What was KU Jayhawks’ Hunter Dickinson thinking when he battled 3 Frogs for a rebound?

Hunter Dickinson was not credited with the rebound.

TCU’s official stat-keeper instead awarded the carom to Trazarien White, the 6-foot-6 forward who wrestled Kansas’ 7-footer for a rebound off Rylan Griffen’s 3-point miss with 12:55 left in Wednesday’s game at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Jayhawks went on to beat the Horned Frogs 74-61. And if it’s any consolation to Dickinson, replays confirmed the Jayhawks senior was the player who ultimately handed the ball to the refs after the epic sequence.

Dickinson and White were hanging onto the ball and not letting go as they stumbled toward the end zone stands, an area filled with TCU students.

In all, three TCU players — White, Malick Diallo and Vasean Allette — attempted to take away Dickinson’s ball, to no avail.

“I thought it was pretty fun. When you get the rebound like that you can’t just give it up,” Dickinson said after his 16-point, nine-rebound performance in 33 minutes.

He and freshman Flory Bidunga helped hold TCU junior center Ernest Udeh, a former Jayhawk, to eight rebounds and seven points in 34 minutes.

“I thought it was a fun moment,” Dickinson repeated in a postgame interview on the Jayhawk radio network.

KU coach Bill Self indicated Dickinson should have released the basketball after a ref blew the play dead following the tie-up with White. Instead, Dickinson and White were whistled for a technical foul apiece.

Malick Diallo, who also tried to remove the ball from Dickinson’s midsection (the KU player was bent over protecting the ball at one point), did not receive a technical on the play.

“I thought it was asinine that our guy would hang onto the ball like that,” Self said. “I guess maybe in some world (a play like that) provides more street cred which in the world that somebody would actually think that I don’t think are very knowledgeable about ball.

“That was a bonehead play. What made it bonehead play as much anything when the whistle blows you stop. I’m sure they blew it several times. It cost us a possession I was not happy to see that at all.”

TCU coach Jamie Dixon stated the play “was on the other side (of court). I didn’t see it. It was pretty unimportant I guess, just one of those things we see happen in games (and) practices where it’s jump ball.

“I don’t think anybody did anything dirty or anything,” Dixon added. “They (Dickinson and the Frogs players) just wouldn’t stop, I guess. I don’t even know what the T’s were for. I don’t think that’s anything. They had to do something because they (players) didn’t do what they were told to do by the officials (let go of ball).”

The effort shown by Dickinson seemed to spark the Jayhawks.

First, White flushed a dunk to give the Horned Frogs a 48-47 lead at the 12:44 mark. AJ Storr put KU back in the lead, 49-48, by hitting a jumper with 11:30 left. David “Diggy” Coit then hit a 3 and Storr tipped in a miss by Shakeel Moore to make it 54-48 KU with 10:01 to go.

After TCU cut the gap to 54-50, KU went on a 7-0 run to go up 61-50 with 7:13 left. Moore hit a 3 and flushed a dunk and Storr tipped in a Dajuan Harris miss to account for the Jayhawks’ seven points in that stretch.

For KU, former Mississippi State guard Moore scored all 11 of his points the second half. Storr had 11 of his 12 points and all three of his steals during the final half.

“Shak has been in a groove lately,” Dickinson said. “I think it was great especially for AJ. Obviously he was recruited here for a reason. Tonight was one of those nights shows why he was so highly recruited. He gave us everything offensively and defensively. He really sparked us the second half.”

Storr, by the way, went over to support Dickinson as he was wrestling with the Frogs.

“Shak was huge with 3s. He hit really timely ones,” Dickinson said of Moore’s three 3-pointers in the final half. “The game was back and forth. We really needed his 3s to maintain our lead second half. He was huge not only defensively but especially offensively.”

“AJ and Shak … it was their night tonight. They were terrific,” Self said after watching the combo score 21 of the Jayhawks’ 41 points in the second half, one in which KU outscored the Horned Frogs 41-26.

The Jayhawks, who improved to 5-2 in the league and 14-4 overall, next will meet Houston at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse. Houston is 7-0 in Big 12 play, 15-3 overall.

The Cougars defeated Utah 70-36 on Wednesday at the Fertitta Center in Houston.