Thursday, October 5, 2006

KU men get camp reprieve

Morning workouts to end day early

By Gary Bedore

Advertisement

Bill Self delivered some welcome news to his Kansas University men's basketball players Wednesday morning.

As a reward for their hard work during 6 a.m. conditioning drills the past week-and-a-half, Boot Camp ends today - a day ahead of schedule.

"I told them we'd speed up the process if they did everything they needed to do. They have done that. The guys did very, very well," said Self, noticing a look of joy on the Jayhawks' faces when informed they could sleep past 5 a.m. Friday.

"They kicked into another gear when I told them that."

Asked to identify the star of Boot Camp, Self said: "I don't know. I would say Russell (Robinson), Mario (Chalmers), Brandon (Rush), Sasha (Kaun), C.J. (Giles) and Jeremy (Case) were all terrific. Rodrick (Stewart) had a good Boot Camp. Those I mentioned are our best-conditioned athletes and toughest mentally.

"I'm really pleased with what a year's difference makes on Julian (Wright), Mario and Brandon," he added of the sophomores, who naturally struggled at times in their Boot Camp debuts a year ago.

As far as this year's newcomers :

"Much to my surprise, the young guys came through in a lot better shape than I thought they would," Self said. "The guys who did great that were unexpected were (freshmen) Brady (Morningstar), Darrell (Arthur) and Sherron (Collins). They did some things I'm sure they didn't think they could do a couple of weeks ago."

Self said the mission was accomplished at Boot Camp 2006.

"I'm dead serious : we are in above-average shape," Self said. "We don't want to be in game shape in early October. We are certainly in condition and ready to practice (on Oct. 13)."

¢ Recruiting: James Anderson, a 6-foot-5 senior small forward from Junction City (Ark.) High, will make an official recruiting trip to KU this weekend. Anderson, who visited Arkansas on Sept. 2, has scheduled trips to Florida (Oct. 13) and Oklahoma State (Oct. 20) . : Kansas has shown interest in Jai Lucas, a 5-10 senior guard from Houston's Bellaire High. Lucas, brother of former Oklahoma State guard John Lucas, has scheduled visits to Kentucky, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Maryland and might visit either Kansas or Indiana.

¢ Randolph to LSU?: Anthony Randolph, who canceled his visit to Late Night in the Phog upon narrowing his list to LSU and Texas, could be close to committing to LSU. A report circulated Wednesday the Dallas forward committed to LSU, but that report later was shot down.

¢ Competition rugged for Bulls' final spot: Former KU center Eric Chenowith's chances of making the Chicago Bulls roster do not appear promising. He's up against 7-footer Luke Schenscher, who played 23 games with the Bulls a year ago.

"He (Schenscher) is about two years away from being a legitimate NBA backup," Bulls coach Scott Skiles told the Chicago Sun Times.

Comments

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

If Schenscher is about two years away from being a legitimate backup (and he played 23 games last season), then where does that place Chenowith? More than 2 years?

October 5, 2006 at 8:54 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JJHawq (anonymous) says...

same place he was after his freshman year at KU....

October 5, 2006 at 9:01 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

GIHAWK (anonymous) says...

CBA for Chenowith

October 5, 2006 at 9:44 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

baceman (anonymous) says...

I'm a big basketball fan but most importantly a big Jayhawk fan.

How can we turn the corner with our up and coming football team when everyday during football season the basketball articles and coverage outweigh our football program. Come on guys. Give some respect. There is plenty of calendar days devoted to basketball and I cannot wait but now is the time for football. Our team needs our full undistracted support.

October 5, 2006 at 10:36 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

cellogrl (anonymous) says...

Baceman, I just want you to know that there are PLENTY of football articles. They're just all in the print edition. If you look at the paper the day after a game, that's about all you can find in the sports section. Check it out sometime.

October 5, 2006 at 10:53 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

Good God.... I'm tired of people whining about a lack of football articles. There's been plenty of them. There was about a bajillion of them the first few days after the NU game. AND don't be ridiculous. The football program's ability to "turn the corner" is in NO WAY affected by the articles written on the kusports website. It is for the fans.... and MANY more fans post comments on the basketball articles than do the football articles. What's that tell the writers at kusports.com??? More football articles will be written WHEN and IF the program reaches the same elite status as the basketball program. They write articles for the readers, not for the program. Click on "Men's Football" if you only want to read football articles, and maybe go ask Mangino if you can be a voluntary waterboy so you can give the team your undistracted support.

October 5, 2006 at 11:12 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

And also... what the hell are you talking about? There have been a whole 3 basketball articles in the last 7 days. Go count how many football articles have there been in that time frame. I'm having a difficult time understanding what you are bitching about.

October 5, 2006 at 11:18 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

lalawguy (anonymous) says...

Isn't the KU football team always in the process of "turning a corner"? Man, that is one rather large corner!

October 5, 2006 at 11:51 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Andini (anonymous) says...

I wish there were more baseball articles. The playoffs are going on and we still only get miniscule articles about baseball. We could use more stories about Ritch Price's KU team too. Talk about turning a corner.

October 5, 2006 at 12:58 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

Could we get more articles about corner-turning? Wood burning? Trouble churning? Carol Channing? Danny Manning? Oh wait... then we're right back to basketball. Oh well, if you write it, they will read. Suits me!

Perhaps we could have some stories related to games of tag out on the hill during summer music camp. I really miss those articles... (Never mind, we should just have more articles about basketball!!)

Why would you want anything other than b-ball anyway?!?

October 5, 2006 at 1:25 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

bmkjayhawk (anonymous) says...

I know I've said this before, but I live in Manhattan, and the lack of basketball articles on kusports lately has disappointed me every morning that I check. I know the season hasn't started, but to me a basketball article is the only good read (and NOT in the Manhattan Mercury).

October 5, 2006 at 2:37 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

Manhattan huh? Must be fun out there will all the 'Huggy Bear' stories and the #1 rated highschool prospect making visits, etc.

Good stuff to talk about, no?

October 5, 2006 at 3:47 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

baceman (anonymous) says...

Coach Mangino, how do I volunteer to be a waterboy? Lebowski suggests I'm not getting enough of the team.

October 5, 2006 at 4:07 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Bone777 (anonymous) says...

Baceman - the only qualification to be waterboy is that you have to be able to read Mangino's belt buckle, without using your hands.

October 5, 2006 at 4:51 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

martyks (anonymous) says...

Will Rogers once stated that, as a young child, he was amazed that there was just enough news in the world every day to exactly fill a newspaper. Baceman has the same mentality. Maybe he will grow up to be another Will Rogers. It isn't football vs. basketball. And if it was, a paper's job isn't to help develop a football program. I believe the only thing an increase in the number of football stories and thereby, a decrease in articles about the basketball team would do would be to reduce the paper's number of readers. I want to know about the basketball team and don't look now, but Late Night is upon us! All I want to know about the football team is, when will it be competitive on a consistent basis and can it do that without cheating?

October 5, 2006 at 7:01 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jayhawksnumber1 (anonymous) says...

Baceman, you need to expand your sports mind, come on buddy you can do it!!

October 7, 2006 at 3:11 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

kylecisnum1 (anonymous) says...

honostly being at college and having to live around 60% of texans and 30% of people from ohio, im ready for basketball. im tired of the underachieving jayhawks not bein able to win a close game against a sub-par opponent. because once basketball starts and we come out as one of the best teams in the nation, me and the 10 other kansans here can finally have some bragging rights! 5 days till late night!!!

October 8, 2006 at 11:31 a.m. ( | suggest removal )