Kansas Jayhawks big man Hunter Dickinson gives update on bruised knee

Kansas senior forward Hunter Dickinson continues to be bothered by the bruised knee he suffered in last Saturday’s Big 12 opening victory over TCU at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I mean it does hurt a lot. I’m not going to lie, but I feel I am pretty resilient. I am definitely going to play through it,” the 7-footer from Alexandria, Virginia, said after practice on Friday.

“It’s been pretty sore the last couple days, but it’s something you’ve got to play through. Everybody’s dealing with some type of injury nowadays so you’ve just got to play through it. Nobody cares if you are injured out there. If you are out there you’ve got to give 110% for your teammates,” Dickinson added.

He noted he didn’t miss any portion of practice on Friday and is ticketed to start Saturday’s game against Oklahoma (1 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse).

Dickinson played 28 minutes, four below his average, during Wednesday’s 65-60 loss at Central Florida. It was both his knee and foul problems that caused the reduction in playing time in the upset loss to the Knights.

“I’ve got a couple things that have been bothering me, but I don’t think there’s a player in the country that is perfectly 100% playing right now. I think Ibuprofen is my friend right now, and Biofreeze has always been my friend since I’ve been in college,” Dickinson said, smiling

Dickinson — he said “both knees are sore” when asked by a reporter which knee was bruised — said he was more upset about his foul problems at UCF than being slowed (12 points, four rebounds) by injury.

“I think what limited me the most was the fouls. I’ve got to be smarter out there. When I get one, make sure I don’t get that second one,” Dickinson said.

He headed to the bench after picking up his second foul with 3 1/2 minutes left in the first half and KU up 16 points in Orlando, Florida.

“I can’t put my team in that position. That was the biggest thing I regret in the game and the biggest reason the game turned, once I got in foul trouble,” Dickinson explained.

“We were up 16, and they go on a run and cut it to 8 at halftime. If I had been smarter and stayed in the game we could have prevented that. That’s something I’ve known since I’ve been in college — it feels like forever — I try not to get in foul trouble, because I know I am an asset to the team and just trying to stay out there as much as I can for my guys.”

Dickinson said he and KU’s other three veteran starters (Dajuan Harris, Kevin McCullar, KJ Adams) are becoming more vocal in the wake of the loss that dropped KU to 13-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12. Oklahoma — which is coming off Wednesday’s 80-71 loss at TCU —, is also 13-2, 1-1.

“I think we can do a better job bringing individual guys along. That’s been stressed and emphasized the last day, day and a half,” Dickinson said. KU has two freshmen in the rotation (Johnny Furphy, Elmarko Jackson) with freshman Jamari McDowell playing sparingly. The ninth member of the rotation is newcomer, but a senior, Parker Braun.

“We’re trying to do that now to where we are trying to coach guys individually,” Dickinson said. “It can be hard hearing a coach’s voice all day yelling at you. If a player comes to you with a different voice and different mindset you might react differently. That’s how guys are wired. We’re trying to do that and help the team out any way we can. Also coach (Bill Self) is trying to bring us, the core four, to coach ourselves and hold ourselves accountable as well because we are not perfect as well. We have our flaws and mistakes,” he added of the group of Dickinson, Harris, McCullar and Adams.”

On another topic brought up at Friday’s pre-OU media session: The No. 3-ranked Jayhawks (OU is No. 9) have heard some criticism from a minority of fans on social media since the loss.

“I think for me personally, seeing people get upset with my play is not new to me,” said Dickinson, who for the season is averaging a double-double (18.9 points per game, 11.9 rebounds per game.). I think there’s not many things can be said that would be new that I haven’t heard yet about my game. It might be different for the younger guys.

“I think anybody can understand how bad of a loss that was for us,” he added, noting “it was more losing when we were up 16 on the road. Up 16 on the road we’ve got to be able to come out with that win. We’ve got to be able to execute better, especially having a coach like Bill Self. We’ve got to follow the game plan more. You should never lose a game with him coaching us. I think that game can either be something that can really help us or hurt us. We are going to figure out tomorrow which one that is,” Dickinson added.

Self said “absolutely” if he noticed players sometimes being “too hard on themselves” after hearing criticism from outside after defeats.

“It’s not real. The thing is I used to care about that stuff (noise from outside) and I don’t anymore,” Self said. “Players are younger. They don’t know that they shouldn’t care. We tell them it doesn’t matter, but they still care and you sense things.

“Granted I don’t know we’ve ever had, when we won the national championship in 2008 we lost three out of five. Crap happens. Granted you don’t ever want it to happen and don’t want one (loss) to become two but, guys, this is sports. These are humans, If I’m not mistaken the Chiefs lost a couple this year. Chiefs Kingdom was probably pushing the panic button, too. I think they still won the West and are hosting tomorrow night, if I’m not mistaken. Things happen like that. It’s one of the great things about playing here that there’s so much interest. But one of the things that makes it harder is you feel more pressure because we’re held to a different standard than other programs are at most places because other programs and fan bases — unless you are Alabama football or Georgia football or some other things — other fan bases know that hiccups and bad things do happen during the course of a season. I think our fans understand that too. I just think there’s a vocal minority that sometimes don’t,” Self noted.