KU basketball could get injured players back for Tuesday’s exhibition vs. Washburn

Two of Kansas’ four injured men’s basketball players — who all missed Friday’s exhibition opener against Arkansas — will likely participate in the second and final practice game of the 2024-25 preseason, coach Bill Self said Monday.

Rylan Griffen, a junior guard who started on last year’s Final Four team at Alabama, and Shakeel Moore, a senior guard and starter at Mississippi State a year ago, have returned to practice and are probable for Tuesday’s 7 p.m. home game versus Washburn, which will be shown on ESPN+.

Griffen was sidelined a week because of a hip flexor, while Moore had early September surgery to repair a hairline fracture in his ankle.

Senior center Hunter Dickinson likely will not play against former KU guard Brett Ballard’s Ichabods because of a sprained foot. Sophomore guard Elmarko Jackson remains out for the entire 2024-25 campaign following early June surgery to repair a torn patellar tendon in his knee.

“I see them both playing tomorrow, (but) limited,” Self said of Griffen and Moore. “I see them both being out there and Hunt could, too, but I don’t know that we’ll do that with Hunt. With his type of injury, a little strain could set him back two or three more days. But with the other two, I’ve been led to believe ‘Put them out there a little bit and see what they can do.’”

The good news is Big 12 preseason player of the year Dickinson has returned to practice.

“He missed nine days (and) practiced yesterday,” Self said. “He probably will not play in the game. We have some pretty big games coming up 10 days to the first two weeks of the season.”

KU will open the regular season against Howard at 7 p.m. Monday on Nov. 4 at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks will play host to North Carolina on Nov. 8, then meet Michigan State on Nov. 12 in Atlanta.

Griffen, a 6-6 guard from Richardson, Texas, averaged 11.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists a game last season at Alabama. He hit 45.4% of his shots, 39.2% of his 3s. Moore, 6-1 from Greensboro, North Carolina, averaged 7.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists a game last season at MSU. He hit 46.8% of his shots including 36.3% of his 3s.

Of Griffen, Self said: “I think that probably more so than anybody, you can run (bad) offense and come away with three points. I think there’s a couple other guys, we didn’t see it the other night (in 85-69 exhibition loss at Arkansas), that you could do that too, better than what we’ve had in the past. Rylan is a catch-and-shoot guy with range. He’s got size so he can get the shot off. And I think that he is very, very important to our success and being able to stretch the defense.”

Of Moore, Self said recently: “I think Shak could be our best on-the-ball defender. He’s not a scorer but he can make a shot. He knows how to play. He’s smart, been in the ACC (one year at N.C. State), been in the SEC (at MSU three years). It hurt him personally being out. But that probably helped some others to allow them more opportunities early.”

Of the incoming transfer guards, Self noted that, “the big key to our team, and I’ve said it many, many times, of not really knowing what you have yet, is AJ (Storr) and Rylan. Let’s just call it like it is. AJ and Rylan need to perform at a pretty high level to give us the best chance.”

Storr scored eight points on 4-of-11 shooting (0-for-4 from 3) versus Arkansas on Friday.

“I think that I have AJ messed up at the moment because he doesn’t know what aggressive looks like. Like be aggressive, move the ball,” Self said of the Wisconsin transfer guard. “You know that contradicts two things — be aggressive, but (there’s the) 0.5 rule. ‘You’ve got to pass it or shoot it or drive it within 0.5 seconds, but you want me to be aggressive?’ That kind of stuff is not on him as much as it is on us, getting him to understand that you can do both.

“So I’d say he’s a little bit thinking instead of reacting. I didn’t think he was very good the other night, but I’m not sure it was because he wasn’t very good, or because maybe he’s just not really reacting the way that we know he will over time.”