KU Basketball Magazine

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

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The Comeback Kids

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2012-2013 Team Head Coach Bill Self Season by Season

No Regrets: Self savors a special season

Big 12 Forecast KU Schedule

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

CoMebaCk kids

THE

COmeBaCK KidS

Elijah Johnson deserves the credit — all the acclaim — for christening the 2011-12 Kansas Jayhawks the “Comeback Kids.”

“It’s definitely a good nickname ... the one Elijah came up with last year,” KU senior center Jeff Withey said while walking through the famed northwest tunnel of Allen Fieldhouse with senior point guard Johnson after a photo shoot for the JournalWorld’s 2012-13 preseason men’s basketball magazine.

“It was good for us last year. We’ll see about this year.

Hopefully we don’t have to come back very often,” Withey added.

The never-say-die Jayhawks, who rallied from a 19-point deficit to defeat Missouri in overtime during the regular season, trailed Purdue by six, North Carolina State by one, was tied with North Carolina, trailed Ohio State by nine and Kentucky by 14 at halftime of games in the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky did ultimately prevail in the national title game, but only after

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Story by Gary bedore

Photos by nick kRuG 9

CoMebaCk kids

surviving a KU rally that sliced the deficit to five points in the final minutes.

“It definitely could have a double meaning,” Withey said of the “Comeback Kids” moniker.

After all, Withey, a 7-footer from San Diego, and Johnson, 6-4 from Las Vegas, are “coming back” for their senior seasons after toying with the idea of entering the 2012 NBA Draft.

“We both definitely thought about it. We’re here. We’re coming back, so yeah it definitely has a double meaning,” Withey said.

Indeed, in this, the age of “one and done,” it may surprise some that three of the best basketball players in the Big 12 Conference happen to be Jayhawk seniors.

“It was a long wait for sure,” fifth-year senior Travis Releford said of the time that elapsed before he, Johnson and Withey were considered locks for huge minutes and leaders of the Jayhawk team.

“But it was all worth it.”

The three players, who along with Loyola Marymount transfer Kevin Young make up this year’s senior class, have proven once again that good things do indeed come to those who wait.

“Coach (Bill) Self brought us in the locker room (in June) to let our freshmen know how you’ve got to put in work if you want to be out there, if you want to be able to play,” Releford said.

“Coach asked me what it was like when I first played here.

My answer was my first time really getting to play was last year.

He wanted us to let our new guys know it’s not easy. You are not going to be a freshman to come in here and be given anything.

You’ve got to come in and take it.”

There was never any huge concern that last year’s juniors would head to the NBA and bypass the 2012-13 college season, though Withey was considered a possible late first-round, certain second-round pick and Johnson a likely second-round selection.

“I’m happy with my decision,” said Withey, who averaged 9.0 10

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.6 blocks (fourth in country) a game his junior season. “The draft was kind of a gamble. Perry Jones (Baylor, No. 28) went pretty late and Tyler Zeller (North Carolina, No. 17). It was just a weird draft, and I’m happy I came back. I get to prove to everybody one more year that I deserve to be there, and I’m going to make the most of it.”

Withey, during a three-game, six-day stretch in February against Baylor, Oklahoma State and Kansas State, averaged 20.3 points, 12 rebounds and 6.3 blocks, and then returned to previous levels of production. The ball will come his way more consistently this season.

“My role is going to change dramatically,” Withey said, “from not having to worry about scoring to being one of the top three scorers on the team, so it’s definitely going to be a fun experience.

In high school, I scored 25 a game, so just getting that confidence back will be big.”

Johnson — he had arthroscopic knee surgery in April — would not have been able to work out for NBA teams had he decided to leave. However, it’s not his health that guaranteed his return. He is serious about this being his time to make a mark at KU. “I feel when they get down to the last couple seconds in the game, I want everybody to look at me and feel comfortable,” Johnson said. “I want my teammates to know that every night I am trying to take them all the way as far as I can, further than we went last year and try to be positive in any situation.”

Johnson — he averaged 10.2 points and 3.5 assists per game a year ago — said he appreciates the faith his coach and teammates have in him.

“I know coach supports my decision-making for the most part,” Johnson said. “I need to do things like get to the free-throw line. I’ve not been to the line anywhere near as much as I should, not even close (32 of 46 last season). I notice the games I do get to the line ... I don’t know if it’s because I’m more aggressive or

“It definitely could have a double meaning.” —WIthey what, but I tend to score more points and good things happen. I get to see the whole game. Once I get to the line early, it’s usually a long night for the other team.”

As always, it is the seniors’ team.

“I was born to do this. This is my time,” Johnson said. “I would be a fool if I said I wasn’t ready. Who would say that? I am a natural leader. A lot of people might not see it. My teammates know. I won’t tell them to do something I won’t do. That’s good enough right there.”

Releford — he averaged 8.5 points and 4.2 boards last season — sets a strong example by playing down-and-dirty defense.

“Coach said I could be the guy who can step up and stop the scorer on the opposing team. I can step up and do that,” Releford, a 6-6 native of Kansas City, Mo., said. “I’ve been knowing my role since I first got here. I’m getting my chance to do it. I will continue trying to take the other team’s best player on the perimeter.”

The three Jayhawks who have been here the longest, plus Young, a 6-8 native of Perris, Calif., hope ultimately to lead this team to greatness, maybe even one more win than a year ago.

“Nobody’s satisfied,” Johnson said simply.

“I definitely want a national championship. That’s my goal,” Withey said.

2012-2013 TeaM

Photos by nick kRuG and Mike yodeR

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

2012-2013 men's basketball lineUp

1 2 3 4 5 10 11 15 20 21 23 24 31 32 33 34 40

Naadir Tharpe Rio Adams Andrew White Justin Wesley Jeff Withey Evan Manning Tyler Self Elijah Johnson Niko Roberts Christian Garrett Ben Mclemore Travis Releford Jamari Traylor Zach Peters landen lucas Perry Ellis Kevin young 13

2012-2013 TeaM

6' 4" HeigHt WeigHt 195 HometoWn las vegas, nv

“elijah has emerged to me as a guy who is the next great one.”

elijahJOhNsON

nUmber 15 position guarD Year senior

—BIll Self

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Story by Gary bedore

Photos by nick kRuG

Kansas University has had a plethora of outstanding senior point guards in recent history: Darnell Valentine, Cedric Hunter, Adonis Jordan, Jacque Vaughn, Kirk Hinrich, Aaron Miles, Russell Robinson, Sherron Collins and Tyshawn Taylor to name just a few.

This year, it’s Elijah Johnson’s turn to take over the much-coverted floor general/ team leader position.

“Elijah has emerged to me as a guy who is the next great one,” KU coach Bill Self said.

Johnson won’t argue with anybody who dares say it’s “Elijah’s team.”

