A violent thunderstorm Friday night and Kansas’ blowout football loss to UCLA on Saturday didn’t faze Kansas University basketball recruits Brad Buckman and Hassan Adams during their weekend campus visits to KU.
All indications suggest their official recruiting trips went quite well.
“I had a great time and I know Hassan did too,” Buckman, a 6-foot-8, 227-pound forward from Austin, Texas, said Sunday night. “Just hanging out with the players was fun. Getting to shoot around in all the (KU) gear they let me use for a little while, and watching the pros play was exciting.”
Ex-Jayhawks and current NBA players Scot Pollard and Jacque Vaughn participated in pick-up games over the weekend with the current KU players, while former University of Nebraska standout Tyronn Lue, who played for the world champion Los Angeles Lakers the past two seasons, also was in town.
“You see all these NBA players. They stick around (Lawrence) because they feel loved, cared for and connected,” said Buckman’s mother, Tammy, who also made the trip to Lawrence with Brad and her husband Brent, a golf pro in Austin who was a member of a national championship golf team at the University of Texas.
“That was impressive plus coach (Roy) Williams and the rest of his coaches,” she noted. “I think Roy is such a nice person. He is so sincere, sweet and boylilke, charming. He sort of makes you want to glisten. I told Brad, ‘If you choose that school I wouldn’t worry about you at all.”‘
Brad Buckman said he was a bit surprised by KU.
“The campus is nice. People say it’s all flat with no trees. It wasn’t like that at all. I liked it a lot,” Brad Buckman said.
Buckman will visit North Carolina next weekend, then UCLA and Texas in successive weeks. He hopes to pick a college by late October.
He’ll have an in-home visit with KU coach Williams on Thursday. North Carolina invades his home tonight and UCLA Wednesday.
Adams, 6-5 from Los Angeles Westchester High, who had an in-home with UCLA upon returning Sunday night, told Jon Kirby of Alliance Sports he’ll visit Oregon on Sept. 28, Tennessee on Oct. 6 and Boston College on Oct. 27. He also will visit Arizona perhaps for its Midnight Madness and make unofficial visits to Cal and UCLA.
Buckman decided to not play in the pick-up games over the weekend. “I owe it to my teammates to not get injured before the start of my senior season,” he explained.
Adams, however, did play. The 6-4 combo guard showed exceptional quickness in taking the ball to the basket. One time he accepted a bullet pass from ex-Jayhawk Billy Thomas, took one dribble and ripped home a one-handed slam dunk.
“He really likes Kansas,” Marlin Morton, assistant coach of Adams at Westchester High, told the Journal-World. “I told Kansas’ coaches about him last year. They were recruiting a kid named Chad Bell. I told coach (Joe) Holladay and Williams about Hassan. They really like him and the interest is mutual.”
Ditto Buckman.
“The atmosphere was real cool. I like Kansas a lot. It’s not a football school. People really care about basketball,” Buckman said. “The coaches and players are very nice. They’ve got a good chance (of signing him).”
