Jamal Sampson had some Kansas University men’s basketball fans shaking their collective heads on Tuesday.
Sampson, a 6-foot-10 high school senior center from Santa Ana, Calif., told the Journal-World he’d sliced his list of prospective schools to two Cal-Berkeley and Saint Louis U.
His reason for eliminating KU?
It was too far from home.
Too far from home?
What about Saint Louis? Saint Louis is just a 41/2 hour drive from Lawrence.
“What I was trying to say,” Sampson said Tuesday, “was if I wanted to go that far away to school, I’d want to go with a friend. If Josh (Childress) had gone to Kansas, I’d probably have gone with him.
“A good friend of mine Jamaal Williams is going to Saint Louis. He’s from Corona (Calif.). I’ve known him since the fifth grade. I kept Saint Louis on my list because of Jamaal. I like Kansas a lot, it’s just a long way from home to go without a friend.”
Childress, a 6-5 shooting guard from Lakewood, Calif., who visited Late Night With Roy Williams with Sampson, on Monday chose Stanford over KU. Sampson said he immediately eliminated KU after a phone call from Childress.
Sampson today is expected to announce for Cal-Berkeley.
By the way, Sampson is convinced Aaron Miles, a 6-foot point guard from Portland, will pick KU over Arizona. Miles’ good friend, 6-foot-2 prep teammate Michael Lee, committed to KU the day after Late Night.
“I mean Aaron told me one of his dreams has been to play college basketball with Mike,” Sampson said. “They are so close. I’m absolutely positive he’s going to Kansas with Mike.”
Miles will visit Arizona this weekend and pick either KU or Arizona the first week of November.
Is KU coach Roy Williams a college basketball coach first and foremost?
Or a recruiter?
The answer is he’s a little bit of both.
“It is sort of amusing when people say, ‘So and so is not a great coach. He’s a great recruiter.’ I think as a college basketball coach you have to be able to coach the game and be able to recruit. You can’t do one without the other. I’ve always tried to be well-rounded,” Williams said.
Williams, who readily admits recruiting is a never-ending part of the coaching business, has filled two of five openings for his upcoming recruiting class. Wayne Simien, 6-8 of Leavenworth, has committed, along with Lee.
Keith Langford, an athletic 6-4 wing from Fort Worth, Texas, is considering KU, Baylor, Oklahoma and Cincinnati. He’ll attend the KU-Emporia State exhibition game on Nov. 4.
Jeff Hawkins, a 5-11 point guard from KC Sumner, and 6-4 Shawnee Miege shooting guard Jamar Howard also are still on KU’s list and will likely accept Jayhawk scholarship agreements if offered.
The early week-long signing period begins on Nov. 7.
“Recruiting at Kansas is the same as it’s always been. Work, work, work and get lucky,” Williams said last week.
An all-time dose of bad luck hit in recruiting last year.
The No. 1 recruit in the country Fresno, Calif., shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson signed with Kansas in November.
Stevenson would be in KU’s preseason camp today had he recorded a qualifying score on his SAT test. Instead he failed the test several times, then finally passed it, only to have it invalidated.
He’s now not only a first-round draft pick of the Utah Jazz, but is holding his own at NBA preseason camp.
“We recruited a youngster we thought would be fantastic in DeShawn Stevenson. There’s no question he wanted to come to college,” Williams said of Stevenson. “He went straight to the NBA and was a No. 1 pick. Not having that 6-4, 6-5, 6-6 defensive player in the lineup is something we’re going to have to see if we can camouflage.”
Roy Williams’ interview on National Public Radio hit the airwaves on Tuesday.
The topic was leadership. “What does it take to be a leader today?” Williams was asked.
“I’d first say you have to have the knowledge, the experience, the expertise in your field. With that you have to have the confidence of your players, loyalty to them and what they are trying to do,” the coach said.
“On our level, players have to have respect, confidence in the coach, that the coach is going to help them reach their goals as a team and hopefully help them reach the goals they’ve set as an individual. If they have dreams of becoming a professional basketball player, they must have the confidence what you are doing will help them reach their individual goals as well as team goals.”
KU’s players have said their coach is the hardest worker in the business.
“I think I’ve always felt my players have to respect how hard I’m going to work,” Williams said. “If they work half as hard as I’m going to, then they will be very successful. I’ve had players before in their careers talk about my passion for the game. If I had to describe me, I do have a great deal of confidence in how hard I work. I know no one else is going to outwork me or be more prepared. It is my life.”