“That’s how I want to embrace it,” said Johnson, a 6-4, 195-pounder from Las Vegas by way of Gary, Ind. Johnson proved a lot to his teammates last March. He was playing less than 100 percent because of a swollen knee that required offseason arthroscopic surgery and kept him off the court until mid-July.

“I was all right. I was a little uncomfortable, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t play through,” Johnson said of last year’s knee injury.

He would not acknowledge his swollen left knee to media inquisitors during the NCAA Tournament. He never made excuses to his teammates.

“He was dealing with that during the season, too. He doesn’t complain. If I had to choose somebody on the team who didn’t complain about anything, it’d be Elijah,” said junior Justin Wesley. “He really did play through it and play through it well. I think it would have been scary if he was 100 percent.”

Johnson had a strong NCAA Tournament, helping KU to five victories — including one over Purdue, a school that did not recruit him. Johnson was born and raised in Gary, Ind., but moved to Las Vegas in eighth grade.

“I had already gone to the West Coast.

They didn’t even know I was from there when I was getting recruited,” he said of the Boilermakers.

Johnson actually learned how to play the game with the help of a Purdue alum.

That person would be Glenn Robinson, who played on the 1994 Purdue team that knocked KU out of the 1994 NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16.

“He came from Roosevelt High School, the same high school I was going to go to,” Johnson said. “I went to his camps in the summer as a little kid.”

Johnson’s dad, Marcus, and Indiana youth coaches also drilled him on fundamentals.

“My game ... I think when people hear

I am from Vegas, they are kind of confused about that. Then I tell them I’m really from Indiana, it kind of makes sense,” Johnson said. “I’ve got a feel for the game. I enjoy the game more than the average person.

You can tell by the way I see things, by the way I don’t care about scoring, by the way I enjoy how basketball is supposed to be played. Because in Indiana they don’t just play basketball, they teach you how to play

basketball. It’s not just about going oneon-one — can you score 40? — and not play defense. It’s about the whole court. I learned that in Indiana.”

Johnson is the obvious candidate to take over as lead guard this season — his senior year.

“I’ve learned a lot from Tyshawn (Taylor), being hungry, realizing we’re lucky to be at Kansas,” Johnson said.

15

“Whenever the fans get fired up, that helps me too. I feed off the energy of the crowd.”

—WIthey

jeff Withey

nUmber 5 position Center Year senior

HeigHt 7' 0" WeigHt 235 HometoWn san Diego

2012-2013 TeaM

Story by tom KeeGan 16

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Photos by nick kRuG

The college basketball dream Jeff Withey lives — entering his senior season at Kansas University after a Final Four appearance — started more like a nightmare packed with cruel teases.

His signed out of Horizon High in San Diego to play for Lute Olson at Arizona, and when the Hall of Fame coach retired, Withey wanted out.

The school initially told him he would not be granted a release from his scholarship. His father, Mike, was five minutes from hiring an attorney to try to make it happen when his son finally was set free in December 2008.

Because he had enrolled at Arizona, Withey was not eligible to join the Kansas basketball team on the court until second semester of his red-shirt-freshman year, on Dec. 29, 2009, against Belmont.

Already playing behind Cole Aldrich, Marcus and Markieff Morris and Thomas Robinson in the frontcourt, Withey’s workout time lost that fall because of a right-knee stress fracture didn’t help.

He appeared in 15 games and played 45 minutes in the 2009-2010 season, showing promise by totaling 19 points, 21 rebounds and six blocked shots. Other than in an eight-point, five-rebound effort in 12 minutes of a victory in Ames, Iowa, he never played double-digit minutes.

The departure of Aldrich to the NBA that summer gave Withey a shot at significantly more playing time as a sophomore, but bad luck again hunted down the 7-footer. He broke the metatarsal in his right foot during individual workouts in late September 2010, had surgery and spent several weeks on crutches while his teammates became better.

He needed to gain weight but lost 15 pounds.

“I was stuck in bed,” Withey said. “I couldn’t really move. It was hard to get to the kitchen. It was hard to get anywhere.

My armpits were sore just from crutching everywhere. Coming into that year, I thought I was going to be a big contributor, and then I had the foot problem, and it set me back so far I felt like I just kind of lost my chance to contribute and play. It was really depressing.”

Withey reached double-digit minutes in six games and never scored in double

figures. He didn’t play in two of the four 2011 NCAA Tournament games and played two minutes apiece in the other games, both blowouts.

Now look at him. Midway through Withey’s junior season, in February, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association named him the Oscar Robertson national player of the week after he scored a career-high 25 points against Baylor and had a careerbest 20 rebounds against Oklahoma State.

In his next game, he had 18 points, 11 rebounds and nine blocked shots against Kansas State.

Withey earned Big 12 defensive player of the year honors. Not many 7-footers shoot technical free throws for their teams, but Withey does, thanks to a .794 percentage from the line.

In playing Kansas into the Final Four, Withey blocked 10 shots in a three-point victory against North Carolina State and had 15 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in a 13-point victory against North Carolina’s ballyhooed front line. His defensive dominance played a big part in UNC making one of its final 14 shots and none of its last seven. His two blocked shots in the final minutes triggered fast breaks. He earned first-team All-Midwest Region honors, along with Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor.

Withey credits his volleyball experience — starting on the beach in his middle school years and progressing to indoor volleyball on a club team (which cost his parents $500 a month) — for developing the timing to block shots. He not only blocks shots, he sometimes uses the blocks to start fast breaks by tapping the ball forward. He even has been known to block

a shot, catch it and toss it ahead to get KU’s speedy guards on their way.

All the setbacks along the way to becoming such a force in college basketball were not time wasted, according to Withey.

“It definitely made me a lot tougher,” he said. “When I come out and play, I don’t take it for granted at all.”

He credited his coach with playing a role in his increased toughness as well.

The most publicized instance of Bill Self’s fury aimed Withey’s way came in a practice after the center went scoreless in the loss to Missouri in Columbia on Feb. 4. Self made Withey run every step of Allen Fieldhouse, just before the center went on a tear that earned him national honors.

“It definitely makes you pretty upset,” Withey said. “After that, I had something to prove to him.”

Self still finds ways to prod his center into a foul mood.

“He definitely challenges me all the time, in practice, before the game,” Withey said. “He knows how to get me hyped up before a game. Sometimes, I definitely need that. That challenge gets me going.

Sometimes it’s hard to jump-start my motor. I’m laid-back, so it’s hard for me to get, I guess, super angry and ready for games.”

Self starts the motor. Withey’s dunks and blocked shots spark it to a higher speed.

“Those are really emotional plays and those get me fired up and get the fans fired up,” Withey said in March. “Whenever the fans get fired up, that helps me too. I feed off the energy of the crowd.”

And the team feeds off his defensive dominance.

