FORT WORTH, Texas – Adam Morrison takes all kinds of shots.

Three-pointers, mid-range pull-up jumpers, dunks, free throws, fallaways.

Trash talk from fans aimed at his barely-there moustache, his floppy ’70s style haircut, his junior-high gym class socks.

And insulin shots.

Morrison, Gonzaga’s 6-8 junior forward, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes while in eighth grade. When he’s not playing or practicing, he wears an insulin pump.

During games, Morrison checks his blood-sugar level and, if needed, gives himself an insulin shot, jabbing himself in the stomach.

There’s your pressure shot.

“I’ve had games where I’ve taken five shots and games where I’ve taken none,” Morrison said. “It depends on how my body reacts to what I’ve eaten, how the game is going, my adrenaline flow.

“You’ve got to be disciplined when you’re a diabetic.”

Morrison has led Gonzaga to a 21-3 record and No. 5 ranking. He’s also engaged in a scoring battle and player-of-the-year race with Duke’s J.J. Redick.

“What I don’t really like is that people seem to want to pit those two against each other,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “That’s kind of shallow and unfair. They’re two great players trying to help their teams be great.”

Entering Tuesday night’s game, second-ranked Duke is 23-1 with Redick averaging 28.7 points per game. Morrison, who has been leading Division I in scoring most of the season, is a tick ahead at 28.8 after scoring 33 points in a 97-83 victory at Portland on Monday night.

On Jan. 21, Redick scored 41 against Georgetown in Duke’s only loss. Two days later, Morrison had 41 against San Francisco. Just happenstance, says Morrison. He’s not caught up in a cross-country scoring battle.

“We’re friends, but I’m just trying to win games here,” Morrison said. “I want J.J. to do well, but if he scores 31, I don’t try to go out and score 36.”

Redick and Morrison met a few years ago when they attended Michael Jordan’s basketball camp. After every game, they text message each other and talk by telephone every few weeks.

Only the NCAA Tournament would produce a Duke-Gonzaga, Morrison-Redick showdown. Considering how high each team could be seeded, that potential game probably wouldn’t happen until the Final Four.

Which would be just fine for Morrison and his teammates. After becoming everybody’s Cinderella with trips to the Elite Eight in 1999 and the Sweet 16 in 2000 and 2001, Gonzaga has failed to get past the second round each of the past three seasons.

Thanks to Morrison’s off-season work, the Zags have an equalizer. Morrison’s first two years were productive thanks to his ability to score on mid-range jumpers. He spent the summer working on his 3-point shot and moving without the ball.

Morrison is shooting 44.5 percent (53-of-119) from behind the line after making 31.1 percent of his 3-pointers last season.

“This team’s got an X factor, a wild card,” Few said. “When you’ve got a player like Adam, you can play with and beat any team in the country as long as you’ve got good players around him. And we do.

“His mental toughness is top of the line, 10 out of 10. He’s a great competitor, ultra competitive. That will bode well down the stretch for us. I don’t think the moment ever gets too big for him.”

Morrison was outstanding in the Maui Classic, averaging 28.7 points and seven rebounds in three games. The Zags lost to Connecticut, 65-63, in the championship game, but they proved they could play with the nation’s best.

Morrison had 34 points in an 83-72 loss at Memphis.

“We will never play a player like that again,” the Tigers’ Shawne Williams said. “He is the best player in the nation, for real.”

Morrison brushes off compliments the way he ignores the taunts leveled at him during road games.

“He gets a lot of grief, he’s the target every place we go,” Few said. “It starts out pretty loud, and at the end there’s a lot of respect for him. You need to let the sleeping dog lie. He likes it and responds to it really well.”

Most of the grief is directed at Morrison’s over-the-ears hairstyle and his moustache. Despite what constitutes a bad “look” nowadays, Morrison has no intention of getting trimmed to give opposing fans less ammunition.

“I hear a little bit of it,” he said. “The best thing is to not show any reaction. It doesn’t really bother me. Yeah, it inspires me a little bit, but the best thing is to just zone it out and play.”