Kansas guard Shakeel Moore (0) gets a slap on the back from Kansas head coach Bill Self during the Senior Day ceremony prior to tipoff against Arizona on Saturday, March 8, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas City, Mo. — On a night when Kansas coach Bill Self described his team’s intensity as “awful” and the Jayhawks gave up 94 points, combining with their own 98 against UCF for the highest-scoring game in Big 12 tournament history, they might have had some use for fifth-year guard Shakeel Moore.

Moore is both generally known for his dogged, high-energy defense and had received specific credit on Jan. 5, his first of nine starts as a Jayhawk, for helping hold the Knights’ Darius Johnson to three points on 1-for-8 shooting in KU’s blowout 99-48 win at Addition Financial Arena, freeing up teammate Dajuan Harris Jr. to focus on UCF’s Jordan Ivy-Curry.

On Wednesday, with Moore out of the lineup, Johnson scored 22 points on 8-for-14 shooting, after he had scored 19 against KU with Harris out on Jan. 28.

“I really wanted to go out there and shut him down, be a huge part defensively for our team,” Moore said postgame. “Because our biggest thing going into the game (was) if we take him out, it’ll be an easy win.”

But Moore hasn’t played since Feb. 18 due to recurring foot soreness as a result of reinjuring his fractured ankle, and Self previously ruled him out for the Big 12 tournament when speaking to reporters on Monday.

Except then Moore said in the locker room after KU beat UCF in overtime that he would “definitely be available” for the Jayhawks’ second Big 12 tournament game against Arizona.

That came after he took part in practices on Monday — to Self’s admitted surprise — and Tuesday, but didn’t feel on Wednesday morning like he could go against UCF.

“I was going to go tonight, I just didn’t want to go from zero to 100 and make my plans worse for what I want to do in the postseason,” Moore said. “And I just didn’t want to get it too sore to where I can’t perform the way I want to in March Madness. I’m going to just take it easy in the Big 12, maybe play tomorrow and see how it goes, and then look forward to the next game, but I know I wasn’t ready to play three, four games, back to back to back, right now.”

Asked about Moore’s comments later on Wednesday night, Self said, “You guys know more than me. I have no idea. He practiced the last two days and today said he couldn’t go. I don’t know what’s happened between he couldn’t go and now to determine that he wants to play.

“In defense of him, though, he’s got limited minutes,” Self added. “I mean, it’s — you play him tomorrow, I don’t have him the next day, it’s a situation where we just hope it doesn’t crack, and if it cracks he’s going to need surgery, but it’s sore enough that maybe we can get five or seven minutes out of him tomorrow. I hope we can.”

Moore said he’s at about 75% capacity. The fracture site — near his posterior tibial tendon — isn’t healed, and it’s still swollen. He said he has eight screws and a plate inside his foot.

“You know, 75% me is good enough for sure,” he said.

Moore arrived from KU in the offseason with a background as an intense perimeter defender during his time at Mississippi State with the athleticism and shooting acumen to be a peripheral contributor on offense.

He fractured his ankle in the offseason and did not debut for KU until Nov. 16, playing five minutes or fewer in four of his first five appearances before Self inserted him into the starting lineup in the first UCF game.

Moore made an impression that day and even more during the second half of a game against Arizona State in which he made a pair of consecutive steals to help KU seize control, and Self called him the “MVP.”

Looking back, Moore said entering that game was the healthiest he felt all season, when after playing at UCF he had thought, “I’m pretty back.” After playing at Cincinnati days later, though, he said, “I was really starting to feel it.”

That was the third of Moore’s nine starts. He had a standout offensive showing with three 3s at TCU on Jan. 22 but chipped in only minimally in the month of February.

The guard is now trying to ensure he can contribute to KU’s postseason run. He said he wants to end his career the right way.

“Being that I’m back and forth, back and forth, good for a minute and not good, it’s really tough, it’s a battle,” he said, “but we’re here and I know that I’ll be pretty good (in the) postseason because of all the therapy that I’ve gotten.”

Self said it’s been hard for the team to see Moore’s availability fluctuate, but Self himself has resolved not to bank on a return for his veteran reserve.

“If he does come back, it’s a bonus,” Self said, “but I’m not going to plan on having him back.”

Moore is also trying to balance his future aspirations of playing professional basketball for as long as he can, starting out stateside for a year or two before going overseas.

“At this point I got to kind of look out for me, and also be here for my team as well,” he said, “because I definitely want to get out there for them, but also, like I said, not go zero to 100, if that makes sense.”