Here’s a recap of KU basketball’s three exhibition games in Puerto Rico & what’s next

It remains to be seen if Kansas’ weeklong early-August trip to Puerto Rico will help the Jayhawks win games during the early portion of the 2023-24 regular-season.

There’s no denying that the trip — one that included a 35-point opening victory over Puerto Rico’s Select Team and a 1-1 record against the Bahamian National Team — should give the 2023-24 Jayhawks a head start in facing real competition.

Being 2,244 miles away from home in a tropical environment with a lot of free time on the travel itinerary after practices and games in a six-day span just might have provided a boost to team morale, as well.

“I definitely think it will (help team bonding),” senior guard Nick Timberlake said after the Jayhawks’ 87-81 loss to the Bahamian National Team on Monday at Ruben Rodiguez Coliseum. The Jayhawks defeated Team Bahamas 92-87 Saturday and Puerto Rico Select 106-71 Thursday in the other two games on the trip.

“I mean whether we were at the games or at the beach or in the pool, something like that … we all had a great time this week,” Timberlake added.

It was quite a difference from what the Jayhawks experienced the past two months. During the summer-school session, the Jayhawks practiced with, and against, team members day in and out.

The three exhibition games in Puerto Rico allowed the Jayhawks to guard and be guarded by somebody other than teammates.

“It felt good to play somebody besides each other,” KU junior forward KJ Adams said after scoring 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting in KU’s rout of Puerto Rico Select.

He followed that with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the five-point Game Two victory over the Bahamian National Team. With his knee bothering him he had just three points in the final game vs. Team Bahamas.

“We came out here to compete. It was great to finally get to play somebody else,” senior forward Parker Braun said. Instead of guarding the likes of Hunter Dickinson (team-leading 19.0 scoring average in Puerto Rico) every day at practice, the 6-11 Braun averaged 1.7 points and 3.3 rebounds in the games in Puerto Rico.

KU coach Bill Self, who has said the 10 practices leading up to the trip to Puerto Rico may have been more important than the games, considers the trip a resounding success.

The team hotel, the Fairmont el San Juan, is one of the nicest resorts the Jayhawks have stayed in during his 21 years at KU. The practice facility at Catholic school Academia del Perpetuo Socorro where the Jayhawks worked out on off days was spacious and air conditioned.

And the site for the three exhibition games, Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum, provided a big-time atmosphere with 12,000 seats. The only problem was occasional slippage on logos placed on the court. In fact KU sophomore Arterio Morris bumped his knee after slipping on a logo and suffered a bone bruise that prevented his playing in Game Three.

“It’s a very nice building, a lot better building than we are used to playing in when we take foreign trips,” Self said. “Basketball is by far the biggest sport here from what everybody tells me, mainly the NBA still.

“Going to Puerto Rico to me is a huge advantage for us because it’s Spanish speaking but also English speaking and you don’t have to go through customs. I think this is a great place and it was a great trip,” Self added.

Point guard Dajuan Harris summed up the trip by saying: “We had fun. Team bonding, our chemistry got better. The games, I think we got better too. Playing the pros (Buddy Hield, Eric Gordon of the Bahamas Team) I think helped us get better. The pros made us better. It’ll make us better through the season.

“I definitely had fun but I’m ready to go home.”

Here’s a recap of the three games played in Puerto Rico:

Game 1: KU basketball 106, Puerto Rico 71

The Jayhawks ran away with this one, rolling to a 14-2 lead and never looking back. KU unleashed a fast-paced offense led by speedy guards Harris, Morris, Kevin McCullar and Elmarko Jackson.

Morris, one of the main standouts, cashed three 3s in five attempts and scored 20 points with five rebounds, five assists and two steals. Adams was 7-of-10 shooting and scored 19 points with four rebounds. Jackson went 3 of 4 from 3 and finished with 13 points and two assists.

Timberlake and Zach Clemence, who is still set to redshirt, had similar games. They each canned two threes and scored eight points.

Newcomer big man Dickinson was solid with 13 points on 6-of-13 shooting.

KU brought energy on offense and defense. The Jayhawks came up with 15 steals and forced 24 turnovers while holding Puerto Rico to 35.4% shooting (7 of 29 from 3).

“I actually thought we played pretty well, obviously early,” Self said. “We got out and they couldn’t get a shot off. We haven’t really worked on a lot of things defensively, but we’ve done some things offensively and I thought we shared the ball for the most part.”

