According to the 2001-2002 Kansas University men’s basketball media guide, Jeff Boschee is a senior.
You’d have a hard time convincing the 6-foot-1, 185-pound guard from Valley City, N.D., though.
“I was sitting at home the other day watching my freshman highlight tape,” Boschee said. “It seems like yesterday we lost to Kentucky (92-88 in overtime in the second round of the NCAA Tournament). It goes by so fast. That’s what coach Williams told me when he recruited me, ‘Before you know it, you’re going to be a senior.’
“That was true and now it’s finally here.”
Being a senior for the Jayhawks comes with a lot of responsibility especially for Boschee and forward Jeff Carey, who both likely will log the most minutes among KU’s six seniors.
“We’ve got to step it up,” Boschee said. “The seniors on the University of Kansas ball club have always been the main part of the team. I think it’s up to Jeff Carey and I because we have been around for four or five years.”
Actually, it’s because of Boschee’s longevity he’s started 95 of the 100 games he’s played for the Jayhawks that he has the school’s all-time three-point shooting record in his sights.
Boschee is 228-of-606 shooting from three-point range in his KU career, just short of former-guard Billy Thomas’ school-best career marks of 269 treys and 691 attempts.
The KU senior hardly is consumed by chasing history, though.
“I approach it as: if it happens, it happens,” Boschee said of the feat. “I’m not going to go in every game thinking, ‘If I get this many I can break the record.’ I’m just going to go with the flow.”
During the Jayhawks’ 26-7 campaign a year ago, Boschee was fifth on the team in scoring with an average of 11.1 points a game, a career high for him. He led KU in minutes per game (33.3), three-pointers attempted (189) and made (68), was second on the team in assists (115) and finished third in steals (35).
Among the highlights for Boschee on this year’s schedule are games against his home state’s North Dakota on Dec. 22, the Maui Invitational from Nov. 19-21 and challenging non-conference contests at Arizona on Dec. 1, at Princeton Dec. 12 and at UCLA on Jan. 12.
The KU guard thinks the Jayhawks’ experience and depth will help them survive the non-conference slate.
“We have a lot of experience,” Boschee explained. “We do have some freshmen who are going to play right away, but they’re going to need to get that experience quickly. Right now the schedule that we do have is going to be extremely tough to win on the road at places like Arizona and UCLA.”
Boschee spent the summer recovering from offseason surgery. The procedure was done in mid-April to reconstruct a ligament in his right thumb.
Aside from the rehab, Boschee had a pretty good summer.
“It was good, fairly relaxing,” he said. “I was released out of my cast at the end of July, stuck around here for most of July and worked on my game and then I went home for two weeks.”
Of the trip to North Dakota, Boschee added, “It was good to get away from here for a while.”
Last season, KU’s year came to a painful finish in a punishing 80-64 defeat against Illinois in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Since being manhandled by the bigger, tougher Illini, the Jayhawks have spent more time in the weight room during the offseason.
“We don’t have the most physical, tough guy image in the country,” Boschee said, “and Illinois has some real physical players. I think that showed in that game. But I think we did work hard in the weight room this last year.”
Boschee also spent time this summer following the success and failures of his “favorite non-basketball pro team” the Minnesota Twins.
“I was excited for them in the beginning,” Boschee said. “I don’t think people were expecting them to do much. They were a young team.”
He also passed the time during the dog days of summer by watching his favorite movie and its sequel.
“I thought it was better than the first one,” Boschee said of American Pie 2. “It’s kind of fun watching movies like that, it kind of brings you back to high school.”