17

TravisRelefORd nUmber nUmber nU mber 2415 HeigHt HeigHt Heig Ht 6'6'6"4" position WeigHt pposition osition guarD guarD g uarD WeigHt uar Weig Ht 210 H 195 Year Year senior Junior HometoWn HometoWn HometoW Hometo Wn kansas llas as vvegas, egas, City, nv mo

2012-2013 TeaM

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Story by JeSSe newell

Photos by nick kRuG

“I feel like this is my time to be able to show what I’ve learned.”

—RelefoRd

The clock on the locker room wall expired, and when Jordan Juenemann saw it, he and the rest of the Kansas University men’s basketball players prepared to take the court for the Jayhawks’ Sweet 16 game against N.C. State.

A few seconds later, KU’s coaches entered and told the guys to relax. The North Carolina-Ohio game had just gone to overtime, meaning KU had five more minutes to wait.

Though he most likely wasn’t going to be relied upon as part of KU’s rotation, Juenemann, a senior walk-on, could feel his own nerves building.

He could sense the same around him as well. Many of his teammates put headphones back, nodding their heads to the beat of a tune while singing along with the lyrics.

As Juenemann scanned the room, his focus stopped on teammate Travis Releford.

The junior was sitting by himself on the stool in front of his locker, hands clasped in front of him with a big smile on his face.

No need for headphones.

“He seemed so calm,” Juenemann recalled, “and ready to play.”

It’s a moment, teammates say, that describes Releford well.

The Kansas City, Mo., native is the cool guy in KU’s locker room, the laid-back one whom everyone likes, former KU guard

Conner Teahan said, noting: “I don’t think anybody’s ever had a problem with Travis.

I think he could hang out with pretty much anybody.”

It’s that kind of no-worries attitude that has helped Releford thrive during his five years at KU. Though he was once a top-five prospect early in his high-school career, Releford didn’t enter with an ego when he joined the Jayhawks in 2008.

His freshman year, he played just seven minutes per game while averaging 2.7 points.

“I knew there were things I had to work on. Nothing was given to me, as they were in the past,” Releford said. “I knew I had to work to step on the court and perform. It didn’t bother me, stepping back and learning more about the game and bettering my skills all around.”

Following a red-shirt year, the 6-foot-6 small forward suffered a sprained ankle midway through the 2010-11 season.

After missing six games, he never fully recovered from the injury, averaging just 4.7 minutes in KU’s final 18 contests.

“I think that was very frustrating for him, but at the same time, he’s always been such a good team player,” Teahan said. “... When he could have had a bad attitude when all that was going down, he stayed positive.”

Following the departure of Brady Morningstar to graduation, Releford took

advantage of KU’s open spot in the starting lineup.

He started all but one game his junior year, only coming off the bench on Senior Night, while giving his team a lockdown perimeter defender in the mold of former KU standout Brandon Rush.

Releford’s contributions weren’t ignored by one major publication. In March, he was named to SI.com’s “All Glue Team.”

Only six players receive the honor nationally. Former Jayhawks Morningstar (2011) and Christian Moody (2005) picked up the same honor in previous years.

Many times last season, coach Bill Self endearingly described Releford as having an “old man’s game.”

“I’ve been hearing that awhile. But I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or not,” Releford said with a smile. “I’m guessing just a guy that knows a lot about the game and makes smart plays while not forcing anything.”

Those old-man moves were on display in an NCAA Tournament win over N.C. State, when on a fast break Releford weaved in and out before reversing on a spin move to put in a layup.

Self and teammates jokingly gave him flak after the game for his move being slow.

Not surprisingly, Releford didn’t take them seriously. He deadpanned that it was a move that he couldn’t teach, and if they wanted to learn, they should watch his tapes.

“I felt like I was moving fast,” Releford said with a laugh. “I don’t think it was too much that an old man can do.”

More than anything, Releford said he’s been enjoying his opportunity to play.

The cool, laid-back guy in KU’s locker room has seen his patience pay off.

“I feel like this is my time,” Releford said, “to be able to show what I’ve learned.”

19

kevin yOUNg

nUmber 40 position ForWarD Year senior

HeigHt 6' 8" WeigHt 195 HometoWn Perris, Ca

2012-2013 TeaM

Story by Gary bedore 20

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Photos by nick kRuG

Kansas University senior forward Kevin Young hopes to play for Puerto Rico’s Olympic Basketball Team in the summer of 2016.

“I’ll go back next year for the world championships,” said Young, a 6-8, 195-pound power forward from Perris, Calif., who tried out for the U.S. commonwealth’s 2012 Olympic team in June.

He survived a first round of cuts, but was told he’d be bumped from the national team once several Puerto Rican pro players reported to tryout camp.

“I really didn’t get an answer what I need to improve on, the reason I was cut, what I didn’t do right. Hopefully I can change it next time I go down there,” said Young, whose grandparents were born in Puerto Rico, making him eligible to play. “It was a good opportunity to get my face shown over there.”

Young said he enjoyed competing with the likes of J.J. Barea (Minnesota, NBA), Shabazz Napier (UConn), Mike Rosario (Florida) and Renaldo Balkman (South Carolina) at tryouts.

“It was fun. I learned a lot. I think I grew a lot as a player, too,” said Young, one of 12 players asked to participate in a tournament in Puerto Rico during the tryout process.

“I worked on my shot, my handles a bit.”

KU coach Bill Self said he heard Young played well at tryouts.

“The last game he plays five minutes, gets eight points, four rebounds, is 2-for-2 from three, which I was kind of excited to hear about. Kevin will have a good year this year because he’s going to be a lot more comfortable,” Self said.

Young was a member of Puerto Rico’s national team which competed in the FIBA U19 World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand, in July 2009. Young averaged 7.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in the U19 games where Puerto Rico went 5-4. Led by former Jayhawk Tyshawn Taylor, Team USA won the gold medal at the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championships.

Young was a valuable bench player for the Jayhawks during his first year on Mt. Oread.

The transfer out of Loyola Marymount appeared in 38 games and averaged 11.4 minutes, 3.4 points and 3.0 rebounds “I love playing with him, man, because his intensity is always high, always high,” former KU point guard Taylor of the Brooklyn Nets said. “No matter what he’s doing, he’s going 100 mph.”

Early last season, defensive deficiencies made it difficult for Young to stay on the court. Stronger players overpowered him, quicker players beat him off the dribble.

“I’ve been trying a lot to improve on it,” Young said.

Much of the improvement comes from facing a variety of styles in practice.

“I’ll guard anyone from Thomas (Robinson), Jeff (Withey), Justin (Wesley), all the way to Elijah (Johnson) or Travis (Releford),” Young said of last season’s duties.

The toughest guy to keep from scoring?

“Probably Thomas, just because of his strength,” Young said.

Young’s not a banger like Sacramento Kings rookie Robinson, but he can hustle his way into position for rebounds.

“I’ve got to play a lot harder, in practice.

I have to make everybody around me better every day,” Young said. “Off the court and on the court, contribute to the team any way I can.”

He promises to get on the boards like his idol, Dennis Rodman.

“Before the games I usually watch a couple of his highlights,” Young said. “My favorite part of the game is rebounding. He obviously mastered rebounding. He’s one of those players who didn’t have to score to contribute.”

Young hopes to contribute in the leadership department.

“I try to lead by example, I guess,” he said.

Journal-World sports editor Tom Keegan contributed to this report

“I love playing with him, man, because his intensity is always high, always high.”

—tyShaWn tayloR

21

2012-2013 TeaM

Perry ellis

nUmber 34 position ForWarD Year Freshman

HeigHt 6' 8" WeigHt 225 HometoWn WiChita, ks

“I think he has a chance to be really really good, a home-state guy who comes and has a chance to be really good.” —BIll Self

Story by Gary bedore 22

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Photos by nick kRuG and John younG, RiGht

Perry Ellis arrives at Kansas University as one of the top high school basketball players in the history of the Sunflower State.

The 6-foot-8, 225-pound Wichita Heights phenom — the state’s first McDonald’s All-American since Wayne Simien — concluded his career as the state’s first four-time Gatorade Player of the Year.

He led Heights to an unprecedented four straight state titles, recording a 95-5 record in his four years as a starter. That boils down to marks of 24-1 in 2008-09, 23-2 in 2009-10, 25-0 in 2010-11 and 23-2 last season.

For the record, he averaged 19.2 points and 11.7 rebounds per game as a freshman, 22.2 points and 10.4 rebounds as a sophomore, 22.1 points and 7.9 rebounds as a junior and, 25.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists, one steal and one block per game as a senior.

“What Perry has done under pressure with expectations is remarkable,” KU coach Bill Self said of the Wichita City League’s all-time leading scorer. “Regardless how many good players you have, you have to find a way to produce and win and he’s done it with class. In the classroom, he’s never made a B. It’s a remarkable high school career he had.”

Self will be able to plug Ellis into spots on the inside and on the perimeter.

“I’m most excited to coach his athletic ability,” Self said.

“People talk about how he can shoot and play the 3 (small forward), and people talk about how he can post. That kid can run and jump. Being able to see how he can play, and if he can guard a 2 (shooting guard) or if he can guard a 5 (post), it’s going to be exciting to watch how he progresses and his athletic ability allowing him to become a great player.

“There are a lot of great players out there that could be really good players, but their athletic ability may not allow them to be great. He’s a guy whose athletic ability gives him a chance to be great.”

Ellis — he’s been in the news since Sports Illustrated wrote about him in eighth grade — exits high school realizing all his goals were fulfilled.

“It was just crazy. It went just like we planned,” Ellis said.

“My freshman year, I came in (to Heights) .... me, my parents and coach (Joe) Auer ... we all sat down and talked, and I said that I want to win four straight (state championships).

“It just showed me that if you put your heart and mind to it and work hard, you can accomplish anything you want to.

It was just real great that I got the chance to experience that (winning four straight state championships).”

Ellis, Rivals.com’s No. 24-player nationally in the Class of 2012, chose KU over Kansas State, Wichita State and Kentucky.

“We put a lot of time into Perry,” Self said. “Danny (Manning, now Tulsa head coach) did a great job. Perry obviously to me has a chance to have an impact on our program like Wayne (Simien, Leavenworth) did. I think he has a chance to be really really good, a home-state guy who comes and has a chance to be really good.”

Self likes the intangibles.

“He’s a quiet kid. Academically, the kid is so competitive in the classroom; there’s not a lot of guys we recruit that have that type of discipline or type of motivation to do as well in the classroom; he really works at it,” Self said.

Ellis, who ranked No. 1 in his graduating class and was one of four Heights valedictorians, volunteers as a youth basketball instructor and also for youth literacy-outreach initiatives. He serves as motivational speaker for youngsters and gives time to the Wichita Children’s Home.

He’s ready to begin his college career.

“I knew for so long. I’ve been there so many times. I felt so comfortable there,” Ellis said of reasons for picking KU. “It (comfort level) made me realize that was the school. It was in my mind awhile, not a pop-up type thing.”

Ellis said he likes. ...

• KU’s tradition: “Before the games, they play the little video how the game was created there, by James Naismith,” said Ellis. “I look at all that stuff. It’s one of the top programs.

I’m going to try to be a part of it.”

• The proximity to home: “I mean, it’s far enough to feel away. It’s close enough I can come back anytime,” said Ellis, who has a pair of younger brothers in Brae and Cameron and an older sister, Savannah, who played basketball at Memphis.

“I could have stayed home (to play at WSU). I love being around my family. I just felt comfortable at KU. It was the right location and right fit for me.”

• The attention: “He (Self) was the first to come to my games my freshman year. That really impressed me and humbled me,” Ellis said. “He’s a real good person, and I’m excited to play for him.”

Heights coach Auer said he’s heard college coaches say Ellis “is a matchup nightmare. He can guard the perimeter. He can guard the inside and out. Coaches didn’t really talk a lot about what position he’d play, that’d it be a combination.”

“He strives for perfection in everything, schoolwork and basketball,” noted Wichita Pray and Play Players’ coach Steve Young. “I think you see that in the high percentage he shoots, his desire for perfection.”

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Story by Gary bedore

Photos by nick kRuG

“Potential. I mean, he’s as good a prospect as anybody we have in the gym. Period.”

—BIll Self

There are plenty of candidates for best dunker on Kansas University’s basketball team entering the 2012-13 season.

Elijah Johnson ... Jeff Withey ... Justin Wesley each have been known to rattle the rims at practice and in games.

Yet word is Ben McLemore, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound jumping jack from St. Louis, just might put everybody to shame this campaign. The red-shirt freshman resembles Michael Jordan in his prime in his explosive, take-off-from-the-free-throw-line jams.

“The best play Ben had at practice (last season when he could practice second semester but not play in games) was on a fast break,” red-shirt freshman Jamari Traylor said. “Naadir (Tharpe) had the ball at halfcourt. He threw an alley-oop, and Ben jumped the highest I’ve ever seen anybody jump in my life maybe and he dunked it. I think practice ended off that.”

McLemore — who was Rivals.com’s No. 17-rated recruit in the Class of 2011 — remembers that slam-jam well.

“I told Naadir to throw it up. He threw it up, I jumped and got it,” McLemore said of sophomore Tharpe. “I’ve got a good vertical and stuff like that. I jumped pretty high to get it with two hands. I think that was one of the best plays I got all year.

“I also remember one time I stole the ball from Jeff Withey and had a break by myself in the open court. I jumped pretty high and dunked it.”

McLemore, who is known both for his slashing ability and outside shooting past the three-point line, hopes to surprise on the defensive end.

“I think my defense has picked up,” he said. “When I first got here, I was sluggish and tired trying to guard Tyshawn (Taylor) all around. He’s a fast point guard. My defense is getting better.

“I think this year will be a shock, (after) not playing at all and coming out and playing a lot of minutes. It’s going to be weird because I’m going to be a freshman again playing a lot of minutes. I can’t wait.”

