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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Gary Bedore’s KU basketball notebook

By Gary Bedore

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Williams has vertigo: Former Kansas University coach Roy Williams, now fifth-year head coach at North Carolina, struggled to make it through his annual summertime media conference Wednesday in Chapel Hill. Williams, 56, spoke slowly and softly, barely able to move upon entering the room.

He revealed he had been suffering from vertigo, a sensation of dizziness and/or tilting. It's his first bout with the illness since July 29, 2005.

"I have felt like the dickens the last three days," Williams told the media. "I've lived a charmed life until Monday morning. I've got a little vertigo, and it hasn't been very pleasant the last couple of days. I'm trying to get some extra home-cooked meals out of it."

Vertigo, according to neurologychannel.com, "usually occurs as a result of a disorder in the vestibular system (i.e., structures of the inner ear, the vestibular nerve, brainstem, and cerebellum). The vestibular system is responsible for integrating sensory stimuli and movement and for keeping objects in visual focus as the body moves."

Williams blasted the recruiting process Wednesday.

"Recruiting, it stinks," said Williams, who received a commitment Wednesday from Ed Davis, a 6-foot-8 senior from Benedictine School in Mechanicsville, Va., the No. 11-rated player in the country. "It's demeaning. ... I love recruiting when I get there and get a chance to sit down and talk to a kid. I love recruiting when I get to a gym. I just hate the airplanes and rental cars. ...

"It's a wacko experience. We have guys in the 9th and 10th grade who are trying to make commitments. For us, our admissions office doesn't want us to take them, and it's rightfully so. They say, 'How can you say a kid can come to North Carolina when he hasn't taken sophomore English?'''

Williams blamed the "Internet people" for making recruiting even more difficult.

"I think one of the reasons kids are making decisions so early are because of the Internet people. We watched a game last week. As soon as the game was over, five different (Internet) people charged this kid to ask him about what went on during the game. The pressure doesn't come from coaches anymore. The pressure comes from the guy who doesn't know if it's the sun or moon that comes up in the middle of the day."

¢Simien recovering: Former KU forward Wayne Simien of the Miami Heat, who played in just eight games last season because of a bout with salmonella, recently had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

"I'm just like anybody else who goes through basic trials and tribulations of life," Simien told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "Luckily, all of mine have been minor. There are people out there with cancer and all types of various ailments that can kill them. I had my knee scoped a few weeks ago. Somebody comes back from Iraq and has to have their leg amputated, so I just keep all those kind of things in perspective."

The Sun-Sentinel revealed Simien was nicknamed "Brother Wayne" by his teammates because of his strong Christian beliefs.

"I can't even describe the pain to you," he said, crediting God for getting him through the salmonella ordeal. "It's even more painful when the doctors don't have anything to treat it right away with."

Miami officials have to decide by the end of October whether to pick up his 2008-09 option of $1.8 million.

¢Hinrich headed to camp: Former KU guard Kirk Hinrich of the Chicago Bulls will be one of 17 players to participate in a Team USA minicamp Friday through Sunday in Las Vegas in preparation for the Olympic qualifying tournament that begins Aug. 22.

It will be tough for Hinrich to make the U.S. team. Guards Chauncey Billups, Jason Kidd and Deron Williams have been added to the roster since Hinrich won a bronze medal with Team USA at last year's FIBA World Championships in Japan.

¢Manning deadline today: Today is registration deadline for KU assistant coach Danny Manning's annual basketball camp at Free State High. The camp, to run July 23-27, is for boys and girls second through eighth grades. More information is available at basketballcampman.com.

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Comments

kushaw (anonymous) says...

Since this is the basketball notebook for the week I thought it has been a little strange that we have yet to really hear a response or story from Collins and Chalmers for not making the USA Team that is traveling down to Brazil next month. I found a great article on CNNSI.com this morning that talks about the selection process for this team.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007...

Going back a few weeks ago when Chalmers was interviewed about the upcoming tryouts for this team he was very confident in not only himself, but Collins making this squad. When the tryouts ended last weekend neither one made the 1st cut. It's great to have confidence, but thinking you have something in the bag before you ever get there might even be a little foolish. I'm thinking that maybe that is the problem with some of our guys on our team and that might have even happened when we played UCLA. To this day I will not give in and give UCLA any credit for beating us in the Elite 8. They were completely awful that game and had no business beating us. Granted we shot like 29% and you're not going to beat anyone shooting that percentage.

On a good note, I do think that this might be good for Chalmers and Collins. They've never been left off a team and never really probably had to tryout for a team before so the fact that they got beat out by the likes of Maynor, Neitzel, and some guy from Washington State just might motivate these two. I hope they chalk this up to a learning experience, but I hope they get a chip on their shoulder from having stemmed a very minimal amount of embarassment from not making the team.

