ATLANTA — For 34 minutes, the Kansas Jayhawks played in a manner that was antithetical to how coach Bill Self wants his teams to play basketball.

No. 1 KU took ill-advised shots, let Michigan State get key rebounds and looked lackadaisical on the court. During one timeout, Self told his team it didn’t come ready to play in the second half.

Until ... KU managed to string together about 6 minutes of quality play as the Jayhawks escaped with a 77-69 win over Michigan State in the Champions Classic on Tuesday at State Farm Arena.

History was also made as Self passed legendary Jayhawk coach Phog Allen with 591 victories — the most all time for the storied Kansas program.

Hunter Dickinson finished with a game-high 28 points and 12 rebounds. Dajuan Harris added 11 points. Zeke Mayo had 10 rebounds and seven assists.

KU’s starting lineup featured Harris, Mayo, Rylan Griffen, KJ Adams and Dickinson. Mayo replaced David Coit in the starting group.

Kansas led 30-24 at halftime despite shooting 36.1% from the field. The second half was a back-and-forth affair, but KU started to pull away in the last few minutes. The closest MSU would get was five points from the five-minute mark-on.

Up next: The Jayhawks host Oakland on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Until then, here are three takeaways from Tuesday night’s game in Atlanta:

Dickinson erupts for huge game

For how bad KU was on offense in the first half, one player scored the ball as the rest of his teammates struggled — Dickinson. Michigan State’s bigs were too undersized and didn’t have the strength to guard him, as he even gestured at one point.

Naturally, Dickinson took advantage in the post.

He shot a blistering 7 for 10 (70%) from the field and canned the game’s first 3-pointer in the first half. He finished the period with 15 points, six rebounds and three steals in 17 minutes.

He finished with 28 points on 13-for-21 shooting.

Offensive disaster-class in the first half

Calling what transpired in the first half a basketball game might be a disgrace to the sport.

Both squads had a horrid start on the offensive end. The Jayhawks went nearly five minutes without scoring a basket at one point, yet still somehow finished with a better shooting performance than the Spartans.

Kansas shot 36.1%, including 20% (2 of 10) on 3-pointers, in the half. Kansas scorers not named Dickinson shot just 6 of 26 (23.1%).

On top of that, KU had six turnovers.

Michigan State somehow outdid KU in that time. The Spartans shot 26% from the field, including 1 for 11 (11%) on 3-pointers. The teams combined for 54 points in the first half, 92 in the second.

Where did KU’s bench scoring go?

After two straight games in which KU’s bench scored 40-plus points, the bench wasn’t nearly as good on Tuesday.

KU’s bench ended up with 15 points. Part of that was because Self put Mayo in the starting lineup in place of Coit.

Coit finished with three points on 1-for-4 shooting in 12 minutes. KU’s leading bench scorers were AJ Storr and Flory Bidunga, who scored six points each. The two combined for nine fouls — with Storr fouling out — despite each only playing 12 minutes.

Storr’s overall play was up and down throughout the game, but he hit some pivotal buckets in the second half. He fouled out with 5:55 left.

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