A healthy Kansas team should take the field on Monday

When Kansas opened the exhibition portion of its program at Arkansas on Oct. 25, the Jayhawks were without the services of Hunter Dickinson, Rylan Griffen and Shakeel Moore. Bill Self's team lost to John Calipari and the Razorbacks 85:69.

When Kansas returned home for its only exhibition game of the season on October 29, it defeated Washburn 84-53. With Dickinson and Moore still out with minor injuries, the Jayhawks were led by David Coit (19), Zeke Mayo (16), Griffen (14) and Flory Bidunga (10).

The regular season's No. 1 team, Kansas, will take on Howard with a full roster on Monday night.

“I expect to have a full roster,” Kansas head coach Bill Self told the media on Friday. “Since Tuesday's game with Hunt (Hunter Dickinson) and Shak (Shakeel Moore), we haven't limited the number of reps, although that may be the case in the future, but we haven't limited the number of reps. So, yeah, unless something unforeseen happens, we should be fine.

“Rylan came through the game well and so we're the closest we can get to health, although the timing is off on two of them, but hopefully we'll be a little better next week,” he added.

A season ago, his first season in Lawrence, Dickinson averaged 17.9 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. On offense, he shot 55 percent from the field, 35.4 percent from behind the arc and 62.4 percent from the free throw line.

As high as expectations were a season ago, those expectations could be even higher this season. For the second year in a row, Kansas enters the season as the top-ranked team in college basketball. Additionally, Dickinson will be the focal point of a team expected to compete for its third national championship under Self.

At the end of the season, Dickinson ultimately made the decision to remain in Lawrence to work on and improve various aspects of his game. On Friday morning, Self was asked if any of those improvements would be noticeable right away.

“I don't think it will be immediately obvious until he gets his rhythm back because I think conditioning and rhythm could play a small role early on,” Self said. “But I think the biggest thing you'll see is, I don't know if it's a big improvement. We're going to see a better passer just because we play a little bit different than we did last year. ”

What, if anything, did Dickinson focus on to improve during his time in Lawrence this offseason?

“I would say he's continued to work on his athleticism and his body, and I think what Hunt can do, I think, is he has an incredible sense of knowing that when the ball hits the rim, sometimes it just has the tendency “To fall into it,” he added. “He has a gentle touch. I don't think he shot nearly as well as he can last year. I think he did that at the start of the season, but I don't think he did that towards the end of the season.

“And so he's just starting to maybe take some of the same shots that he didn't take last year,” he added. “And I think a lot of it was legs too because I played so many minutes.”

When it comes to KU's starting lineup against Howard on Monday night, Self wasn't ready to tip his hat by announcing the starting lineup during his weekly press conference on Friday. However, it should come as no surprise that three players in particular were mentioned by Self.

“No, we haven’t decided yet,” Self said. “We haven't decided yet, but I would say if your health is good you could go for Hunt. Juan (Dajuan Harris, Jr.) and KJ (KJ Harris, Jr.) start, but we haven't decided yet.