Kouat Noi is expected to return to the lineup when the Frogs’ host Texas this Wednesday at home; Frogs head coach Jamie Dixon gave Noi’s status to the media on Monday.

The Frogs missed Noi in their 65-55 loss on the road to Kansas State on Saturday. Without their second leading scorer (14.1 ppg), the Frogs produced their lowest scoring total of the season. Noi scored a season-high 30 points in the Frogs’ loss to Oklahoma a week ago.

When asked how much the Frogs’ missed Noi’s offense, Dixon gave no hesitation when answering.

“A lot; next question,” Dixon said with a laugh. “He’s our leading scorer. We’ve been constantly changing and evolving and in some ways that can be good. We’ve just got to be prepared. I feel like we’ll be where we need to be.”

In the Frogs’ 98-67 win over West Virginia, Noi scored 12 points. It was after that game the staff began to notice that Noi was getting ill.

“He didn’t feel good in the previous (West Virginia) game. The next day he had a 103-temperature on Tuesday,” Dixon said. “We weren’t aware of it against West Virginia; we think it was in the early stages of it and the next morning he was at 103.”

Noi wasn’t the only one that was battling an illness last week. Dixon says a few players were also feeling under the weather but that appears it has finally passes.

“Kouat seems to be better; I anticipate him to practice so we’ll see how that goes. I think everybody else is good to go; Kendrick had been a little sick and RJ is back to 100% now,” Dixon said. “We had some guys with illness throughout the team in the last game obviously and I think we’re getting through it now. I think everybody is a little better off.”

The Frogs will need Noi on Wednesday at home against Texas. The league as a whole is separated by just a few games for first place and the Frogs are in the middle of the pack. Luckily, the Frogs are 2-0 in Big 12 play at home; next is figuring out a way to win on the road.

“Obviously everybody is good in the league with two games separating everybody pretty much. It is what it is; we’ve obviously played more road games than home games so we’ve got to win our home games and we’ve been doing that,” Dixon said. “When we get that we’ve got to figure out how to win conference games on the road. I think when we get our whole group out there and are healthy we’re a good team.”