive, McCullar, a 29.8% 3-point shooter in his college career, shot 4-for-8 from deep.
McCullar has said improving his perimeter shooting is one of his goals this season.
“Of course, in the NBA you want to shoot 40%,” McCullar previously told The Star. “But anything 37% and up, I’ll take that. I feel like that’s going to put us in the best position to win ballgames if I am shooting at that high level.”
He finished with 21 points and six rebounds, along with three steals.
As a team, KU’s perimeter shooting could be an issue
After Kansas shot 3-for-12 (25%) from beyond the arc against Illinois, Kansas coach Bill Self said he wouldn’t change the offense to take more 3-pointers.
“There will be games like that that we don’t take as many 3s the way Illinois guarded us, but we’re not going to change what we run to try to make sure we shoot more 3s,” Self said Tuesday. “We’re not going to do that.”
Well, Kansas did shoot more 3-pointers on Wednesday, but the result wasn’t pretty.
In the first half, Kansas went 2-for-10 (20%) from deep. McCullar was the only Jayhawk to make any 3-pointers, going 2-for-5.
Kansas shot 4-for-18 (22.2%) from deep overall. McCullar went 4-for-8 from 3, while transfer guard Nick Timberlake went 1-for-5. Hunter Dickinson, who previously said he’d like to attempt three 3s per game, went 0-for-1.
In his KU basketball debut, freshman Johnny Furphy shot 0-for-2 from 3 but finished with two points and three rebounds in 14 minutes.
KU’s defense looked a lot better
Although the competition wasn’t as good as Illinois, Kansas’ defense looked much improved against Fort Hays State.
Fort Hays State shot 19-for-57 (40.7%) from the floor, including 7-for-20 (35%) from 3-point range.
Illinois shot around 45% and, notably, 11-for-27 (40.7%) from 3 against the Jayhawks.
Kansas did a much better job of rotating on defense and getting into passing lanes, finishing with seven steals.
Players had stated before Wednesday’s game they expected an added practice emphasis on defense, and it showed.
This story was originally published November 1, 2023 at 9:20 PM with the headline "KU basketball cruises past Fort Hays State in exhibition game. Here are 3 takeaways."
