“I’ve been at all-football schools,” said the 46-year-old Townsend, who Monday was named assistant basketball coach on Bill Self’s staff at tradition-rich Kansas University.

“I look back and I’ve been coaching the wrong sport. If was a wide-receiver’s coach at those places, I’d be doing OK right now,” he said, laughing.

Kansas, which is in the process of rebuilding its football program, has been known as a basketball hotbed since the Jayhawks were coached by the inventor of the game, Dr. James Naismith.

“Kansas is a program that sells itself,” Townsend said. “Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky … those are the programs you think of when you think of college basketball. The tradition of the school and the history … how strong Kansas has been recently and obviously coach Self, those things attracted me to the job.”

After Perry Clark was fired as Miami head coach after this season, Townsend was offered an assistant-coaching job at Texas-El Paso and also talked to Indiana. He set his sights on KU after Norm Roberts left for St. John’s on April 12.

“Norm accepted the job and I thought to myself, ‘The best assistant’s job in college basketball is now open,” Townsend said. “I talked to Bill and I visited Lawrence and got to meet everybody.

“Everything seemed family oriented, just a real good situation.”

He won out over more than 60 individuals who sent resumes.

“I’ve known Kurtis since he was an assistant at Michigan,” said second-year KU coach Self, a former Illinois coach. “Kurtis and I have talked a lot this last month. I’ve talked to several other guys as well. I felt he best fit what we’re trying to do. I’ve always had a great deal of respect for his work ethic and how he conducts his business.

“He has been actively involved in recruiting and coaching some great prospects who have gone on to have very successful professional careers. He brings Midwest and West Coast ties, and brings a solid reputation to our program.”

Townsend, who was born in San Jose, Calif., and played basketball at both Menlo (Calif.) Junior College and Western Kentucky, coached at California and Eastern Kentucky as well as USC, Michigan and Miami.

He has coached or recruited several NBA players, including Jason Kidd, Lamond Murray, Tremaine Fowlkes, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Ed Gray, Sean Marks, Michael Stewart, Jamal Crawford and Lou Bullock.

“I’d like to say I’m a better coach (than recruiter),” Townsend said. “I was a successful head coach in high school. Because we’ve had good players and because assistant coaches don’t have wins and losses on their record, I’m known in the business as a good recruiter, I guess.”

Townsend, who said one of his duties at KU would be to help recruit “guys who are team players, who can get up and down the court and can shoot the ball, guys who want to be in college,” said he was most proud of the fact some of his more famous pupils kept in touch.

“When Jason (Kidd, former Cal guard with New Jersey Nets) comes to Miami he leaves me tickets to go to the game. I talk to Tony Gonzalez two or three times a month,” he said of the Chiefs’ tight end and former Cal player.

“Jamal calls me five or six times a week. I pretty much talk to him on a daily basis. I am proud of all the players I’ve been associated with, and try to talk to them as much as a can.”

Townsend said he would like to be a head coach someday.

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“I have no timetable or anything like that,” he said. “I think if we’re winning, those opportunities will come to all members of the staff.”

“All coaches deserve the opportunity to become head coaches when their time is right,” Self said. “We feel that with Kurtis we’ve hired another future head coach.”