Jan. 19—Before missing OU’s game at Kansas on Jan. 9, Brady Manek had been a fixture in the Sooners’ starting lineup.

After missing the past two games, Manek is likely to return Tuesday when OU hosts Kansas State (5:30 p.m., Fox Sports Oklahoma). But the lessons the Sooners have learned over that stretch might continue to help even after Manek and Jalen Hill, who also missed the past two games, are fully reintegrated back into the rotation.

“I think when you’re down a couple players, it maybe heightens their awareness, from a player’s perspective, and the needs to do all these things even better,” Sooners coach Lon Kruger said Monday.”You want that always to be their thinking, but all of a sudden you’re shorthanded a couple and now they say, ‘OK, we gotta do this.’

“I think that’s sped the process along a little bit and maybe their focus was a little bit better because of being a little bit shorthanded. Who knows? Young guys think a little bit differently. But for whatever reason, we’ve had better focus.”

Ball security and perimeter defense have been two of the biggest areas of improvements over the past two games.

OU averaged 7.0 turnovers per game in a narrow loss to Kansas and a blowout win over TCU after averaging 10.7 turnovers per game to that point. The Sooners remain last in the Big 12 in opponents’ 3-point shooting percentage, but the Jayhawks and Horned Frogs shot just 25.6% from behind the arc after OU was allowing opponents to shoot nearly 40% early in the season.

But don’t expect that to mean the Sooners will stay with their small lineup, though they might at times.

Manek had started 74 consecutive games before missing the past two due to COVID-19 protocols. He might not immediately return to the starting lineup, but he and Hill figure to see plenty of time after the Sooners had just two big men — Kur Kuath and Victor Iwuakor — in the rotation with Manek and Hill sidelined.

Hill returned to practice last week while Manek was expected to be cleared to return to practice Monday.

“We’ll get his feet wet and see how he feels and then just proceed as he feels like going,” Kruger said.

The Sooners haven’t played in a week after Saturday’s Bedlam showdown was postponed due to COVID-19 issues at Oklahoma State.

That allowed OU to work Hill back in.

“Anytime you’re off a week, or eight, nine days, in the middle of the season, it’s going to affect your sharpness, everything that you normally play in every day,” Kruger said. “But Jalen’s had good instincts, good feel for it, so in all those ways, he bounced back very quickly and was anxious to get back at it.”

While the Sooners figure to be back close to full strength, Kansas State is likely to remain short-handed.

While Kaosi Ezeagu is nearing a return after missing 10 consecutive games, Nijel Pack is questionable and Montavious Murphy is likely out for the season.

Kansas State had just nine players available Saturday against Texas and five of them were limited in some way.