photo by: AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

TCU center Ernest Udeh Jr. handles the ball during an NCAA college basketball game against Arizona State in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023.

TCU stormed into Lawrence last January, led for 39 minutes and left with its first-ever road victory at Allen Fieldhouse. It was an 83-60 “beatdown,” as Kansas coach Bill Self called it then, and one of KU’s worst home losses in recent history.

“They came in here and got after us, I remember that,” guard Kevin McCullar Jr. said Thursday, adding that Self had reminded the team about it at practice. “We came out sluggish, played behind the whole game, never really got to get the crowd involved.”

The Jayhawks did avenge that defeat in Fort Worth, Texas, a month later, taking TCU’s game ball as a souvenir in a symbolic act of retribution.

They now have a chance to continue to set the series back in order on their home court — they lead it 25-4 overall — on Saturday when they open Big 12 Conference play at home against the Horned Frogs and embark on the path toward, they hope, another league title.

“That’s the tradition at KU, is to come here and win championships,” McCullar said. “That’s why we all came to be a part of Kansas and be a part of something special.”

It is of course a new season, with the KU roster turned over dramatically and bearing little resemblance, particularly on its bench, to the squad that experienced last season’s highs and lows against TCU.

In fact, one member of that former bench now wears purple and white for the Horned Frogs.

Ernest Udeh Jr., who was a freshman center for KU last year, was one of seven Jayhawks to leave in the transfer portal last offseason and the only one to bolt for a conference rival.

Self said on his “Hawk Talk” radio show this week that Udeh saw a better opportunity in the near future at TCU and that Self holds no ill feelings.

​​”That’s just the way that it works in college basketball right now,” Self said.

Udeh has started every game for the Horned Frogs on what is generally a familiar lineup with players like preseason all-conference forward Emanuel Miller (16 points, six boards per game) and experienced forward JaKobe Coles (11.4, 5.4) and guard Micah Peavy (11.4, 4.8).

Udeh, for his part, hasn’t produced much statistically this season. After a first collegiate campaign at KU in which he at one point made every shot he took for a three-month period and shot 75.6% on the year (albeit in limited time off the bench), he only scored 20 combined points in his first seven starts of the 2023-24 season.

But he’s improved in recent weeks — even as TCU has taken on stronger competition — and set new career highs with 13 points and 18 rebounds on New Year’s Day against Texas A&M-Commerce.

Stronger competition may be a generous phrase, as Udeh and the Horned Frogs have played one of the nation’s weakest schedules (341st of 362 teams on KenPom). They piled up dominant wins against the likes of Southern and Houston Christian but lost to Clemson and Nevada and needed a monumental late-game collapse and controversial Miller game-winner to beat Georgetown; their best victories are in Fort Worth against Arizona State, and at Hawaii. KU will be a substantial step up.

TCU certainly has some transferable skills to threaten the Jayhawks, such as its assist totals that rival those of KU and its top-notch transition scoring (25.31 points per game, best in the country by a wide margin), about which Self said, “We tried to prepare last year and they ran us out of our own gym.”

“Peavy, Miller (too) but primarily Peavy, is about as good as I’ve seen, period, as far as getting a defensive rebound and in two steps (being) ahead of everybody else and creating numbers,” he added.

photo by: AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

TCU guard Micah Peavy (0) celebrates after sinking a 3-point basket against Arizona State during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023.

Much of the spotlight Saturday, though, will be on the center position. KU has filled that role with Hunter Dickinson, who is fresh off a 22-point, 13-rebound showing against Wichita State and should have an entertaining matchup with Udeh.

Self said it’s not just Udeh’s production on the glass that makes his former player threatening.

“He can change directions and get out of a ball screen as good as anybody in America,” he said. “He’s great at it. He was great at it when he was with us, too. I think that’s one of the things that is very, very difficult about him, from an athletic standpoint, to match.”

Don’t be surprised to see Udeh matched up with last year’s starting center, the undersized but hyperathletic KJ Adams, either.

“It’ll be fun to see him,” Adams said on “Hawk Talk.” “He’s a goofy, funny dude. It’ll be different playing against him this time.”

McCullar, who transferred to KU from Texas Tech, can relate to what Udeh will experience returning to play his former team.

“That’s still my brother,” McCullar said. “But yeah, I know how he’s going to be feeling, it’s going to be emotional, probably, for him, coming back where he started his college career at, it’s going to be a great game, and can’t wait to compete against him.”

photo by: AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

TCU center Ernest Udeh Jr. (8) takes a hit to the arm from Arizona State guard Kamari Lands (0) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023.

No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks (12-1) vs. TCU Horned Frogs (11-2)

• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, 1 p.m.

• Broadcast: CBS

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9)

Keep an eye out

“Loosey-goosey”: Using that colorful adjective in response to a “Hawk Talk” query from Adams, Self described his team’s lackadaisical performance late in games when it gets ahead. He saw a bit more of that against Wichita State, as KU got up by as many as 28 and was 25 ahead with 3:46 to go but only won 86-67. The Jayhawks rarely asserted their advantage when they built big leads in nonconference play. Those wide margins will be much rarer in the Big 12. But Self has said that while playing loose is “not all bad,” he wants his team to focus on winning each possession rather than playing a possession “based on what the score is.”

Another gear: Dickinson and McCullar (20 points, seven rebounds) both played quite well against Wichita State but could have done even better. Self said of Dickinson, who shot 10-for-17, that the seven shots he missed were of the sort he could make — “I thought he should have had 30.” McCullar shot just 5-for-14 but boosted his final totals with exceptional free-throw shooting, a familiar refrain dating back to games against Missouri and Indiana.

Not a freshman anymore: Freshman guard Elmarko Jackson has grown steadily on defense and posted a career-best 12 points, including a solo 7-0 run, against WSU, prompting McCullar to declare him no longer a freshman ahead of the conference slate. Jackson is about to see the intensity of college basketball ratchet up another level and will need to match it with a corresponding improvement in his play to help KU reach its full potential.

Off-kilter observation

Tim Jankovich, a former KU assistant and the father of KU’s Michael Jankovich, coached TCU guard Tyler Lundblade when both were at SMU during the 2021-22 season.

photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Kansas center Hunter Dickinson celebrates after making a basket during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Wichita State Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. Kansas won 86-67.

photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Kansas guard Elmarko Jackson dunks the ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Wichita State Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo.

photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Kansas head coach Bill Self motions to his players during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Wichita State Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo.