After hosting his Elite camp and first session of his regular summer camp for youths, Bill Self will be ready to party next Friday night.
“We’re calling it the ‘Party of the Summer,”‘ Self, Kansas University’s basketball coach, said of the second Basketball Boogie, the main fundraiser for his Assists Foundation. “We had such a great time in 2008, it took us two years to recover.”
The first Boogie was held in the summer of ’08 at Kansas Speedway. This one, after a year’s hiatus, is slated for the College Basketball Experience at Sprint Center in downtown Kansas City’s Power and Light District.
Fans can order tickets at basketballboogie.org.
“Hopefully they’ll do so by Wednesday or so, so we’ll have a good headcount,” Self said. “This is for everybody. You don’t have to be a KU fan. You don’t have to be a basketball fan. If you are a fan of doing things that help youths in our area, this would be a good event to go to. If you like to dance, it’d be even better.”
Self said he and his co-host, wife Cindy, are hoping to raise between $200,000 and $500,000, thanks in part to corporate sponsors and an auction. Proceeds benefit the four-year old Assists foundation which awards 10 community grants and eight four-year college scholarships annually and takes part in other youth initiatives.
The Boogie officially begins at 7:30 p.m. at the CBE.
Freshmen arriving: Incoming freshman guard Royce Woolridge, 6-3 from Phoenix Sunnyslope High, has arrived in Lawrence for this week’s start of summer school. Frosh guard Josh Selby, 6-2 from Baltimore’s Lake Clifton High, is schedule to arrive Monday. They will each take six hours of summer school classes.
“I think it gives them a little lay-of-the-land,” Self said of having the freshmen in town. “It’s going to be a culture shock for anybody leaving home. It’ll give them a headstart on how they are doing things.”
No KU veterans will be competing for USA Basketball teams this summer, so everybody will be in town the rest of June.
“I think summer is important to becoming a team,” Self said.