Utter domination showed on the stat sheet. KU outscored Puerto Rico 48-24 in points in the paint, 35-14 on fast-break points and 55-27 in bench points.

“I don’t know that we have played faster than this, but it’s also summertime,” Self said. “And in real games people don’t wait to get easy baskets. But I did think we looked pretty quick at times.”

Added Self: “All in all it was a good first day.”

Game 2: Kansas 92, Bahamas National Team 87

As many as four NBA players appeared on the roster of Team Bahamas. Just one, Hield, wound up playing as Deandre Ayton, Gordon and Kai Jones missed the contest.

Hield, who once scored 46 points in a triple overtime loss to KU as an Oklahoma Sooner, played just one half. He scored 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting. KU’s McCullar (13.6 ppg in the three games) started defensively on Hield, who also was guarded at times by Harris and Morris.

KU won the game despite hitting just 4 of 17 threes. The Bahamas went 7 of 32 from beyond the arc. It was a physical game. KU hit 14 of 27 free throws; the Bahamas Team hit 26 of 36.

Overall KU hit 37 of 64 shots for a sizzling 57.8%. That means the Jayhawks were 33 of 47 from two-point range. That’s a 70.2% mark.

Senior transfer Dickinson scored 28 points on 11-of-13 shooting. He was 1 of 2 from 3 and also had four assists, six rebounds and three steals in 28 minutes.

Adams had 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting. He hit his only 3-point try. Adams had six assists, three rebounds.

McCullar had 13 points, five assists and four rebounds in 21 minutes. He fouled out in the fourth quarter when KU was up by nine points. Team Bahamas, which trailed 42-36 at halftime, cut the gap to two but never could surge past the Jayhawks.

McCullar enjoyed guarding Hield.

“To be able to match up with guys like that ... that’s who I want to be guarding every night when I get to the league. So I appreciate him pushing me and we were talking trash and having fun,” McCullar said.

“He told me after the game (to) keep staying aggressive this year and just have fun. It was good advice from him and I appreciate that.”

The trash talking was good-natured between Indiana Pacers guard Hield and McCullar. In fact, Hield spoke to the 6-7 McCullar after the game. What’d he say?

“That I had the talent, I just have to be aggressive,” McCullar said.

Game 3: Bahamas National Team 87, KU 81

NBA players Hield and Gordon scored 19 and 12 points respectively on a combined 12-of-24 shooting. The Bahamas Team had KU well scouted and took away all dunk opportunities off lobs for the Jayhawks.

Harris led the way with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting. He was 3 of 7 from 3. McCullar went for 19 points followed by Dickinson (16) and Timberlake (13).

“There was nothing disheartening about this. This doesn’t mean anything and it’s probably not bad for us to get humbled a bit,” Self, whose Jayhawks are expected to be ranked No. 1 or 2 in 2023-24 preseason polls, said.

Self, who follows the NBA closely, was again impressed with Hield, a 6-4, 30-year-old former Oklahoma Sooner who hit four 3s in the 10-minute third quarter.

Hield and Gordon did not play the fourth quarter. With those two in the game, the score was Team Bahamas 69, KU 65.

“Pat ‘em on the butt. Those were good plays,” Self said “I thought we defended Buddy and Eric pretty well to be honest. Buddy made some unbelievable shots, unbelievable. He could be an all-star eventually.”

A third NBA player, Ayton, elected to work out an hour before the game but passed on playing in the contest for Team Bahamas.

KU coach Self considered Harris a bright spot.

“Juan looked to score; that was a positive,” Self said. “I thought we did some good things. We missed not having Arterio out there. Hopefully we can get Johnny (Furphy, new addition to the team who will arrive in Lawrence for the start of the school year) out there so we have more depth.

“We didn’t shoot the ball (well). I thought we took some marginal shots. We turned it over (16 times) to lead to layups. We were just way too careless with the ball. That was good competition.”

The Jayhawks will have to wait four years for their next summer excursion. The NCAA allows such trips once every four years. The KU players, who have been in Lawrence since early June for summer school, now will head to their hometowns and be back in Lawrence for the start of class on Aug. 21.

Scoring leaders on the trip: Hunter Dickinson 19.0 ppg, Kevin McCullar 13.6, Arterio Morris 13.5 (2 games), KJ Adams 13.0, Elmarko Jackson 10.6, Dajuan Harris 9.0 and Nick Timberlake 8.6.