LAWRENCE — The enthusiasm KJ Adams Jr. plays with for Kansas basketball is evident game after game.

Adams showcases it when he makes a big play. He showcases it when a teammate makes a big play. The junior forward’s energy is infectious and something that’s plain to see regardless of who the opponent is.

But Saturday there was a little more than usual firing Adams up, because the Jayhawks faced the Texas Longhorns inside Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas and Texas matched up for what could be the last time in his college career, because the Longhorns will leave the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference after this season and there’s no guarantee of another game between the two programs — this year or the next. And that motivation proved evident in the way he helped guide the No. 10 Jayhawks to an 86-67 win against a team he grew up not too far away from.

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“It’s always going to be a fun time of beating your hometown team, so definitely when I have friends over there on that team and I know a lot of people it’s definitely going to be fun when we beat them,” said Adams, who’s from Austin, Texas. “But down the stretch, hopefully we get to play them again. But if we don’t, it’s going to be OK because we got a win.”

Impressive stat-lines aren’t a new occurrence for Adams. That he finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and a couple of assists isn’t the story. It’s how he compiled it all and the way it seemed as if he could have played another 32:22 of game action.

Adams remained unrelenting and active throughout. On a night he proved to be efficient shooting the ball from the field, finishing 8-for-12, the only glaring negatives from his performance were he missed his lone free-throw attempt and he was responsible for four turnovers. He would have been in contention for the dunk of the evening if graduate senior guard Nicolas Timberlake, one of his teammates, didn’t throw one down that eclipsed all the rest.

It should have mattered more that Kansas (21-6, 9-5 in Big 12) was without graduate senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr. again, due to injury, but it didn’t. Timberlake and freshman guards Elmarko Jackson and Jamari McDowell played a significant part in that, but Adams’ presence certainly helped as well. That presence stood out to Jayhawks coach Bill Self, too.

“He was going to be jacked because he’s from Austin,” said Self, who then brought up Texas graduate forward Brock Cunningham. “Brock was his high school teammate, and I think Brock’s a couple years older than him if I’m not mistaken so KJ probably always looked up to Brock. And so, yeah, he was going to be turned up. We talked about that last night. So — and they beat us two times in a row last year to end the season, so our guys were ready.”

Texas coach Rodney Terry said postgame that Adams is one of the most improved players around, if not the most improved. And while Self noted after hearing that that Adams likely isn’t going to be the pick for the Big 12’s most improved player award for a second-straight season, it’s not because Self doesn’t consider Adams to be that. Self described Adams as being worthy of winning it again.

But Terry’s praise of Adams went even further than that. Terry didn’t just compliment the challenge Adams presents on both ends of the floor, but volunteered Adams is the type of player everyone in college basketball would love to have — including the Longhorns (17-10, 6-8 in Big 12). And to hear that certainly meant something to Adams.

“You always want to have praise like that,” Adams said. “I always try to pride myself on being the toughest guy on the court, so it’s awesome to hear that reflecting from another coach. So, it’s good.”

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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: Inside KJ Adams Jr.’s motivation for Kansas basketball against Texas