**OMAHA, Neb. -** OK, so there’s 21 seconds left in the Drake-Western Kentucky game, and the Bulldogs are down by one, heading into a timeout.Separated from the cluster of microphones, cameras and notebooks surrounding KU’s regular rotation guys here Friday afternoon, the Jayhawk reserves are huddled around watching it. Even Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers are continuously peeking over reporters’ shoulders to see what’s going on.Matt Kleinmann turns to Jeremy Case and says: ‘All right, coach Case, what are you gonna do here?’After rifling off some secret jargon nobody not associated with the team would be familiar with, Case, who aspires to be a college coach after this his final season is done, responds: ‘I give the the ball to Mario Chalmers and tell him to get me a score.’That was probably my favorite footnote from an afternoon spent talking to players from both Kansas and UNLV in anticipation of tomorrow’s second round tilt here in the Qwest Center.Here’s some more…**-UNLV sophomore walk-on Scott Hoffman** is a Hays, Kan., product. We talked yesterday about how he grew up a K-State fan and still somewhat considers himself to be one. While shooting the breeze, asking his thoughts on last night’s K-State/USC game, he served up an interesting story of coming across Bill Walker on a golf course in his hometown last summer.Yes, you read that right. Bill Walker. Golfing. In rural Kansas.It was actually an alumni association event held out in Hays, in which Walker and some Wildcat football players went to shake the mitts. And golf, I guess.”I don’t think he’s ever played before that,” Hoffman said of Walker, who played with some of his family’s friends. “They were trying to get him with the golf lingo, tell him how to hit the ball, tell him how to cuss after you mess up. Golf’s a sport you can’t just go out and do it. You’ve got to have practice. He’s a lot better basketball player than golfer it’s safe to say.”Hoffman said, ballpark figure, Walker probably shot around a 120. Not bad for a probable first-timer.”You’ve got to give him the benefit of the doubt,” he said. “But he hit some better ones towards the end of the round.”**-All the buzz in the UNLV locker room, however, was around Wink Adams,** the Rebels’ stud guard. Talk about one of the best players you’ve probably never heard of. Adams, as mentioned yesterday in this blog, was a pretty big recruit out of Gulf Shores Academy in Houston. This year, he’s averaging 16.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 3.1 apg. Essentially, you could put him in KU’s lineup and give him the minutes of any of the Jayhawks’ top four guards, and the team probably wouldn’t skip a beat. Read more about him in tomorrow’s Journal-World and on KUSports.com.**-OK, this one is not from today, but it’s from two days ago and I forgot to use it.** There really hasn’t been an opportune time yet this season to ask the KU players about their impromptu meeting with rapper [Lil’ Wayne][1] on a road trip to Atlanta in mid-December to play Georgia Tech.After asking around, here’s how the story goes…The KU players came back from shootaround the day of the game to their hotel to see a tour bus parked across the street, and heard through the grapevine that it was Wayne’s. Some of the players started poking around at the bus, knocking on the windows, basically screwing around expecting it to be empty.”He honked the horn like three times and came out and was like ‘Hey, what’s up,'” Darrell Arthur recalled. “We were like ‘Hey, can we come on the bus?’ He was like ‘Yeah, come on.’ Got to hang out with him a little bit.The Jayhawks took pictures with Wayne, who was decked out in a flowing black Polo bathrobe, and the photos quickly made their ways onto the players Facebook pages, then onto message boards (of course).While Wayne wasn’t familiar with any of the players by name right off the bat, a member of his entourage quickly recognized Brandon Rush, which spawned a photo request of the two together from Wayne himself…not the other way round…or so the story goes…”He took a picture with me instead of me taking a picture with him,” Rush recalled with a sly grin. “We listen to his music all the time. He’s one of my favorite rappers of all time. It was really good to meet him, and he knew who I was, so that was real good for me.”Added Mario Chalmers: “Everybody on our team listens to Lil’ Wayne. Everybody’s a big Lil’ Wayne fan. To actually see him in person, be able to meet him, for him to come off the bus and greet us like he was just a regular person, like he was nobody special, that meant a lot to us and showed that once you get a little celebrity, you can’t get too bigheaded, and I think that really kinda humbled us, made us closer as a team.”His lyrics. You’ve got to listen to his lyrics. When he talks, he says some stuff that a lot of people can relate to.”**As for today with the Jayhawks in the locker room, I went off the beaten path a bit,** though it was more because I didn’t have the urge to fight through the TV cameras to get quotes instantaneously from the big guns.Therefore, I decided to spend a few good minutes each with **Conner Teahan, Brad Witherspoon and Chase Buford**. Here’s what good came of it…**With Teahan…** While it’s not the same magnitude of weirdness as a spanish TV reporter proposing to Tom Brady at Super Bowl media day, Teahan found out Wednesday that no Jayhawk stays out of the limelight for too long here.A reporter during the team’s first open locker room session of the week brought a portable DVD player showing the movie [‘High School Musical’][2], getting Teahan’s thoughts on his similar physical appearance to actor [Zac Efron][3].In essence, Teahan, who has become beloved this season for his late-game three-point heroics (12-of-20 this year in 18 games played), is simply soaking it in.”I definitely enjoy it because there’s not as much pressure on me,” he said of his walk-on experience so far this