Kansas University’s basketball team is not in urgent need of walk-on players this season.
“We already have 16 guys. That’s what I told them tonight … that we have a pretty full crew,” KU assistant basketball coach Tim Jankovich said, referring to the 20 walk-on hopefuls who showed for tryouts Monday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
“They used to allow you to have JV teams,” added Jankovich, who started for the varsity at Kansas State during the early 1980s when JV teams were common in the Big Eight. “I think we could put together a darn good JV team with these guys who showed up tonight.”
Jankovich and the other KU assistant coaches who ran tryouts were mighty impressed with the candidates.
“I thought it was great,” Jankovich said of the players’ effort and enthusiasm in a two-hour scrimmage session.
“We had guys diving on the floor for loose balls. We had to mop the floor several times. I have been through a lot of these tryout situations, and I can tell you this is a good group.”
Jankovich said KU’s coaches would deliberate and decide if they needed to assemble for another day of tryouts.
There already are four walk-ons on the roster: Brett Olson, Stephen Vinson, Nick Bahe and Christian Moody. Thus, Monday likely will be the only day of tryouts.
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Raef’s ex-teammates react: Dallas forward Raef LaFrentz was traded Monday to Boston, where he’ll be reunited with former KU teammate Paul Pierce.
“I think they just need to go get Jacque (Vaughn), Scot (Pollard) and Greg Ostertag, and they’ll have a pretty solid team,” joked former KU guard Jerod Haase.
Former Jayhawks Vaughn, Pollard and Ostertag play for Atlanta, Indiana and Utah, respectively.
“I think they’ll do well in Boston. They can feed off each other’s strengths,” added Haase, an assistant coach/JV head coach at North Carolina.
Tar Heel administrative aide C.B. McGrath said LaFrentz enjoyed his days in Dallas.
“Dallas was winning, and Raef likes winning,” said McGrath, a teammate of LaFrentz’s at KU. “It’s a good trade because he’s going to another playoff team in Boston, and he gets to team up with Paul again. They will do well together. Paul knows the kind of person Raef is, and Raef knows the kind of person Paul is.”
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Wizard of Oz reference: Dressed like Alamo hero Davy Crockett, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo rode into Breslin Center on horseback as part of Midnight Madness Friday at East Lansing, Mich.
Izzo and his Spartans are hoping to advance to the 2004 Final Four at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The Spartan players wore costumes representing the teams they’d play on the road this season. The KU game (Nov. 25, Allen Fieldhouse) had a Wizard of Oz theme. MSU’s Delco Rowley dressed up as the Cowardly Lion; Drew Naymick as the Scarecrow; Brandon Cotton the Tin Man; and Izzo’s daughter, Raquel, as Dorothy.
“This is always a great event because it allows us to have a little fun before it’s time to go to work with the start of practice,” Izzo told the Associated Press.
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Video-game star: KU coach Bill Self will be one of 13 coaches included in EA Sports’ video game, “March Madness 2004,” which will be released in November. Self and coaches like Kelvin Sampson (Oklahoma), Gary Williams (Maryland), Billy Donovan (Florida), Rick Majerus (Utah) and Ben Braun (Cal) will give advice on X’s and O’s when players click a button during the game.
