Kansas University’s men’s basketball players will have more than classes to look forward to on Aug. 19 — the first day of the fall semester.
Hoops practice also will be held that day. The Jayhawks will open camp for their Labor Day weekend exhibition excursion to Canada.
“We’re allowed 15 days to practice 10 times, so we’ll probably do something like practice two days and take one off,” second-year KU coach Bill Self said.
“We’ll scrimmage a little every day. As far as a game-type scrimmage, I don’t know about that,” he added, indicating practices would be closed to the public, but there is a possibility he might open up one scrimmage if the schedule permits.
“To be honest, our practices will not be killer-type practices,” Self added. “There will be a lot of teaching. We’ll try to identify five or six things and work on those and get our young guys used to the system and make it so when we start practicing in October, we’ll be basically two weeks ahead of schedule.”
He said he would hold his traditional two weeks of conditioning — “Boot Camp” — starting the last week of September.
As far as the four exhibition games in Canada — one on Sept. 4, two Sept. 5 and one Sept. 6 — KU cannot use any players the Jayhawks plan to red-shirt in those games.
And KU’s coach said he would red-shirt one or more players this season.
“I can promise you not everybody will play on the trip,” Self said, “but I don’t know who. We’ll decide after eight or so practices which guys would have a chance in everybody’s best interest to red-shirt. If we do decide somebody, and I know we will, regardless of whether they are scholarship or nonscholarship players, we won’t play 17 guys. We will hold some out.
“A lot will depend how they do (in August practice). This is a good deal for us. It’s a training camp we haven’t had before, giving us an idea where we are and put together depth charts we’ve not been able to do in the past.”
The Jayhawks will leave for the Canadian trip after classes end Sept. 3 and return Sept. 6.
This, that: Senior Keith Langford, who is coming off knee surgery, is not yet 100 percent. “He’s closer. He’s playing — not 100 percent, but gaining on it,” Self said. … Freshman Alex Galindo, who had surgery to repair a broken left hand, is back playing pick-up games. Sophomore J.R. Giddens, who is coming off offseason knee and foot surgery, suffered an ankle sprain at Nike camp. He is wearing a protective boot on his left foot and is a week to 10 days from returning to the court. … Look for KU to soon release a logo to commemorate the 50th anniversary season in Allen Fieldhouse. KU is hoping to play K-State on March 1, the anniversary of the first game played in the building. Retro uniforms could be worn in the game.
6Sports video: Manning spends week with kids