Kansas University freshman guard Omar Wilkes, who hadn’t seen snow until Tuesday, frolicked in the fluffy stuff for the first time after the Jayhawks’ victory Wednesday over Fort Hays State.
“Jeremy (Case), J.R. (Giddens) and I and some of the volleyball girls had a snowball fight with the football team,” Wilkes, a freshman from Los Angeles, said before practice Thursday. “I got some ice in the nose.”
Wilkes, who scored a career-high nine points Wednesday, left the snowball war in the courtyard at Jayhawker Towers after his hands became too cold.
“I couldn’t feel my hands. I made the mistake of going inside and trying to run the water over them to neutralize the cold,” Wilkes said. “Isn’t that the logical thing to do to warm your hands? Nobody warned me,” he said, saying it stung to put his ice-cold hands under water.
“It’s 23 years old,” Omar said. “Don’t worry. I wash it every time. It’s wearing real thin. I’ll hold on to it as long as possible.”
“Hopefully he’ll be close to full speed,” KU coach Bill Self said.
KU center Jeff Graves wore a protective brace on his right elbow at practice Thursday.
“A guy bumped me on the elbow. It’s real sore. I wear this for protection,” said Graves, who was hurt diving for a loose ball in the first half of Wednesday’s game.
Bryant Nash, who didn’t play in the second half Wednesday after re-injuring his left elbow, practiced Thursday.
“I might have torn some scar tissue or sprained a ligament,” Nash said. “I hyperextended it one day and it keeps getting hit. It’s painful a while and goes away after 10 minutes. I’m OK.”
In fact, sources told the Journal-World that Kent and Marquette’s Tom Crean each talked via phone with KU’s search committee days after Roy Williams resigned to take the North Carolina job.
The search committee also spoke on the phone with former Jayhawk Mark Turgeon, who is coach at Wichita State, and Self, then coach at Illinois.
None of the candidates were brought to campus for interviews, because KU officials targeted Self to replace Williams. Self accepted the job offer without stepping on campus for an interview.
KU’s search committee members would not comment about their phone conversation with Kent, who also has been unavailable for comment all week.
Kent, 48, is a former Oregon player who has a 120-68 record at UO the past seven years. He went 90-80 in six years at St. Mary’s. KU officials were impressed after watching Oregon twice in two years.
Oregon tripped the Jayhawks, 84-78, last year in Portland, Ore., one year after KU’s 104-86 rout of the Ducks in the NCAA Elite Eight in Madison, Wis.
Crean’s Marquette team fell to the Jayhawks, 94-61, in the Final Four last spring in New Orleans.
6Sports video: Omar Wilkes has breakout game