Darnell Jackson was thrilled to see his mom, Shawn, pull into the Allen Fieldhouse parking lot Friday afternoon.
She’d made the drive from Oklahoma City to see her son participate in his third Late Night in the Phog.
“She hopped out of the car with a cast on her leg. She was smiling, looked just great,” Jackson said of his mom, who has had two surgeries and needs several more before her leg, ankle, arm, rib and hands are completely healed from a car wreck suffered in Las Vegas a couple years ago.
“It’s always great to see her.”
Another one of Jackson’s loved ones was not slated to be in the fieldhouse Friday.
That would be Don Davis, a KU graduate living just outside of Jackson’s hometown of Oklahoma City, who provided Darnell with $5,000 worth of improper benefits that in part caused the NCAA on Thursday to strip KU of a scholarship in each of the next two seasons.
“I’ve not talked to him in a while,” Jackson said. “The love is still strong. The love is there.”
Jackson considers Davis a father-type figure and has a hard time understanding what either party did wrong.
“He was a friend, not a (KU) booster to me,” Jackson said. “When my grandmother died (following the car wreck that seriously injured Shawn) he said a speech that made me cry. I always think about him (Davis) and his family when I go to sleep.”
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Probation aftermath: Coach Bill Self said he’d already spoken to some high school prospects about NCAA probation, handed down Thursday.
KU lost eight official on-campus visits the next two seasons and will be limited to 12 scholarship players on the roster instead of the usual 13.
“This is a pretty big recruiting weekend. The timing is not great with a lot of this stuff,” Self said with a smile.
“I think I’m satisfied it was explained properly (to recruits) and understood, but (I’m) not satisfied that it was not a factor. It is a factor. We are on probation. It’s something we’ll talk about to our prospects the next couple years. The recruits and families will have to trust us.”
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Youth served: Brandon Rush on KU’s freshman class of Darrell Arthur, Sherron Collins and Brady Morningstar:
“They came in more built, more strong than we did last year,” Rush said. “Shady (Arthur) can bench 275. I benched 175 coming in. Sherron is strong. He came in at 255. They know the game better than we did.”
Rush, by the way, now can bench 235.
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Recruiting runaround: Self on possibly losing one or more players to the NBA after this year:
“We don’t anticipate everyone coming back next year. Returning all 12 would be very difficult to do based on some of their talent levels and what people believe their talent to be. I think with the majority of our team back, you could make a strong case next year’s team could be more talented than this year’s.”
He realizes it may be tough to recruit not knowing who will be back.
“We may be in limbo recruiting to be honest with you,” he said, noting he’d like to add a wing player (like Kyle Singler of Oregon, who attended Late Night) to go with center Cole Aldrich, who has committed.
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Self on the team’s style of play: “Kansas fans will love this … I think we’ll be able to run more although I thought we ran pretty well last year. My definition of running and Kansas fans’ definition may not be exactly the same thing, but we should play fast and pressure a lot more. I see it being much more up-tempo than it has been.”
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Leader Russell Robinson on team unity: “The team chemistry is great. Coach Self did a great job recruiting. He found the pieces that fit perfectly into what we try to do. Personality-wise, they fit in great, and playing-wise, they are awesome.”
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Sasha Kaun on his future: “I will want to play in the NBA. The question is out there. It’s a matter of me working hard enough to get to the next level. I definitely want to be here all four years.”
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Mario Chalmers on his offseason: “Coach wanted me to improve my defense and shooting and getting stronger. I think I did that.”
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Tuna’s tutelage: Self borrowed a line from Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells regarding players buying into preseason hype.
“He said, ‘Don’t eat the cheese,'” Self said. “If you listen to the outward circle, you will not accomplish what you need to accomplish. I think our guys are unselfish and will share (the ball).”
Scott McClurg/Journal-World PhotoJ.R. Giddens turned to the left, then the right, clearly enjoying a photo shoot of his profile during Friday’s Media Day activities at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Coach calls me ‘Hollywood,'” said Giddens, Kansas University’s 6-foot-5 freshman guard from Oklahoma City. “Coach says he likes people who like to talk.”
If that’s the case, coach Bill Self should love chatterbox Giddens, who has yet to meet a media member he doesn’t like.
“Coach Self has never said, ‘Kid, you talk too much,'” Giddens said, adding he’d like to become a broadcaster, “like Charles Barkley someday. I’d love to talk on TV about the game I love when I’m finished playing the game I love.”
The outgoing Giddens teased reporters about the dunks he would put down, not only at “Late Night in the Phog” Friday, but throughout the season.