McLemore — he averaged 28.3 points and 12.7 rebounds a game his junior year at St. Louis’ Wellston High before attending both Oak Hill Academy in Virginia and Christian Life Center in Houston his senior year — is definitely fired up about 2012-13.

“Tyshawn (Taylor), (Conner) Teahan and T-Rob (Thomas Robinson) are gone, but Elijah (Johnson), Travis (Releford), Jamari ... we’ll all be coming together. We have a great recruiting class coming in. I think it’ll be a great season,” McLemore said.

“I learned so much at practice guarding Tyshawn and Elijah and Conner and Travis Releford. Sometimes I’d guard the big men. I learned a lot, definitely.”

KU coach Bill Self said McLemore “has the fastest feet of anybody we’ve coached. He’ll lead the team in shot attempts.

We’re trying to plant the seed, ‘Ben, you can be a great defender, too.’ He has a chance to be great.

“Potential. I mean, he’s as good a prospect as anybody we have in the gym. Period. And if you were to ask our players who the best prospect is, including themselves, they would say Ben McLemore.”

Of course, McLemore is raw.

“Now, he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Self said. “He has no concept of certain things. His handle and passing ability reminds me of Brandon Rush when he was young, which if you remember, wasn’t great. But he can run, jump and shoot.”

Ben’s little brother, Kevin, last year smiled widely when asked who his brother most resembled on the court.

“I’d say LeBron James,” Kevin said. “He loves LeBron James.

We’ll be going against each other, and he’ll say he’s LeBron James.”

There’s no way the soft-spoken Ben McLemore would ever hint he is a LeBron in the making.

“I think Ben is one of the most humble, unselfish kids I’ve ever had the pleasure of being around,” said Darius Cobb, McLemore’s AAU coach.

“You ask me what I expect of him at Kansas ... whatever Bill (Self) wants him to do, he’ll do it. If he needs 30 (points), he’ll give him 30. If he needs 15 assists, he’ll give him that. If he needs 40 minutes of defense, he’ll do that. If he needs him to keep stats, he’ll do that,” Cobb added.

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nUmber 4 position ForWarD Year rs Junior

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Story by Gary bedore Justin Wesley wasn’t surprised that an unheralded Kansas University basketball team advanced all the way to the Final Four during the 2011-12 season.

That was the plan when he decided to leave Lamar University after one year for Lawrence.

“I mean I knew when I was coming here that every year we would be in position to do this,” said the 6-foot9 junior from Fort Worth, Texas. “I knew I was coming to a school with rich tradition in winning. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. Going to the Final Four was great. It’s a great feeling to know I made the right decision.”

Wesley was part of the rotation most of the season, averaging 8.6 minutes per game in 38 games.

“It was fulfilling doing my role, everything coach wants me to do,” Wesley said. “As far as my role, keeping the defensive tempo up, getting extra rebounds, extra possessions, finishing everything I get around the basket.

It’s the one way I can contribute.”

KU’s starters appreciated the effort.

“Justin has great energy, is athletic for sure. He can jump out of the gym,” noted center Jeff Withey. “He had some foul problems but definitely gave us a spark every time he was in the game.”

Wesley also provided some comic relief with the gap in his teeth. He had a front right tooth knocked out at practice last Nov. 28.

“My mom was (upset) at first, but all she does is make fun of me. She calls me ‘Snaggletooth,’” said Wesley, who averaged 1.2 points and 1.6 boards per game.

Indeed, mom, Charlene Taylor-Mask, said: “That stuff doesn’t bother me anymore. Now all three of them (sons) have had their front tooth knocked out,” she added, referring to her oldest son, Keith Langford, having a tooth dislodged during his KU career, and

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Photo by nick kRuG middle son, Kevin, who had a tooth displaced during his years at TCU. “That’s something they can all get together and talk about when they’re old and not playing anymore.”

Langford, who is KU’s seventh-leading scorer of all time, plays for EA7 Emporio Armani Milano in Italy.

Kevin plays for Navarra in Spain.

“Keith is super-excited (about baby brother Justin).

He says he’s not the same kid on and off the court as he was at Lamar,” Charlene said.

Like Keith, Charlene has noticed a big change in her son in two seasons at KU. “It’s like night and day, not so much the physical part of the game, but from the shoulders up,” said Taylor-Mask, who played college ball at Texas-Arlington.

“His all-around knowledge of what he is doing and his confidence level ... (it’s) night and day. I knew he had the physical capabilities to be good, the prototypical body to be that 3, 4, sometimes 5 guy, a defensive stopper, a freak athlete. Looking at him, his moves on the court … it’ll take time to put that together.

“Coach (Bill Self) and I have talked about this and that, where his confidence level is now from where he came in and where it could be when he leaves. I’m proud of him and really excited for him.”

Wesley has proven he’ll do whatever he can to help his game. First he was a sponge soaking in information from Danny Manning. Next, for two weeks at the conclusion of last school year, he spent time in Austin, Texas, training with brother Keith’s own personal trainer.

“Now he is (my trainer, too),” Wesley said. “I worked out with him every day for two weeks, three to four hours a day. He not only works me out, but is like a mentor, too.”

It’s that extra work he hopes puts his team in the Final Four ... again.

nUmber 1 guarD position Year soPhomore HeigHt 5' 11" 170 WeigHt HometoWn WorCester, ma

Story by matt tait Tharpe said. “And I know I need more out of myself. It’s definitely motivating. Last year I didn’t really get to play as much as I wanted to, but I had to look at myself in the mirror and see how much I really wanted to do this, and I’m just working hard every day to try to get on that court.”

Asked what area of his game he had focused on the most, Tharpe said he had done a lot of lowerbody work but that he was not emphasizing one thing more than another.

“Just all around,” he said. “I need to work on everything. I really didn’t do anything spectacular last year at all, so I still need to work on everything.”

Hard work is not something from which Tharpe shies away. As a young player, at age 10, he found

Photo by nick kRuG himself buried on the bench of his youth all-star team and responded by working hard enough in the offseason to become a starter the following year. Tharpe has that same mindset now and is looking forward to watching it pay off.

“From the things I’ve heard, all of the years they had a stacked team here there were a lot of great players but some of them didn’t get a chance to play right away and, you know, they had to keep working hard,” Tharpe said. “Like coach said about Russ, his first year he didn’t play, his next three years he started.

So, it shows from the past. You’re not just going to be able to come here and think you’re gonna just be able to play. You have to know the system and you have to work hard.

That’s the only way you’ll be able to get on the floor.”

naadirthaRpe

Back in June, when former Jayhawk point guard Russell Robinson got his first up-close look at current Kansas University sophomore Naadir Tharpe, he liked what he saw.

“I think he has enough talent to get some minutes on this team,” said Robinson, the starting point guard on KU’s 2008 national championship team. “You know, Tyshawn (Taylor) was ahead of him last year, and that’s tough, but I think Naadir is a better point guard at that stage than I was.”

