photo by: AP Photo/Colin E. Braley

Kansas guard Zeke Mayo (5) celebrates with Dajuan Harris Jr. (3) after hitting a 3-point basket during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Kansas State, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, in Lawrence.

With four victories in its last five games, the Kansas men’s basketball team has put itself in an adequate position in the Big 12 Conference race, as 14 games are still pending on the schedule.

The Jayhawks recently received assists from West Virginia, as the same team that stunned KU in Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 31 took down Iowa State on Saturday, and Texas Tech, which triumphed over previously surging Arizona.

KU has a chance to leave its own mark on the upper echelon of the conference when Houston, which just barely escaped UCF and hasn’t lost since November, and ISU come to Allen Fieldhouse in the weeks ahead.

But that’s all in the distant future, at least by the standards of a team — like so many — trying to take its schedule one game at a time.

“Once you start looking too far ahead,” center Hunter Dickinson said, “that’s when you can start overlooking teams, start not coming to play.”

And the Jayhawks certainly cannot overlook TCU, their next foe on Wednesday night in Fort Worth, Texas.

“They can score the ball and they get after you defensively and they’re fast,” KU coach Bill Self said on his “Hawk Talk” radio show, “and Jamie (Dixon)’s teams always do a really good job in transition, and they score probably about as many points as anyone nationally, let alone our league, in transition offense. We’ll have to be on point.”

The prospect of a road matchup with the Horned Frogs looks a lot more challenging than it once did now that they are coming off an upset victory over No. 25 Baylor at Foster Pavilion. The Frogs’ sixth man Brendan Wenzel, a transfer from Wyoming, hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game (more than the rest of his team combined) when it mattered most, putting TCU up 74-71 in the final seconds of Sunday’s victory.

TCU is last in the Big 12 in average attendance, but hadn’t lost at home prior to its defeat against Utah last Wednesday. As the Big 12 has moved to an unbalanced schedule, it’s been a while — 23 months — since the Jayhawks’ last trip to Schollmaier Arena. In fact, no KU men’s sports team has competed in an event at TCU since March 26, 2023.

The Frogs, who now sport an even conference record at 3-3, played KU close at Allen Fieldhouse in their lone meeting last season, but with the exception of former Jayhawk Ernest Udeh Jr., the Frogs are totally different. Udeh is the only player in their rotation — their top 11 players by minutes per game — who appeared in a game for TCU last year. He has continued to develop at the center spot and ranks among the league leaders in rebounds (8.3, sixth) and blocks (1.7, also sixth).

Surrounding him in the lineup are freshmen and transfers. With Frankie Collins out for the season, the biggest names to know are senior Noah Reynolds, the leading scorer who previously played at Green Bay and Wyoming, and Vasean Allette, a Canadian sophomore who transferred from Old Dominion.

Thankfully for KU, which will be without forward KJ Adams again, the Horned Frogs do not play multiple big men in the same way Kansas State did. David Punch, a true freshman from Harker Heights, Texas, is highly athletic at 6-foot-7, 245 pounds, making for a strong defensive frontcourt with Udeh, but hasn’t presented much of a scoring threat.

In fact, TCU as a whole hasn’t always scored well. The Frogs are last in the Big 12 in points per game, 14th in field-goal percentage and 15th in free-throw shooting. Wenzel is by far their most accurate shooter beyond the arc but has only attempted 68 3s.

It’s an opportunity for the KU defense to return to form after its worst showing of conference play, and to get more accustomed to an Adams-less approach. Self said, “We think we’ll have him back, but we anticipate him missing, minimum, three or four games.”

TCU Horned Frogs (10-7, 3-3 Big 12) vs. No. 12 Kansas Jayhawks (13-4, 4-2 Big 12)

• Schollmaier Arena, Fort Worth, Texas, 6 p.m.

• Broadcast: ESPN2

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KMXN FM 92.9)

Keep an eye out

Storr of value: With some additional practice time and a slightly more favorable situation against TCU, Storr could have a chance to play more and better minutes on Wednesday than he did in KU’s most recent victory over K-State. It still won’t be easy for him on either side of the ball to play power forward when Punch is in the game, given that he’s giving up 40 pounds and Punch is known as a strong perimeter defender for his size, but it’ll at least be a better matchup than K-State was with Coleman Hawkins, especially when TCU brings in its own big wings off the bench to play as 4-men. Storr will also need to rebound better. He’s only averaging 1.9 boards per game on the year. Self said of both Storr and fellow wing Rylan Griffen, who he revealed was sick during the game against K-State, “It’d be nice to have some energy and defend, and rebound, especially on the offensive end.”

Keeping clean: Flory Bidunga is in line for his second straight start in Adams’ absence. The freshman has displayed his immense potential on many occasions, and most recently played a career-high 26 minutes against K-State while leading the Jayhawks with nine rebounds. His principal issue is staying on the floor, as Bidunga has incurred four or more fouls in three of the last four games, and his lack of experience has made him susceptible to shot fakes from more experienced opponents. For as long as Adams is out, keeping Bidunga on the court for as long as possible, at least until Storr and Griffen begin to produce reliably on offense, will be essential for KU.

Getting on track: Another freshman, Rakease Passmore, is the newest addition to the back end of the Jayhawks’ rotation. He’s a high-effort player who doesn’t stick out for the wrong reasons when he joins his more experienced teammates on the floor. But he also hasn’t made a field goal, albeit in limited action, since the month of November. With more time on the court he could have a chance to display some of the incipient talent that prompted KU coaches to compare him to Ochai Agbaji during the offseason.

Off-kilter observation

KU fans might recognize RJ Jones from his rotational role at Kansas State last season. However, the sophomore from Denton, Texas, is redshirting at TCU and hasn’t played this year.