KANSAS CITY — With 9:42 left in the second half, KJ Adams Jr. was down on the court with teammates and staff attending to him.

For a Kansas basketball team that had just seven scholarship players available for Wednesday’s Big 12 Conference tournament game against Cincinnati, it was a potentially pivotal moment. Lose Adams, for any length of time, and even the return of senior center Hunter Dickinson and graduate senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr. next week wouldn’t be met so positively. Adams’ role is vital to the Jayhawks, and against the Bearcats he was KU’s best player.

“Well, who’s next?” freshman guard Jamari McDowell thought to himself inside the T-Mobile Center. Once again, next-man-up mentality was brought up. “I was looking at the bench,” McDowell continued, “like, ‘Who was subbing?’”

But Adams, who described what happened to him as hitting his hip, eventually walked off the court under his own power and soon returned to the game. He explained he felt a “sharp pain, but it’s all good now.” And while that didn’t lead to a Big 12 tournament second round win against Cincinnati, because Kansas lost 72-52 as the game slipped away late, it does bode well for the Jayhawks (22-10) moving forward as the NCAA tournament nears.

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“I’m always looking at the best thing,” said Adams, a junior forward, “so I really didn’t think about it.”

Adams still finished as Kansas’ leading scorer, with his 22 points tying a career-high. He shot 9-for-14 from the field and 4-for-6 from the free-throw line, while the other four starters combined to score 20 points, shoot 8-for-39 from the field and 3-for-4 from the free-throw line. He also added four rebounds, two assists and a block — with a few turnovers — as he stepped in as the undersized 5-man with Dickinson out for the first time all season.

The Jayhawks early exit will continue to sting throughout the following days, considering they didn’t even reach the quarterfinals of a tournament in Kansas City being played so close to Lawrence. Coach Bill Self spoke to that disappointment postgame, regardless of how short-handed they were as a No. 6 seed against a No. 11 seed that had some momentum and more to play for. But the defeat can’t be placed on Adams, who hasn’t missed a game all season, and he’s actually one of the few bright spots fans can focus on ahead of the NCAA tournament.

Those bright spots can grow a bit larger if Dickinson and McCullar are both back, considering the two are All-America caliber guards when healthy and All-Big 12 honorees already. Adams said he hopes both are back, and Self reiterated he expects them to be — adding as well if Wednesday was a NCAA tournament game instead, McCullar might have played. But hitting more shots as a team and gaining confidence with the guys who played Wednesday can raise Kansas’ ceiling regardless, and from there Dickinson and McCullar would only add on.

“I think we have the highest ceiling in college right now,” said McDowell, who had seven points and six rebounds off of the bench. “Because, I mean, with those guys out we have time for other guys to build confidence. And we know what we can do when they’re on the floor with us, so if we get this right then — when we get this right then it’s going to be scary.”

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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: KJ Adams Jr. says he's ‘all good’ after potential injury in KU loss