Jeff Hawkins has scored in double figures in exactly one game during his Kansas University basketball career.

That was last year, when the 5-foot-11 guard erupted for 19 points in an 85-66 victory over TCU — a team coached by one of the men who recruited Hawkins to KU, former Roy Williams aide Neil Dougherty.

“I took it personal. I received therapy all year because he did it against me,” third-year Horned Frogs coach Dougherty quipped while reflecting on that Dec. 1 game, the only time a No. 1-rated team ever had played at TCU’s gym in Fort Worth, Texas.

“I said to Jeff, ‘If you do it against us, I want you to do it all year.'”

That didn’t happen, as Hawkins’ next best outing was a seven-pointer against Villanova.

The former Kansas City Sumner standout made five of seven three-pointers against TCU, five of 44 beyond the arc against the rest of the teams on KU’s schedule.

“I was more focused that game. I knew I had to step up since Michael Lee had broken his collarbone, and it was the first game he missed,” Hawkins said Tuesday, looking back to last year’s game and ahead to Thursday’s 8 p.m. rematch against TCU at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I knew somebody had to step up. I’d been practicing pretty well. Coach tried me in the game, and I was ready for it. I remember I made a lot of threes, a few actually.”

KU coach Bill Self, who has played Hawkins two minutes total in four games this season, remembers Hawkins’ effort against TCU.

“They took Wayne out of that game with their pressure,” Self said of the game in which power forward Wayne Simien scored six points off 1-of-4 shooting in 28 minutes. “They did a good job. ‘Hawk’ bailed us out.

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“At the time I thought, ‘If we can make shots, that would be something that could take us a long ways.’ To me our Achilles’ heel was making shots, and Jeff bailed us out in that particular game.”

What happened to Hawkins after that game?

“I don’t know, maybe I relaxed too much,” Hawkins said. “Maybe I was too satisfied with that game.”

As far as this year, Hawkins was suspended starting on the first day of classes until the first day of Self’s boot camp conditioning program Sept. 27 and hasn’t cracked the rotation at all. Self has said there’s only playing time available for five perimeter players and Hawkins isn’t in the top five.

“I want to do whatever helps us to put us in good position to win the national championship,” Hawkins said. “At practice I try to push the starting five and the people who play the majority of the minutes.

“I’m not frustrated. I just keep working hard.”

Hawkins admits his suspension for unspecified reasons “held me back a bit. I’m still working hard, hopefully waiting for my time when it comes.”

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Big men update: Self said junior power forward Christian Moody will continue to start and play significant minutes, but that Self needs to find more time for freshman big men C.J. Giles, Sasha Kaun and Darnell Jackson.

“We’ve got to play our young guys more,” Self said. “That’s my fault. In a perfect world it’d be to get to about 50 minutes with those four guys. Depending on foul situations if you get 15 points, 15 rebounds out of 50 minutes you’d have a pretty productive two guys. We’re doing it with four.

“The big thing is our young guys have to learn to play with our older guys. It’s not so much our older guys have to adjust to them. They’ve got to allow us to play a way to let Wayne, Keith and J.R. get shots. Christian is just better than the other three at it.”

Self wants one of the freshmen to emerge as starter.

“That’s not a knock against Christian. We’d be a better as a team if we could play bigger. We need to play bigger so Wayne will get a four man on him more often and guard the four.

“I’d love to see one emerge as starter. I see Christian being the guy that finishes games. It’s more important to finish them than start them. I see Christian playing in crucial situations more than the other three now.”

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Firings bothersome: Self is dismayed USC fired coach Henry Bibby after four games a year after St. John’s canned Mike Jarvis during the season.

“I don’t understand it. I don’t get it,” Self said. “It almost seems there’s got to be something not seen by outside eyes. I think it sends a really, really bad message. Get off to a bad start, you get fired early in the season when you teach guys it’s a marathon.”

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Giddens fine: Giddens, who had just seven points against Pacific, says his health is OK.

“My foot is fine, my knee is fine and my finger is fine,” said Giddens, who had offseason foot and knee surgeries and dislocated a finger on his left hand against Nevada. “I need to be a little more aggressive, run the floor better, run off transition, hopefully run my guy into the floor — whoever guards me make them have a long night.”

Self said Giddens has to “learn to play without the basketball to free himself. He has not had open looks and teams will crowd him, make him put it down and that kind of stuff.”