He had played in two Late Night With Roy Williams basketball scrimmages and had practiced countless times on James Naismith Court.

But until Monday night, Kansas University red-shirt freshman guard Jeff Hawkins never had entered an actual game in Allen Fieldhouse.

The new experience  Hawkins scored eight points in 11 minutes in KU’s 111-94 victory over the EA Sports East All-Stars  was everything the 5-foot-11 point guard imagined, and more.

“I was real nervous, a little overwhelmed at first,” Hawkins said. “It felt great playing in front of 16,300 (fans).”

Hawkins, who grew up in Kansas City and attended KC Sumner High, was running on adrenaline early.

“It was really fast-paced. I got tired in a minute,” Hawkins said. “I was just excited finally being out there. I looked out there at Adonis Jordan  I grew up watching Adonis play. It was exciting playing against such a great player in KU history, a player coach talks about a lot. He went to two Final Fours.”

Full of nervous energy in his debut, Hawkins plucked a steal and hit his first basket, a layup, with 12 minutes to play.

Left alone beyond the arc, he fired an airball on a three-point try at 9:51 Â a shot from the right side that nicked the left side of the glass.

“I felt I had an hour to take that shot. I thought, ‘Man I was open,'” Hawkins said. “I thought about it too much. I still thought it was going in. I put a little too much on it.”

Later, Hawkins didn’t hesitate, swishing an open three-pointer to conclude the game’s scoring.

“I knew I had to come in and play great defense and keep the intensity up,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins was part of a strong bench effort. KU’s five scholarship reserves tallied 31 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and had seven assists. Jeff Graves scored eight points, while Moulaye Niang had seven, Bryant Nash six and Michael Lee two.

“We talked about we had to play like it was practice,” Hawkins said of the reserves. “Bryant Nash hit some big shots. Jeff Graves did some good things. Michael played good defense. Moulaye did real well.”

Williams, who always likes to see how his team reacts in its first “glorified practice” of the season, gave the squad passing grades, but KU’s coach said the defense could be a lot better.

“Definitely,” Hawkins said, asked if he agreed with the 15th-year KU coach. “I feel we can always play better on defense, not allow easy passes. We have to improve on everything, but especially on defense.”

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Media poll mirrors coaches: Big 12 reporters have chosen Kansas No. 1 in the preseason media poll, which was released Tuesday.

KU received 16 first-place votes and a total of 310 points. Oklahoma was chosen second with 302 points and 10 first-place votes, while Texas placed third with 275 points and one first-place vote. The media poll and last week’s coaches poll were the same regarding the top seven selections  KU, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Iowa State.

The next two spots differed among the media (Colorado, Baylor) and coaches (BU, CU). Both rounded out the rankings the same with Nebraska, Kansas State and Texas A&M.

The all-league media team was the same as the coach’s team: KU’s Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison, plus Andre Emmett (Texas Tech), T.J. Ford (Texas) and Hollis Price (Oklahoma).

The media copied the coaches in choosing Price player of the year, Nate Johnson (NU) newcomer of the year and Antoine Wright (A&M) freshman of the year.

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Up next: The Jayhawks next will meet Washburn in a second and final exhibition game at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.