Kansas City, Mo ? Don’t bother asking Wayne Simien for tickets, or knocking on Michael Lee’s door at the Westin Crown Center Hotel.
And forget about calling J.R. Giddens. The freshman guard and his fellow Kansas Jayhawks are busy preparing for tonight’s first-round game of the NCAA Tournament at Kemper Arena.
And they don’t need any distractions.
“I’m not going to answer my phone,” Giddens said, closing his camera-equipped Sprint flip phone to mull tonight’s foe, the University of Illinois-Chicago. “I’m just going to be focused on the game, and try to get some sleep.”
Then comes the mischievous grin.
“Unless Megan Good calls,” he said, making an exception for the female focal point of movies and a 50 Cent video. “She’s a very, very, very good-looking lady. I just might have to answer her call. Tell her to call me. If she rings me up, then I’ll say, waaaaasup! I’ll take her out to dinner …”
Ah, distractions. Fans bring them, coaches hate them and players — for all their promises to stay focused, keep an eye on the goal and block out everything off the court — at times can’t escape them.
“Jeff Graves, Wayne Simien, Jeff Hawkins will have more friends this week than they’ve had in a long time,” KU coach Bill Self said of his KU players from the Kansas City area. “If there’s a neighborhood friend they haven’t seen for 10 years, now everybody thinks they have a right to call for tickets and that type of thing.
“And that’s fine. Our guys just have to learn how to say no, and know how to not put so much emphasis on keeping everybody else happy.”
Self’s final request for the public: “Stay away from our guys.”
KU’s practice Thursday evening offered about 2,500 fans a chance to get close to the team, without offending the coach.
Among them was 9-year-old Shannon Jones, of Kansas City, Mo., who came more than three hours early to score a seat up against the railing of the tunnel leading to team locker rooms.
The KU fan got what she wanted: a close-up look at the team’s passing drills, dunking exhibition and jump-shooting practice — Self himself delighted the crowd by potting a trio of three-pointers — before departing to rousing cheers.
Jones grabbed high-fives from Danny Manning, Simien, Graves, Michael Lee and … so many smiling, jumping, fired-up Jayhawks that she lost track.
“I just stuck my hand out,” she said afterward, beaming. “I got almost all of them.”
For KU players, it’s all part of the job. The public practice is just that — a public parade designed to gives the fans what they need, a connection to feed the frenzy of what has become known as March Madness.
But the players know the feel-good time is over. Making consecutive trips to the Final Four isn’t easy, and they know that to add a third this year in San Antonio won’t be any easier if they don’t keep their focus.
“It’s time to go to work now,” Simien said. “We’ve been there before, and we know what it takes to get down to where we want to be. Now we’ve got to do it.”
Tonight’s tipoff is expected about 8:55 p.m.
6Sports video: KU fans descend on Kemper Arena
KU NCAA practice gallery
NCAA Tourney