Kansas University’s Keith Langford is back.

Not that the high-jumping Jayhawk junior was gone very long.

Still, a sore knee last week kept Langford out of KU’s first exhibition game under new coach Bill Self.

If that wasn’t reason enough for Langford to be excited for Tuesday’s preseason game against Pittsburg State, having a chance to play in “real” competition for the first time since last year’s national-title-game loss to Syracuse more than made Langford smile.

“It was fun to be back out there,” Langford said. “I was happy to be playing against some different competition. I got to smile a little on the court.”

That he did, slashing and swooping his way to 15 points and seven rebounds, along with three assists and three steals.

But much like Kansas as a team right now, Langford said his biggest highlight led to his biggest mistake.

“I was kind of excited,” Langford said of his high-flying, emphatic dunk over a Pitt State player with 10:42 left. “It was the first time I had dunked in a while, and I was kind of excited.”

Apparently that enthusiasm prevented Langford from getting back in perfect defensive position, because he fouled Eddie Jackson nine seconds later.

Kansas University's Keith Langford (5) hits teammate David Padgett (44) in the face with his arms while defending Pittsburg State's Eddie Jackson. The Jayhawks smacked the Gorillas, 103-73, Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“That play doesn’t mean anything, because I dunked the ball, and then I come back and foul somebody,” Langford said.

It meant plenty to Self, though. He used Langford’s mistake as an instructional example to his team.

“Yeah, I kind of made an example out of him,” said Self, whose cardinal sin is for a player to score and then celebrate too long and not get back to make a defensive stop.

“The guy is excited because it was his first time playing,” Self said. “But I said that championship teams, which we will get to the point that we will play at, are thinking about the next play.

“He’s played in plenty of big games and made plenty of big plays that those are awesome — and that was a great play — but you’ve got to be thinking about what’s going to happen next.”

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Langford said his conditioning would come with time.

After all, it has been little over a month since he had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.

“I felt pretty good out there running, and jumping around,” said Langford, who certainly didn’t seem slow when he made several of his patented slashes to the basket.

“Conditioning is a lot of it,” continued Langford, who said he noticed a slight drop-off in his leaping ability. “I’m not trying to get it all back in one exhibition game, but I still feel I can do a lot more.”

Like playing the point-guard position?

“He (Self) always says he doesn’t know who our back-up point guard is, and the way he has our offense set up he wants everybody to handle the ball,” said Langford, who at one point Tuesday switched places with point guard Aaron Miles.

Langford brought up the ball and hit a cutting Miles, who did his best impersonation of Langford with a slash for a score.

“The last couple of years I really didn’t get a chance to handle the ball that much, unless I was slashing to the basket or it was in transition,” said Langford, who played the position primarily during his senior season at North Crowley High School in Fort Worth, Texas.

“This year I might get the ball off the rim and lead the break, get it up into the halfcourt set and give teams different looks.”