Self sees signee stand out

By Gary Bedore     Jul 29, 2007

? Bill Self and his son, Tyler, sat in the front row of a roped-off coach’s section at Okun Fieldhouse, eyes fixed on future Kansas University basketball guard Travis Releford.

The Selfs and 100 or so Jayhawk fans didn’t applaud – there’s no cheering during games at the Price Chopper Invitational – but had to leave impressed after watching the 6-foot-5, 190-pound Roeland Park Miege senior score 14 points with four rebounds in Kansas City Pump N Run’s 102-57 rout of Georgia Elite.

“I saw coach Self right there under the goal. It makes it more exciting because he’s there, just because he’s the head coach I’ll be playing for in a few years,” said Releford, who scored 10 of his points the first half as Pump N Run built an insurmountable 54-23 lead.

Releford’s buckets came on an array of acrobatic moves inside.

The right-handed shooter hit six of 10 shots and two of five free throws. He dropped in a driving left-handed layup, then dunked after accepting a lob to give Pump N Run a 4-0 lead.

Later, he hit driving righty and lefty layups, cashed a left-handed bank shot and rammed home a second slam dunk off a lob.

He missed his only outside shot – a three-point try.

“I am real confident in my jumper. I’m more a slasher, though,” Releford said, adding, “I shoot with my right hand, but I can do both. I work with both hands.”

Coach L.J. Goolsby – whose squad benefited from a batch of threes from Marcus Denmon and Denver Holmes, as well as inside hoops and rebounds from future Missouri center Steve Moore – encourages Releford to take it to the hole.

“We play to his strengths that way,” Goolsby said. “He can do it so effortlessly it makes it easy for us.”

Goolsby said he has noticed a free-minded Releford on the summer AAU circuit.

“He definitely is a lot more relaxed. He doesn’t have to worry about it (recruiting) anymore,” Goolsby said of Releford, who committed to KU on June 19. “From our side of it, we don’t have to expect too many things from him. We can get some other guys opportunities to score. We don’t have to put all the pressure on Travis all the time, which makes it nice.”

Releford admitted: “I’m glad it (recruiting) is over with. The pressure is off. My senior year will go by fast. It’ll be fun. I’m coming out my senior year trying to win a state championship, then go on to KU.”

Releford said he’s not wearing out during an AAU season that has taken him to Dallas, Cincinnati, New Jersey, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Atlanta and San Francisco.

“I like to travel,” he said.

During his travels, he has run into some players on KU’s recruiting list.

“I know we need like seven, eight more,” he said of recruits in the Class of 2008. “Some of the guys I play with haven’t committed yet. I get in their ear and say, ‘You should come play with me.”‘

Two players with KU on their lists competed at the Price Chopper on Saturday. J’Mison Morgan, 6-10 from Dallas, scored five points with four blocks and three rebounds in the DFW 17s’ 55-50 overtime loss to Las Vegas Prospects. Olek Czyz, a 6-7 forward from Vegas originally from Poland, had five points and three rebounds.

KU coach Self watched that game, as did UNLV coach Lon Kruger and St. Louis’ Rick Majerus. Other coaches on hand included ex-Jayhawk Rex Walters of Florida Atlantic, DePaul’s Jerry Wainwright, Nebraska’s Doc Sadler, Iowa State’s Greg McDermott and Missouri assistant Melvin Watkins.

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