That’s not the only time these two have been compared.

During Robinson’s first year in Lawrence, he played sparingly and contemplated leaving KU at the end of his freshman season. He didn’t, of course, and wound up starting for the next three seasons and walking away with a nationalchampionship ring.

During Robinson’s tough time, he got a lift from former teammate Aaron Miles, who simply reassured the New York native that he was a good player and that things would work out as long as he put in the time. Robinson said he tried to give similar advice to Tharpe. “(I just tried) to set some knowledge on him,” Robinson said.

“The fact that he was supporting his team (last season) means his mind is still into it. I think he’ll have an opportunity to play this year, and I think he’ll make the most of it.”

Like New York City Rice High graduate Robinson, Tharpe, who hails from hoops factory Brewster (N.H.) Academy, logged fewer minutes (5.5 per game) than he would have liked during his freshman season and often found it tough to adjust from being a starting prep school point guard to a spot role player in college. But also like Robinson, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Tharpe chose to remain at KU and has worked mighty hard in the offseason on his game.

“Coach (Bill Self) told me that he’s going to need more out of me,”

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Traylor, who was kept busy trying to guard AllAmerican Robinson much of the time, said his personal highlight “was probably a defensive play, a block or something. I probably got a couple blocks in a row,” Traylor said.

It’s unlikely the blocks came against 6-10, 237-pound first-round NBA Draft pick Robinson, who schooled Traylor on more than one occasion.

“He didn’t guard me as much as I had to guard him.

I’d make sure I’d guard him,” said Traylor, who was determined to learn from the best. “It was real intense.

Sometimes he’d get real mad with me. He tried to push me around all the time. I’ve got to show him I’m not a chump, you know? I am really a physical guy. I know how to finish at the rim. I really take pride in defense.”

Traylor made sure to bring his A-game to practice every day.

There was no reason to hold back, considering he wouldn’t be allowed to play in games until this season.

“If there was a time I cried it was probably the day I found out I was ineligible (in October). Other than that, I don’t think I got that frustrated in practice,” said Traylor, Rivals.com’s No. 141-ranked player in the recruiting Class of 2011.

“It’s going to benefit me in the long run. This is going to be my freshman year, so I got like a year of practice under my belt. I already know all the plays and I’ve been practicing against one of the best players in college who is going to be a great NBA player. That practice is going to prepare me for anything.”

Traylor said a highlight of his year was soaking up information from assistant coach Danny Manning, who left after the season to become head coach at Tulsa.

“I’m not going to forget it. You can’t forget that kind of stuff,” Traylor said of pointers from the 15-year NBA veteran. “I learned so much it will stick with me forever.

Story by Gary bedore Photo by nick kRuG I learned a lot of the little things as far as footwork, positioning, timing. It’s a lot more complex than I thought it was when we are just running around in AAU. There’s a lot more thinking involved at this level.”

Kansas University’s basketball players have used the Traylor averaged 20 points, 12 rebounds and three word “beast” to describe athletic, aggressive, rebounder blocks a game his senior year at IMG Academies in deluxe/shot blocking machine Jamari Traylor.

Florida.

“Jamari’s raw, raw, raw, but he’s like a shorter version “I’m really proud of Jamari,” Self said. “He had a of Thomas (Robinson) when he got here,” said KU tremendous attitude all year. He worked very hard in coach Bill Self, agreeing with his players’ assessment of the classroom. He’s a young guy that really wants to be the 6-foot-8, 215-pounder out of Chicago. good. He’s an athlete that can basically guard all five “He’s maybe more explosive than Thomas. He positions. doesn’t have the physical strength Thomas has, but he “Look at Thomas’ improvement last year. One of the is a warrior. Jamari’s good,” Self added. reasons Thomas performed so well is Jamari made him Traylor, who as a partial qualifier was able to perform well. practice second semester of the 2011-12 school year but “I really feel Jamari could be a sleeper that not play in games, had some impressive highlights in everybody will say, ‘Where did you get him?’ a couple KU workouts. of years from now; in a similar way they did the Morris Fellow red-shirt freshman Ben McLemore recalls: twins. He’s very young basketball-wise. He’s a sponge “One time he did a double-clutch dunk through the and wants to learn. I really think he’s going to get good, lane through everybody. That was his best play, doublefast,” Self stated. clutching over a 7-footer (Jeff Withey).”

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

nUmber 3 position guarD Year Freshman

Story by Gary bedore

Sr. “He’s a jump shooter, a threepoint artist. He also does well in the mid-range game. A lot of schools we looked at had slashers, but didn’t have a lot of jump shooters which is what he has kind of developed into.

“KU has great, great players. But we could see him fitting in their system as a jump shooter. He can also get to the basket, and a lot of people like his rebounding ability.

At 6-6, he could be a mismatch problem for teams not tall at the two. Andrew felt he fit in the best at KU,” Andrew White, Sr., added.

Perhaps the only negative is location.

“It’s a long ways from our home,” said Andrew White, Sr., who works as a professional housing developer in Virginia. Andrew’s mom, Sheryl, is professor at J Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Richmond.

“We usually have 10 to 12 and as many as 40 relatives at our games.

We are such a tight-knit family,” White, Sr., said.

“It’s the farthest of any schools recruiting him. But they made him feel comfortable, like family. The distance is something we’ll work out as we take on this different animal,” he added of college.

andrewWhite

10 rebounds a game for (20-10) Miller School last season.

“He’s has been very well drilled and well coached at Miller under (coach) Scott Willard. The transition to the collegiate level should be very smooth for him,” Self said. “One of the reasons we like him so much is the quality of person that he is.”

White, of course, is hoping for an immediate spot in the rotation.

“We had talked about that.

Coach told me that was his need and expectation,” White said of the “impact player” tag. “It’s not a big surprise, just something I need to keep working toward every day to get there and meet his standards.”

White said he chose KU primarily “because of the opportunity. It wasn’t because of the hype that comes with Kansas.

Seeing them play on TV, I see an opportunity to play as a freshman, and their style fits my strengths.”

Specifically ... “I like the spacing of how they run their offense. They have multiple guards that have a lot of versatility. That’s a skill I’d like to perfect. That system fits my game, my style,” noted White.

“KU has a need for what he does,” said White’s dad, Andrew

Photo by nick kRuG

6' 6" HeigHt WeigHt 210 HometoWn Chester, va

Andrew White, who watched some Kansas University basketball games live on TV and others on tape delay last season, felt he needed to see a pair of contests up close and personal.

The 6-foot-6, 210-pound guard/ forward from Miller School in Charlottesville, Va., who committed to KU on Dec. 2 and signed his letter-of-intent on April 16, attended Final Four games against Ohio State and Kentucky in New Orleans.

“I couldn’t meet with the players.

