Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce salutes the crowd as he is introduced during the first half on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Norman, Okla. — It’s been more than a week now, so the reality of it has fully sunk in, but there was a time when Kansas freshman Gradey Dick could hardly believe that he was hanging out with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

That opportunity came after a recent KU victory over Kansas State at Allen Fieldhouse, which Kelce attended two days after the Chiefs earned their third trip to the Super Bowl in the past four seasons.

The Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will meet for the Lombardi Trophy at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in Glendale, Arizona.

Kelce, who is tracking hard toward going down as the greatest tight end in NFL history, was introduced to the KU crowd during the game and then met up with Dick after the game.

The first encounter was in the KU locker room. After Kelce spoke to the team, the two spent a little more time together talking about everything from their chosen sports to life lessons. A few social media posts even surfaced of the two hanging out at The Hawk on KU’s campus.

Dick, who considers himself a Chiefs fan but admits he’s not quite as crazy about the team as his family members, called the encounter “amazing.” He added that he quickly realized how important Kelce’s words of wisdom could be for his future.

“It was a crazy experience,” Dick recently told the Journal-World. “But at the same time, in my mind, it wasn’t really like I was hanging out with a guy going to the Super Bowl and probably the greatest tight end of all time. That’s the thing I learned quick. Just talking to him for a couple of minutes, he doesn’t seem like he’s too big for anyone. And then those couple minutes turned to a couple hours and we were just chatting it up.”

Included in the conversation between the two were discussions about Dick’s goals in basketball and the levels he wants to reach. Hearing Kelce, a hard-working, humble, diamond-in-the-rough type of player from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, share stories of his own path to success was something that Dick viewed as invaluable to his own journey.

“He was giving me advice, but also just giving me warnings of what to watch out for,” Dick said. “He was just kind of explaining how people may try to get at you that don’t always have your best interest in mind. Everyone knows that, but he was just kind of explaining the gravity of it and saying be careful.”

The night ended with Dick and Kelce, along with a couple of Dick’s teammates, shooting a few baskets inside the gym at KU’s McCarthy Hall. When they went their separate ways, Kelce gave Dick his contact information and said he should reach out if he ever needed anything.

While the KU freshman said he appreciated Kelce’s generosity and looked forward to future interactions, he credited his time at KU and the program’s enormous brand as the catalyst that created such a memorable moment.

Dick also said that as soon as he heard Kelce would be in the building for that K-State game, his initial reaction was that it was time to put on a show.

“Yeah, of course,” Dick said. “It just shows the culture of KU and this university and what it can draw in. Through this family aspect that we have here, it just draws people in; they just love it.”

Making them morning people

Given the way Kansas opened last weekend’s early tipoff at Iowa State, which preceded a 15-point road loss to the Cyclones, it made sense for the Jayhawks to try something different at OU.

So, when they first took the floor, a little more than an hour before tipoff, they ran through 5-10 minutes of a close-out drill to get the juices flowing and wake up their bodies.

“Last time we played an early-morning game, it wasn’t in our favor and the big emphasis today was (on) whoever wakes up first,” freshman guard Ernest Udeh said after KU’s 78-55 win over the Sooners.

Kansas does not incorporate that into its pregame routine on most nights, but does use it for early tipoffs. Udeh said starting fast was the emphasis all week in practice, and even though the Jayhawks did not do that on the scoreboard or the offensive end, KU coach Bill Self said he was pleased with the way his team defended from the jump.

“Sometimes it’s the law of averages,” said Self, conceding that his team’s slow starts are not always an indicator that they weren’t ready to go at tipoff. “Sometimes they make a hard shot and you miss an open shot. But I do think there’s too much inconsistency with how we start games.”

Injury update

Kansas was back to nine scholarship players in Saturday’s win at Oklahoma.

Zach Clemence (knee), Kyle Cuffe Jr. (knee), Cam Martin (shoulder) and Bobby Pettiford (hamstring) remained sidelined for the ninth-ranked Jayhawks, but freshman big man Zuby Ejiofor was back on the bench and in uniform.

Ejiofor had been out with a foot injury since the Kentucky game on Jan. 28. Although Ejiofor was available to play, he logged just 1:32 of game action on Saturday in mop-up time.

He finished with one rebound and one assist.

Self said Ejiofor practiced both Thursday and Friday and that, even though he was still working through his return, he had been “cleared to play.”

College GameDay coming to Kansas

KU will host ESPN’s College GameDay for the second season in a row, when the college hoops pregame show comes to Lawrence for next weekend’s home game with Baylor.

Tipoff for that one is slated for 3 p.m.

It will mark the 11th time that the show has been broadcast from Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas is 8-2 in the previous 10 home GameDay appearances and 14-7 all-time when playing in a game featured on GameDay.

Earlier this season, KU won at Kentucky, which was the second of a two-city host arrangement on Jan. 28. Last season, KU hosted GameDay when UK came to town and the Wildcats left Lawrence with a convincing win that proved to be a turning point for KU’s run to the national title.

This and that…

KU’s win on Saturday moved the Jayhawks to 20-5 overall, giving Kansas 20 or more victories for the 34th consecutive season. That stretch started in 1989 and is the longest active streak in NCAA Division I… KU now has won five in a row against the Sooners and leads the all-time series 156-69, including a 22-20 record inside Lloyd Noble Center… The Jayhawks are now 5-3 in true road games and 8-4 in games played outside of Allen Fieldhouse.