Freshman Johnny Furphy made his first appearance in the crimson and blue after being a late arrival for the Puerto Rico trip and dealing with shin splints before the exhibition against Illinois.

The Melbourne, Australia native was limited to just 14 minutes as he is coming off of an extended absence as he has dealt with shin splints. In all, Furphy scored just two points in Kansas’ 73-55 win over Fort Hays State, but head coach Bill Self was not too worried about the performance, especially coming off of an injury where he has been kept out of practice for an extended period of time.

“I thought he actually looked pretty good considering he hadn’t been out there at all.”

Furphy scored just two points in Kansas’ 73-55 win over Fort Hays State, and was not on the floor enough to catch too much of Self’s attention.

“I don’t know that anything stood out,” Self said. “I thought he tried hard and moved well. I thought he was too excited. He got a rebound one time and instead of bringing it up on the break he about broke Dajuan’s [Harris] nose with a three-foot outlet pass.

As Furphy makes his way back into the rotation for the Jayhawks, he has the potential to be the fifth starter for the Jayhawks. In the two exhibitions, Self elected to go with Elmarko Jackson for the Illinois game and Nicolas Timberlake against Fort Hays State.

He made it clear that whoever does take over that role will need to show him something defensively.

“I don’t think we score enough out of that position not to be good defensively right now,” Self said. “That doesn’t help make the decision any easier right now… I would say Johnny looked OK today considering he practiced one time in three weeks. He’ll get better and everything. He’s very smart, IQ standpoint, so even though he’s missed he’s still pick stuff up quickly in a short amount of time.”

The options that Self has for the last spot scored just five points between the three of them. Even though Jackson led the group in minutes with just 16, one of them is going to have to show more to move themselves ahead of the race.

“We’re going to need somebody to come through and be consistent and right now I think it’s totally up in the air."