year. “Hopefully I’ll get to a point in my career where the pressure’s on me, but right now I kind of just sit back and relax. Not really enjoy the games, because I’m still at the end ofthe bench biting my nails and stuff like that, but it is a lot different being on the bench than playing.”For Teahan, another big change this year in being a part of the NCAA Tournament as opposed to just a casual observer is not being able to participate in his Dad’s NCAA pool.He said he still remembers his strategy, though, which never won it for him but always kept him in the top two or three slots annually.”For the really high seeds, usually I went by the book, but five seed or higher, I’d usually have them be upset or something like that,” he said. “Then, maybe if I really liked a team, I’d have them be going. Or if I thought they were really good, I’d have them upset a number one seed or something like that. Usually, Kansas was in there to the Final Four. At least. If not to the championship.”A lot of good that’s done him recently. He also mentioned that growing up a KU fan, that 2003 April night goes down as his biggest heartbreak yet.”Even though we were in the National Championship, when we lost to Syracuse I was pretty disappointed. That had to be up there,” he said. “Also, I think when we lost to Rhode Island. I was in my friend’s basement about to cry at that one…I remember I was yelling at them in the first half, because I think McNamara was hitting all the threes and I was getting so mad. And then we came back. It was frustrating, but it was a lot of fun to watch.”Also, what kind of pseudo-gossip reporter would I have been without asking his thoughts on his fledgling fame in Lawrence? It carried into the Qwest Center Thursday, by the way, when a smattering of KU students behind the scorers table started the ‘Conn-er-Tea-han’ chant.”It’s not like I’ve made a ton (of threes) relative to other people on the team,” he joked, rationalizing his stature among the student body.What about the popularity with the lady folk?”I have a girlfriend right now, so I can’t reallly be talking to other female students at Kansas. I guess I can’t really like it as much as I would.”Well played, sir.**With ‘Spoon…** It’s hard not to like Brad Witherspoon. Just a regular dude, good high school basketball player, not great, went to KU as your run-of-the-mill student, busted his butt and now travels, practices and learns the game with one of the nation’s top teams and coaches.He’s savoring these next couple of weeks, especially, because, well, they’re his last.”I always tell my friends I went from sitting at the top of the rafters at the Fieldhouse to courtside,” he said. “I tell my mom all the stories, and she’s telling me ‘You couldn’t pick two better years to be on the KU team.'”Next year, the Humboldt product will still be in school, but focusing on finishing his degree. That won’t allow time to play his normal walk-on role, which consumes much more time than you’d expect.That’ll be the weird part about next year, he claims.”I’m gonna have to get a job now,” he said. “It might be kind of relaxing in a sense. We’re so busy all year round, it’ll be nice to just have school and a job here and there.”And also it will mark a return to the KU rec center, where he is royalty in a way nowadays when he goes there. For two years, he ran the show there, and expect that to continue starting this summer.”My friends call me to go up there, I’m like ‘Man, I don’t want to go up there, have all these kids trying to guard me all hard, foul me, stuff like that,'” he said.When his Jayhawk days are done, though?”I’ve got to keep in shape some how.”**With Buford…**If you were talking about this team 10 years from now, something tells me after talking with Chase Buford that he’d be the most fun guy of the bunch to sit and have a beer with.Aside from an engaging personality, he’s honest.Some guys on this team don’t want to claim they filled out brackets for fun, but he’s pretty up front about it.”Arizona killed me,” he said with a sigh. “I had them upsetting Duke.”While I didn’t have as much time with Buford as some of the others, he gave me my favorite exchange of the week so far, after he mentioned the team’s affinity for [Call of Duty][4]. (Known by me only through [this clip][5] from The Office)**CB (Talking about the team’s love of the iPhone)**: Our team just has to have the latest and greatest, I think. Last year was the Sidekicks. Almost as addictive as Call of Duty for our team. If we’re not on our iPhones…We’re not allowed to play past midnight, though…**RG**: *wink, wink*?**CB**: Exactly.**That all said, here’s what I’ll be looking for Saturday…**-Sherron Collins. He had a McDavid sleeve on his left knee during the Portland State game, and revealed Friday that he tweaked it a bit a couple of days ago. It doesn’t sound like anything to freak out about like his knee condition during last year’s tournament. He said everything is fine (though of course he’s going to say that). Expect another 10-5-5 game from him off the bench in 25 minutes or so.-KU must start hot against UNLV, must show some effort and hitting shots in the opening minutes will be key. The Rebels tend to think they can hang with the Jayhawks should they be able to dominate with defense the way they did Thursday against Kent State.-I truly believe Kansas State will beat Wisconsin. Or at least that Kansas State team that beat USC Thursday will beat Wisconsin.-The outside shooting of Joe Darger and Wink Adams holds the key for the Rebels.-Pack your bags for Detroit. Well, that’s what my bracket tells me.Talk to you tomorrow.[NCAA Home Page][6] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil_Wayne [2]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475293/ [3]: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1374980/ [4]: http://www.callofduty.com/ [5]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chi9HhO941E [6]: http://www.ncaasports.com