It’s against NCAA rules,” said White, “but I definitely was cheering for them. It was a great experience from the outside looking in,” he added of his trip to New Orleans with his dad, Andrew Sr. “It’s a place I would like to get to. I see that level of play takes a lot of work and good coaching. I will work to get back there, do a little every day so I can contribute.”

White — he chose KU over North Carolina State, Louisville, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Richmond, Texas, Georgetown and others — learned a lot about his new school in watching tape.

“I saw all the Kansas games except for one. After watching those, I started to look up a lot of tape on Brandon Rush,” said White, who has been compared to Rush, a 6-6 wing with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

“I found some of Bill Self’s sets at Kansas when he was there early (in his 10-year tenure) — a lot of YouTube,” White added. “I sat down with either my dad or coach to watch a good majority of the games.”

KU coach Bill Self has high hopes for Rivals.com’s No. 51-rated player in the Class of 2012, saying he expects White to be “an impact player for us beginning from day one.”

“He’s a tall guard. He can shoot it. He’s a good athlete. He’s tough, loves to play and certainly will be a great representative of our university,” Self said.

White averaged 22.9 points and

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Story by Gary bedore Anybody who doubts the ability of the country’s No. 137-rated high school basketball player in the Class of 2012 should consider this fact: Bill Self wanted power forward Zach Peters to bypass his senior year at Prestonwood Christian Academy and play at Kansas University a year early.

Self was sure the 6-foot9, 240-pounder from Plano, Texas, was ready to be part of the Jayhawks’ rotation 12 months ahead of schedule.

“In April, they (KU coaches) called me up and knew they were losing the Morris twins and were lacking a big-man presence. They said, ‘We are looking at your grades.

You only need to take two summer classes and could come to KU this next season,’’ Peters said.

“I said, ‘Wow I have a big decision to make.’ They wanted me to come play. That meant a lot to me. It showed me they have confidence in who I am as a player.”

Ultimately he elected to stay and experience his senior year.

“All my friends were graduating from the year before. I was already looking forward to my senior year and doing what all of them got to do,” Peters said. “I didn’t feel I was ready to go at that point.

“It was a lot of fun. I met a lot of new people last year. I got closer with some of my friends,” added Peters, who averaged 14.7 points and 7.2 rebounds in hoops. In a triumphant return to football, which he had given up after his freshman year of high school, he

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Photo by nick kRuG caught 13 TD passes at wide receiver for more than 1,000 yards.

“One of those things people always talk about ... they say the time of your life is your senior year, then you go on to college. It’s one of the things I felt I needed to do.

Experiencing it was awesome — the perks of being a senior and all the experiences that come along with it,” Peters said.

Remember, Peters committed to KU way back on April 21, 2010.

“Back then, it didn’t feel all that real,” said Peters. “I knew I was going there and thought it’d be awesome, but now it’s really starting to settle in. I am actually a Jayhawk, not a future Jayhawk. I’m really excited. I know it’s the right choice.

I want to say how excited I am to get a degree from Kansas and play basketball there. I am truly blessed.

It’s awesome.”

Peters chose KU after making unofficial visits to North Carolina, Texas, Memphis, Kentucky, a lot of schools.

His first visit to KU was the Colorado game on Jan. 27, 2007.

“Julian Wright made a faux paux on a breakaway and lost the ball in midair,” Peters’ dad, Tim, recalled.

“He landed on his back. Coach (Bill) Self wouldn’t let anybody go out and get him. I think we heard every word imaginable. I said right then, Zach was in eighth grade, ‘Well I guess he’s not going to Kansas.’ Boy, coach Self just let Julian Wright have it. ... Zach (ultimately) made the decision, told himself, ‘If I am going to be what I

need to be in the league, I need to be coached by coach Self.’ Coach Self has been honest as the day is long.

“If you are afraid of hard work and afraid of coach putting a boot up your butt, you won’t go to Kansas. I think it scares some kids off. But at the end of the day, Zach made the right decision,” added Tim Peters, a former college hoops player at Eastern Illinois.

Self is thrilled to bring Peters aboard.

“Zach’s big. He’s a legit 6-9, 240-pound high school senior that can really shoot the basketball,” Self said. “He’s big and rugged.

We can play him to where he’s big enough to defend the five (post) or skilled enough to play in at the four (power forward).”

“Guys that can really shoot are usually great passers. I think he will be that,” Self added of Peters. “He’s going to be a guy that can do a lot of things. We know he’s a big guy that can stretch it but he likes to hit you and certainly contact and physical play will not be an issue with him early in his career.”

Peters was rated the No. 97 player by Rivals.com following his junior season at Prestonwood, dropping a bit his senior year after not playing AAU ball in the summer.

“I didn’t play summer AAU my senior year and didn’t go to any camps. I don’t care about rankings.

They don’t say who I am as a person or who I am as a player,” Peters said.

He hopes to battle for a rotation spot his freshman season.

“As far as positioning, I’ll probably be a small forward,” Peters said. “I’ve got a good midrange game. I can shoot the ball. I can see myself on the perimeter a lot, but also being able to go down low, a versatile small forward. I’ve got pretty good ballhandling and passing for a big man, so ...”

He knows he has a lot of work ahead of him to claim a spot in the rotation.

“That’s up to me,” he said. “It depends how hard I work and how I show up (at practice and games in preseason).”

nUmber 33 ForWarD position Year Freshman HeigHt 6' 10" 230 WeigHt HometoWn PortlanD, or

landenlUCas

Unranked nationally, former Portland Westview High basketball center Landen Lucas is determined to have a better college career than some of the household names in the recruiting Class of 2012.

“I will make sure you guys do (forget the others),” the easy-going Lucas said with a laugh, referring to renowned players such as No. 20-rated Kaleb Tarczewski, who chose Arizona over KU. “A lot of people don’t know KU was in my top seven. KU was an option all along,” noted Lucas, who after Tarczewski’s shocking Halloween commitment to U of A, immediately scheduled a visit to KU. “I think it worked out well for everybody.”

The 6-10, 230-pound Lucas, who made a campus visit for KU’s opener against Towson last Nov. 11, committed shortly after returning to Oregon.

The son of former Oregon standout Richard Lucas, who also visited Washington, Cal, Stanford and Tennessee, signed his letter of intent on Nov. 15, the first day of the early signing period.

“It actually was hard,” Lucas said of choosing a school that had him on the back burner for a while, “but Kansas was the only school I would have picked that late. They jumped in. They jumped in strong (after losing Tarczewski). I really feel that even though they came in late, for some weird reason I feel I’ve known Story by Gary bedore Photo by nick kRuG them for a long time.”

Lucas started his high school career at Sunset High in Portland, moved to Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev., “We definitely have a need for a big guy and he’s his junior year and returned to Portland and Westview big enough that he can defend the 5 and certainly High for his senior campaign. skilled enough that he can step away from the basket “It was everything,” Lucas said of his choosing KU. and shoot the basketball,” Self said. “He was obviously “The system was really appealing to me. They want me highly recruited because his final choices were four as an anchor for the team, and that’s what I’m going to other great programs. We’re fortunate he fell in love do for them.” with this place when he came out here in the summer Lucas said he had a great time on his KU visit, which (for KU camp) and we were able to convince him on included a seat behind the bench at the Towson game. his official visit.”

