4 more thoughts from Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, more, as Puerto Rico trip nears

LAWRENCE — Kansas men’s basketball released more details Thursday for its upcoming August trip to Puerto Rico.

The trip, which run August 1-8, is set to include three exhibition games Aug. 3, 5 and 7 at Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. The Aug. 3 game will be at 11 a.m. (CT) against a Puerto Rico Select Team, Aug. 5 game at 4 p.m. (CT) against the Bahamian National Team and Aug. 7 game at 11 a.m. (CT) against the Bahamian National Team. And all three will be available on the Jayhawk Radio Network.

“Though complete rosters have not been finalized for the KU opponents,” the KU release stated, “the Bahamian National Team consists of NBA players Eric Gordon, Klay Thompson, Kai Jones, Buddy Hield, Deandre Ayton and former Kansas guard and 2022 NCAA National Champion Remy Martin.”

Here are some takeaways from what Kansas head coach Bill Self and veteran guards Nicolas Timberlake and Kevin McCullar Jr. had to say Friday ahead of the trip:

What they’ve seen during their pre-trip practices

In accordance with NCAA guidelines, Kansas is currently in the midst of conducting the 10 practices they can that come with the trip. While the three exhibition games have yet to be played, and Self wants to see those games go well, he indicated that overall the 10 practices are more important than the games. And although he said there’s still a lot for them to work on, he likes the roster he has.

“They’ve tried hard, and we’re fairly athletic, and we’ve got some guys that can score the ball,” Self said. “But I think perimeter shooting would certainly be a question mark going into Puerto Rico and going into the school year. I think we’re pretty inconsistent in that area.”

Both Timberlake and McCullar highlighted their surprise at how far along the chemistry among all the players is, considering how new-look the roster is this season. Timberlake, who transferred in from Towson, is looking forward to experiencing what it’s like to play for Self in games. McCullar, a returning starter, is looking forward to the opportunities they’ll all have to bond off the court in Puerto Rico.

Kansas’ style of play is still being developed, but it is different from last season

Right now, Self said, they’re just trying to play fast. They haven’t talked much about defense. And a focus has been on practicing what they want to do in certain situations, like if there’s a loose ball that ends a play or an offensive rebound, as opposed to the initial plays they want to run before things like that might happen.

But McCullar did say the style of play is looking much different than it did last season. Last season, Kansas played more small ball and switched one-through-five. This season, with Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson at center, McCullar noted they’re playing more through a traditional big and the space on the floor has opened up some.

What they think about the high-profile talent they could go up against

Self cautioned that they don’t have all their preseason work in yet, and that even if they did they wouldn’t have enough on paper to beat a team with as much NBA talent as they could be going up against. However, Self also said it’ll be a great experience. He said they’ll look to compete and have fun.

“I mean, we think about Kevin being able to guard,” said Self, who then went into a story about going up against Hield when Hield played in college for Oklahoma. “Well, we’re guarding a guy that is a lot better than he used to be and he was good enough to give us 46 in this building, and he’s 10 times better than he used to be. So, that’ll be a great challenge for him.”

Timberlake is looking forward to potentially playing Hield, too. And Timberlake is also excited about possibly playing Thompson, because Timberlake has watched a lot of Thompson’s film.

Here’s the injury report

Self anticipates that all of his scholarship athletes — which is 10 guys — will be available to play. Three walk-ons won’t be able to, though. Those three walk-ons are three guards in Michael Jankovich, Justin Cross and Charlie McCarthy.

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, more preview Puerto Rico trip