Rookies tested by camp

By Gary Bedore     Sep 28, 2006

Sherron Collins sprinted through an Allen Fieldhouse hallway, looking a bit relieved to see his teammates leisurely walking through the northwest tunnel onto the court.

“I went to the wrong gym,” the Kansas University freshman point guard said with a grin.

No harm, no foul.

Collins, despite his detour to Horejsi Center, still was on time for Boot Camp individual workouts Tuesday afternoon, meaning nobody would have to run penalty laps for the transgression of tardiness.

Collins – as well as fellow freshmen Darrell Arthur and Brady Morningstar and sophomore Brennan Bechard – are experiencing KU’s two-week Boot Camp for the first time.

Boot Camp – which consists of daily 6 a.m. conditioning drills, plus weightlifting four times a week, individual afternoon workouts three times a week and unsupervised pick-up games four times a week – has tested the newcomers.

“The hardest thing is getting up in the morning,” Collins said. “I go to bed at 9:30, 10:30. I go to sleep right away and get up at 5.”

Of Boot Camp, Morningstar said: “It is going well. Getting up early is the toughest thing. After you get all stretched and warmed up, it’s all mental after that. Everybody can get through it. You just have to think you can.”

Sophomore center Matt Kleinmann said his third Boot Camp (he red-shirted his true freshman year) had been going smoothly.

“I think the guys are a lot more motivated to get through it. There are a lot of expectations for the season,” Kleinmann said.

Asked the hardest part, Kleinmann said: “It’s kind of a combination of balancing everything we do on top of waking up early in the morning and coming back later in the afternoon for workouts. It’s tough mentally as well as physically.”

Some of the Boot Camp veterans have been taking charge at the 6 a.m. drills, in which the players perform defensive slides, sprints, and backboard touches, as well as jumping rope.

“(Jeremy) Case, Russell (Robinson),” Morningstar said, asked who is leading the way. “I mean, every day a certain person steps it up. It could be a senior. It could be a freshman. We are not hating it. It’s something we have to do. It’s something coach (Bill) Self has done with all his teams. It’s what we have to do to be ready for the season.”

“This can help our team a lot,” Collins said of what he called “non-stop drills. Conditioning will help late in the game. If we get the other team tired, we’ll be all right.”

The players will work out again early this morning and Friday, take the weekend off, then return for five more days of Boot Camp starting Monday.

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More on Miles: The Portland Trail Blazers made it official Wednesday, announcing on their Web site that former Kansas guard Aaron Miles had received a formal invitation to join the Blazers at training camp, which opens Tuesday.

“He’s a young, improving player, and we are happy to give him a chance to make our regular-season roster,” said Portland player-personnel director Kevin Pritchard, like Miles a KU graduate.

“We’ve brought in another solid individual, and good person, and I think Aaron has the potential to stick in this league.”

Miles is the Big 12’s all-time assist leader.

“Aaron Miles won a lot in college, and we like that,” Pritchard said of the hometown hero from Portland’s Jefferson High. “He knows how to play and plays the right way. He’ll definitely push guys in camp. He’s busted his tail getting better, and now he has a chance to be part of our organization. I’ve seen him a lot, and have seen him really improve his game. The biggest thing to me is, he makes players around him better, and we’re always looking for that.”

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Withey’s list: Jeff Withey, a 7-foot junior from Horizon High in San Diego, told Rivals.com he’d trimmed his list of schools to KU, Louisville, Georgetown, Texas, Syracuse and Washington. He will visit KU unofficially for the Oct. 13 Late Night in the Phog.

“Kansas and Louisville are my leaders,” he told Rivals.com.

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Dooley honored: Rivals.com has named KU assistant Joe Dooley one of the “top 25 recruiters in the country.”

Ohio State’s John Groce was listed as top recruiter. North Carolina’s Steve Robinson, a former KU assistant, also made the list.

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