“How ’bout, ‘The Flying Jayhawk,'” Giddens said of a possible name for one of his slams.
The rookie guard says his jumping ability won’t be hampered by surgery during the summer to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. He suffered a setback by spraining that same ankle earlier this semester.
“The sprain had nothing to do with the stress fracture,” Giddens said. “My ankle’s a little tender now, but I’m OK. My foot since surgery has felt great. I don’t have pain in the foot at all for the first time in a long time. It feels great.”
Freshman forward David Padgett is coming off arthroscopic right knee surgery last spring.
He says he’s also fine, despite the fact he bruised his right knee a couple of weeks ago.
“My knee has been fine, no pain, no setbacks. I hope it stays that way,” said Padgett, 6-11 and 230 pounds from Reno, Nev. “I’d say I’m 100 percent.”
Padgett is thrilled the season starts at Media Day.
He has been busy adjusting to school and has had quite a learning curve on the court, playing against guys like Drew Gooden and Nick Collison last summer in pick-up games and now Danny Manning, the former KU great on Self’s staff.
“It’s been a great experience going against guys like that,” Padgett said. “I’d like to put on 10, 15 pounds more, and hopefully in time that will come. It’s been a good transition. The adjustment hasn’t been bad at all. I am not homesick at all. That’s one thing that surprised me. I thought I’d be homesick, and I’m not. I like it here and don’t miss home that much.”
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Graves in good shape: KU senior Jeff Graves reported to camp at 6-9, 250 pounds, about 40 pounds lighter than he reported to school a year ago.
He showed up for Media Day sporting a new tattoo — a globe with the words “The World is Yours.”
“I see the big picture now,” said Graves, who is focused on having a big senior season. “I spent the summer working out with my brother (Robby), who is going to try the ABA with the (Kansas City) Knights.
“Last year at this time I didn’t feel part of the team. Now I do because I’m in shape mentally and physically.”
A year ago he was recovering from a concussion sustained in a car accident in which he was a passenger in a vehicle that was totaled.
“Even to this day I say some things backward,” Graves said. “Like if I’m saying, ‘Scott Ward,’ I’ll say, ‘Ward Scott.’ I’ll say, ‘Why am I doing that?’ I’ll say things backward.”
He was asked if he should take precautions on the court to avoid another concussion.
“Yeah, like wear a hard hat?” he joked. “I might try that.”
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Wayne’s world: Junior Wayne Simien, who is ready to practice full-time after offseason shoulder surgery, was a popular interview at Media Day.
“What questions were you asked the most today?” he was asked.
“About changes around here and my shoulder,” Simien said. “The shoulder feels good, and everything’s cool. This is like a business in a way, and people do what they have to do.”
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Collison’s shoulder: Simien has chatted with former teammate and Seattle SuperSonics rookie Nick Collison, who had surgery on one shoulder this week and soon will have surgery on the other.
“I spoke with him. He asked me some questions, and I tried to encourage him. We both had the same doctor. I knew he’d had some problems last year, but it’s tough that it happened now. It caught him at a bad time, I guess.”
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Final Four frenzy: Junior Michael Lee considered the possibility of returning to the Final Four for a third consecutive year.
“I think it’s real important because I think with every team their goal is to go back,” he said. “I am just excited to take it day by day, game by game. We have a lot of new players and coaches with a new system.
“I’m trying to not get too far ahead of myself right now.”
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Junior Aaron Miles on season expectations: “Losing Kirk (Hinrich) and Nick was real big. I still think the returning players were able to learn a lot from those two. Hopefully, we can take something they taught us and add on to our game and add onto this team.”
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The new look: Kansas has a new coaching staff, a new court design, five new players and new uniforms.
“I’m not a big fan of the uniforms,” junior Keith Langford said. “I’m not saying they’re ugly, but I liked last year’s a little bit better.”
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No place for Case: Jeremy Case’s father, Win, had a Midnight Madness session of his own to attend Friday.
“He won’t be able to make it to Late Night because he has a scrimmage,” Case said of his dad, who is head coach at Oklahoma City University. “But he’ll make it to as many games as he can.”
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Women’s recruiting: KU men’s basketball already has filled its three scholarship allotments for next season, so Late Night wasn’t a big recruiting weekend.
KU’s women, however, had three senior recruits on hand.
They were: Lorie Rayford, 5-11, from Lynwood High in Inglewood, Calif.; Taylor McIntosh, 5-11, from Wichita Heights; and Jamie Boyd, 5-10 from Underwood, Iowa. Rayford is a top-50 recruit who is considering KU, UNLV, New Mexico and TCU. McIntosh is considering Nebraska, New Mexico and KU.
