Kansas basketball tops Bahamian National Team for second exhibition win in Puerto Rico

Kansas basketball’s second exhibition game of its Puerto Rico trip saw the Jayhawks win 92-87 on Saturday against the Bahamian National Team.

The victory comes after an 106-71 win in the first exhibition game Thursday against a Puerto Rico Select Team. It comes ahead of the third and final exhibition game Monday, which will also see Kansas play against the Bahamian National Team. And with back-to-back victories to start the trip, the Jayhawks have secured themselves a winning record for it.

Here are some takeaways from the win against the Bahamian National Team:

Kevin McCullar Jr. tests himself against Buddy Hield

Buddy Hield, who’s playing professionally in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, participated in the first half of the exhibition game as a member of the Bahamian National Team. He finished the game with 18 points, five assists and three steals. And during the second half, he was a guest on the broadcast of the game that live-streamed on KUAthletics.com.

Hield appeared to like that Kansas guard Kevin McCullar Jr. talked trash while the two were matched up. He said McCullar played well — something Jayhawks head coach Bill Self echoed postgame. And for Kansas to be good this season, Hield noted McCullar and the Jayhawks’ guards have to continue to be aggressive.

“We was out there competing in between the lines,” McCullar said of his trash talk with Hield. “And then, once we get off, it’s all love. So, it was fun out there.”

Hunter Dickinson shakes off a lackluster first game, shines in game two

Kansas center Hunter Dickinson didn’t have the best first game during this Puerto Rico trip, and acknowledged as much after playing better in the second. He said the change came in part because he was stepping up Saturday in the face of better competition, and Thursday was just one of those games you have to get through as a player. Against the Bahamian National Team, he finished with 28 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.

“(Dickinson)’s a guy that — you can throw it down there and it’s going to be a bucket,” McCullar said. “If they want to come double, then we’ve just got to be able to knock those shots down. But, yeah, he’s just going to get comfortable the more and more that we play together. This was only our second time playing against a different opponent. So we’re just finding different ways to feed him and to get him involved.”

Self would like for Dickinson and forward KJ Adams Jr. to rebound the ball more, though. The duo, who passed the ball well Saturday, finished with nine combined rebounds against the Bahamian National Team. Self would like to see them bringing in at least 18 combined every game.

The next exhibition against the Bahamian National Team should prove tougher to win

Self was glad Kansas won Saturday, because he anticipates the exhibition game Monday being a much tougher game. More of the Bahamian National Team’s high-profile talent is expected to play Monday, including another NBA guy in the Phoenix Suns’ Deandre Ayton. Self said Ayton told him that Ayton would be playing Monday, giving Dickinson the opportunity to test himself against a high-profile big-man.

“I definitely was a little disappointed,” Dickinson, a Michigan transfer, said about Ayton not playing Saturday. “I love playing against other great bigs. That’s why I went to the Big Ten (Conference), because they have a lot of good bigs in there. But I definitely would be excited to play against him if he were to play in the next game, that’s for sure.”

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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 tops Bahamian National Team for exhibition victory