“I think we all take our role seriously … trying to help the younger guys,” senior Christian Moody said, speaking for himself, Jeff Hawkins, Stephen Vinson and Moulaye Niang. “You try to help them any way you can, to teach guys just like they (older players) taught us when we were freshmen.

“Personally, it’s been really rewarding to me to see how far the young guys have come,” Moody said. “Just watching them go from being freshmen who never played a minute of division-one basketball to guys playing as hard as they have been. I’m honored to have been around them every day.”

From the day the rookies arrived for summer school, the seniors embraced their roles as leaders, trying to speed the progress of a highly touted freshman class.

“I’ve tried to talk to all these young guys on our team this year,” said Moody, a 6-8 power forward from Asheville, N.C. “Sasha (Kaun), C.J. (Giles), Darnell (Jackson) and Julian (Wright) and I have all had talks about toughness and how hard we need to work. It’s been fun being kind of the older guy in the group of big guys.

Nick Krug

“I’m the only upperclassmen in the entire big-guy group. You feel like you have that age on them to be able to give them pointers, even if it’s just encouragement to be able to help them out.”

The 6-11 Niang also has helped tutor KU’s younger inside players. He’s not an official member of the team anymore, having been placed on medical scholarship because of his bad back, but he still has practiced on a limited basis.

“I help as much as I can working with the guys when we divide bigs and little guys,” Niang said. “When they need extra bodies, I just jump in there.

“I talked to Julian a lot this year to help him understand what it takes to play at this level, talk about his defense. It’s one of my strengths, playing defense. I tell him, ‘You do this, try to do this. This works better.’ It’s fun to try to help the younger players.”

Vinson, a 6-2 guard from Lawrence, and Hawkins, 5-11 from Kansas City, Kan., have mentored the squad’s younger perimeter players.

Nick Krug

“If someone is struggling, I try to help them out,” said Vinson, who, like Hawkins, has exhibited toughness in playing with injuries.

“Hopefully, I’ve helped through example. Maybe they picked up on being prepared every day (by watching him). It’s such a grind, such a long season. We start doing individual workouts in August all the way through April. You’ve got to stay prepared. It’s tough on freshmen sometimes. They hit a wall, but I hope to have been a positive influence.”

Ditto Hawkins.

“Starting the year, I was feeling my age a bit, feeling older, but they help keep you young,” said Hawkins, 23. “It’s been rewarding watching them get better every day. They have improved in all aspects of the game, and it’s been fun being around them. It’s been one of my most fun years because of that.”

The elder Jayhawks say they hope the freshmen have as enjoyable careers as they had on Mount Oread.

Moody started 25 games his junior season playing alongside Wayne Simien, who is now with the NBA’s Miami Heat. Thus far, Moody has started nine games his senior campaign.

“I definitely learned a lot from Wayne and gained a lot of confidence just playing around him and guarding him and getting beat by him and beating on him for three years,” Moody said.

“I think I learned an incredible amount from him. He’s just an unbelievable player, and playing against someone like that for three years … you can’t help but get better. I’ve been able to practice with some great big guys over the last three years. I feel like I’ve learned something from each of them.”

As far as his greatest moment, Moody, who scored 18 points in a Big 12 Conference-opening victory this season at Colorado and potted 11 points with seven rebounds in a victory at Kentucky his junior campaign (Billy Packer called him “the greatest walk-on in the history of basketball” during that contest), said: “I hope that moment’s to come. There’s a whole lot of them. It’s hard to pinpoint one.

“Honestly,” he added, “it was pretty cool running out of the tunnel and the first time I put my jersey on, because I remember that whole day pretty vividly. There’s a ton of memories that have just been going through my head the past couple weeks.”

Lawrence High grad Vinson said one of his top thrills was helping KU bag a victory over Cal-Berkeley this season. He scored six points with six assists and one turnover in 25 minutes as the Jayhawks prevailed, 69-56, in Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. Without the work of Vinson, KU may not have won.

“The Cal game took a lot for me to be able to play in the game,” said Vinson, who was unable to practice much the week of the game because of back and groin injuries. “It’s something only I’ll remember what I did before the game to get ready to play. But the highlight would be the (NCAA) Tournament, especially my freshman year. The Final Four would be the highlight, getting to play on such a big stage.”

Hawkins had some big games, including hitting five threes in five tries in scoring 17 this year in a victory over Nebraska and potting five threes his sophomore year at TCU and five more his junior season at Baylor.

“Maybe it’s the weather in Texas,” Hawkins said, asked of his scorching shooting in the Lone Star State.

“Someday in the future I’ll think about my time here, in 10,15 years think about all the good and bad. The Final Fours, all my teammates. A lot of good and bad happened to me here, and I learned from the good and the bad.”

Of his favorite moments at KU, Niang, who hopes to someday become a U.S. citizen, said: “Everything with Kansas basketball is unforgettable. Going to the Final Four my freshman year, winning big 12 championships. The whole college experience is something you’ll never forget in your life.”

KU coach Bill Self said he would miss all members of this senior class.

“Unfortunately, Moulaye couldn’t play this year,” Self said, “but he’s as solid a guy as there is. Stephen helped us win games at this level this year when nobody would have guessed that, and who could have predicted what Christian has done?

“Although he hasn’t been playing as much lately, he has helped us win a lot of games here, and probably nobody anticipated that. Of course, Jeff came as a guy paying his own way as well, and he started the first half of this season for us.

“When the career leading scorer of your senior class has about 300 points, it’s obviously not as decorated as a class as they’ve had come through here, but as far as maximizing their abilities and doing all they can to help the program, these guys did it pretty well.”