July 19, 2007 at 8:18 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

GitS (Christian Hinton) says...

ESPN had a whole article (all four sentences) devoted to Roy's bout with vertigo. This has nothing to do with Roy leaving KU (which I do not have any animosity as I was too young at the time to care) but is this really newsworthy?

July 19, 2007 at 9:05 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

pwcjayhawk (anonymous) says...

There was an article, kushaw. You must have overlooked it: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/ju...

July 19, 2007 at 9:05 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

I think we let Roy in on the truth... we 'internet people' are responsible for the spread of 'Recruitimus Vertigus.'

It is a virus that we engineered by writing some very complex lines of code, mixed them with a rich basketball tradition and then subliminally spread them to all future b-ball prospects via message boards and chat rooms.

The only reason he contracted this disease is because it is known to have adverse effects on people who act contradictory to reason and logic. By recruiting people to the 'powder blue perversion' he is acting irrationally and contrary to KU's best interests. He will only start to feel better once he retires and no longer 'bats for the other team' while pretending to cotton to his history with Jayhawk nation.

July 19, 2007 at 9:26 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jpstrayer (anonymous) says...

"Crapnet" 2

July 19, 2007 at 12:36 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

txrockchalk (anonymous) says...

Roy's homespun back porch country vernacular is priceless. Just ask Bonnie Bernstein ;)

July 19, 2007 at 12:36 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jcjayhawk (anonymous) says...

Question: With graduations, early entrys, transfers, and punishments hitting the Big XII hard this offseason do you take KU or a rest of the conference all star team in a head to head? I'm taking KU. Kstate is probably number 2 in the conference right now but not even close to us. Conference play might not really prepare our boys for the tournament. By the way thats DJ Augustin, Bill Walker, Michael Beasley, Aleks Maric, and Richard Roby. I think all these guys are back.

July 19, 2007 at 9:08 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Kirk (anonymous) says...

Most years, I'd take KU over an all-conference all star team. We will have played and practiced together much more than them.

Yeah, I know. It's a hypothetical question all about sheer talent. But I'm bored with "talent". It's nice, it's great, it's good, it's necessary.

Yay, KU has lots of talented players. Now let's go win a regional final sometime.

July 19, 2007 at 9:35 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

Jayceph

Simply ridiculous.

July 19, 2007 at 9:35 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

Roy hates rental cars and airplanes. Let's see, he mostly flies on some alum's Gulfstream that probably has a cook aboard. Is he upset about rental cars, because they won't rent him a fricking Bentley? Lighten up, Roy. You've got a great life.

July 20, 2007 at 12:04 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

Self hates logging all the miles recruiting too and has said as much. Hey, I tell ya what. Let's have a "let's bash coaches for complaining about recruiting" party. Get some streamers and confetti in here, and bulk up on the peanuts and goodies 'cause there's gonna be a lot of people showing up. By the way, the festivities will last into the wee hours of the morning because ALL coaches hate the travelling during recruiting season. Tell your wives, husbands and/or significant others not to expect you home for a bit.

We gonna' party like it's 1999.

July 20, 2007 at 1:34 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

txrockchalk (anonymous) says...

jross1972,

I think you may have consumed all of the alcohol before the party even gets started. It's ridiculous for coaches of upper echelon programs to complain about recruiting given the kind of bank they are making. Just because many of them do, doesn't make it right. As jaybate has pointed out, they are living a blessed life and should be likewise thankful.

July 20, 2007 at 9:19 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

txrockchalk...

I think you may be suffering from the same kind of vertigo that Roy is apparently. My point, obviously, is that if youre gonna call out/berate/denigrate one coach for complaining about the recruiting process then you may as well line them all up because they all do it. You say it doesn't make it right (to complain) just because they all do it, but that is simply not my point. Im saying that you cant just call out ONE.

July 20, 2007 at 9:46 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

txrockchalk (anonymous) says...

jross1972,

I surmised you were condoning their whining by throwing them a party. Now, back to my canalith repositioning procedure ;)

July 20, 2007 at 1:49 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

No I'm not condoning their whining. Truth is I don't care much one way or the other. Doesn't interest me. I'm just pointing up that the criticism needs to be fair and objective.

July 20, 2007 at 2:57 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

wtarush (anonymous) says...

I opened the "Kansas Basketball Notebook" and the first, not to mention the largest, portion of the article concerns the health of the head basketball coach at one of our greatest recruiting opponents! He's been gone for five years!!! I don't want to see a brag session of how UNC just picked up the #11 rated prep player within the pages of the Jayhawk memoirs.

July 22, 2007 at 9:30 a.m. ( | suggest removal )