Kansas basketball weathered terrible injury luck for chunks of last season and went into the NCAA Tournament without star player Kevin McCullar Jr. Needless to say, the campaign ended with a whimper. Jayhawks fans are anxiously hoping the team is more fortunate this March. Health is an issue at the moment, however.

Defensive stalwart and playmaker, iron man and 2022 national champion Dajuan Harris Jr. suffered an ankle injury during Monday's practice and was inactive for Tuesday's hard-fought 91-87 victory against University of Central Florida. Before this Big 12 matchup in Allen Fieldhouse, Harris had played in 159 consecutive games. Therefore, his absence was quite jarring for fans.

Kansas pressed on without him and squeezed past the Knights, as Hunter Dickinson and Zeke Mayo each scored 24 points. Freshman Flory Bidunga recorded 11 of the team's whopping 48 rebounds and collected five blocks, exuding a dominant low-post presence for the Jayhawks. KJ Adams Jr. and David Coit combined for 24 bench points.

It was a solid group effort, but a narrow home win versus UCF highlights Harris' value. Knights wing Keyshawn Hall was brilliant, scoring a game-high 34 points on 9-of-19 shooting. Kansas head coach Bill Self explained how difficult it was competing sans the 2023 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and also spoke on the sudden injury.

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“We thought he was playing this morning,” Self said, per KU Sports.com's Henry Greenstein. “We thought he was fine this morning and obviously he goes out to shootaround and couldn’t do anything on it… I thought this would be as hard a game as we have.”

The Jayhawks (15-5) did what they often do in conference play– find a way to win. They are in fifth place with a 6-3 Big 12 record, exhibiting some vulnerability at times this season. Fresh off a brutal collapse versus Houston, Kansas basketball needed a confidence booster.

That did not exactly happen on Tuesday night in Lawrence, but they displayed great perseverance nonetheless. Bill Self will see how Dajuan Harris Jr. progresses before making a determination on his status for Saturday's road game against Baylor.