“I went in there seeing if I could fit in,” he said.

When asked what impresses him most about Lucas, “Coach Self made it clear what they needed help with Self said, “His skill set. He can shoot it. He can pass it. and how I could fit in the KU system. What appealed He understands the game like the big guys we’ve had to him (Self) was the inside/out part of my game. I here in the past, such as Sasha (Kaun) and Darnell can guard a 5 (center). I can play a 4 (power forward), (Jackson) that really have a great feel on how to play.” though. That offense is appealing to me. My dad likes Lucas’ dad played for Oregon’s Ducks from 1987-91. the fact the big men make a lot of decisions in the “I actually coached against his father when I was an offense.” assistant at Oklahoma State,” Self said.

Also ... “KU has a great history. They develop big Asked the advice his dad has given him, Lucas said: men, and that’s important,” Lucas said.

“Rebound. And do the things most people don’t want Lucas averaged 19.3 points, 13.5 rebounds, 2.8 to do ... what they need from a big. If you do that, blocks and 1.8 assists per game for 18-7 Westview High. you’ll get playing time.’’

“Obviously, there are things that I want to do,” he “I need to know my role. The gap is when Withey said of his KU career. “I know that there is going to comes out and somebody needs to be anchor. Any way be a need on the rebound side of things. When you I can help and come in for him and try to hold it down lose somebody like Thomas (Robinson), you’re losing in the paint, I’ll do it.

12 rebounds a game. That’s a lot of rebounds to go “The biggest adjustment for me will be the size around. Jeff Withey does his thing on the defensive difference. Everyone is big. Everyone is quick,” Lucas end, so he gets his rebounds. Whoever takes that added. “Usually you can find a weakness in a big in 4-spot, I’m pretty sure is not going to be averaging close high school. Everyone is good here. Getting adjusted to as many rebounds as Thomas did. Coach Self is to the tempo ... that will eventually come with just really going to be looking for somebody to step in and playing.” not be a liability on defense.”

Of Lucas, Withey said: “He’s a big guy. He runs KU coach Self likes the fact Lucas already “knows the floor pretty well. It’ll be fun to play with him. The how to play the game.” coaches will get him ready to play.”

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Story by Gary bedore Photo by nick kRuG

Rio Adams’ high school coach has compared the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Kansas University freshman combo guard to Miami Heat phenom Dwyane Wade.

It’s a likening that Adams likes ... a lot.

“When I was in high school for my senior year, I actually tried to copy some of his moves and I watched him a lot. That’s who I really like in the league, so ....” Adams said with a smile.

Adams, the country’s No. 98-rated prospect in the Class of 2012 out of Seattle’s Rainier Beach High, of course has a long way to go to rival the accomplishments of the powerful, 6-4, 220-pound, 30-year-old, two-time NBA champion Wade.

Yet those in the know say he has the tools to be a special player.

“I really think Anrio ... based on what we’ve been told and what we’ve seen, has a chance to be one of the very best ones to come out of there,” KU coach Bill Self said of Rainier Beach High — a school that has produced Ryan Anderson, Doug Christie, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, Lodrick Stewart, plus former KU players Rodrick Stewart and C.J. Giles.

“He can handle like a one (point guard). He can score like a two (shooting guard),” Self added of Adams, who averaged 21.0 points, 6.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds a game for last year’s 27-3 state champs.

“His mindset will be more to score. He’s a really good athlete. I think he’ll give us an element of toughness, too. He’s capable of being an elite guard,” Self added.

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Adams, the state of Washington’s AP Class 3A player of the year who said he’ll play “whatever position the coach needs me to be,” is a good buddy of ex-Jayhawk Stewart.

Stewart’s dad, Bull, in fact, is Adams’ godfather.

“I’ve known him since I was in fifth grade,” Adams said of Rodrick.

“I was following them (Jayhawks) since my freshman year in 2009. That’s when they started recruiting me a little, showing me a little bit of attention. Rodrick was telling me a little about it — that it (Lawrence) is a family based city and basketball — you really can’t beat it. It’s a basketball state. This is where I wanted to be.”

Adams committed to KU back on Nov. 19.

“A lot of schools were involved in the Pac-12,” he said. “I felt like I was a little bigger than the Pac-12. I didn’t really want to stay home.”

Before reporting to KU last July, he had to first become academically eligible, which entailed taking the ACT test a couple times. He was cleared for participation shortly before KU’s early-August trip to Switzerland and Paris.

“Hard work and dedication. It was on me if I wanted to be here or not. So I worked as hard as I could,” Adams said. “The toughest part for me was politics. A lot of people that shake your hand you don’t know are working against you. I didn’t realize it until I went back home (to Seattle from short stay at St. Pat’s in New Jersey) that was playing against me. That was my hardest thing.”

“I’m really proud of him of how hard he worked in getting some things done late,” Self said of Adams, who attended Seattle’s Franklin High two years before moving on to Seattle Garfield, then on to Rainier Beach.

“With all the stuff we went through last year (eligibility cases of Ben McLemore, Jamari Traylor and Braeden Anderson), we weren’t going to bring him here until we were totally confident he’d done everything. If he were to come here and find out there’s a problem, you can’t go back to fix it. If he never got here, you can go back and fix it. We were very deliberate on him coming to make sure he dotted all his I’s and crossed his T’s. I feel good about that.”

Adams said he’s happy to be eligible for participation.

“I put a lot of emotion in the game because this is what I want. I love this game. It’s gotten me this far. I’m hoping it continues to let me go further from here,” Adams said, noting he’s been “taking time to make sure I’m getting better at the things I’m not good at.”

Those things? “My range. My shot, defense.

College level is a lot bigger than high school,” he noted.

Of Adams, Rainier Beach coach Mike Bethea noted: “Anrio’s best basketball is ahead of him. He has a ton of talent and with him going to KU and listening to coach Self and the coaching staff, the sky is the limit.”

nUmber 20 position guarD Junior Year HeigHt 5' 11" WeigHt 175 huntington, ny HometoWn

Story by Gary bedore Photo by nick kRuG better than I expected. I really like it.”

Roberts enjoys doing what’s asked of him at practice.

“The best part is being with my teammates,” he said. “Just being like a family, being around them all the time and having that close-knit group.

“We don’t really see each other as walk-ons and scholarship players. I am just as close with the walkons as I am with all of the other players on the team.

“We’re definitely a family,” Niko added. “We’re constantly joking around with each other and having a good time. Coach (Kurtis) Townsend is definitely the funniest coach. He is hilarious as long as he’s not messing with you. The funniest player is probably Elijah (Johnson) because he is always joking around 24/7. It’s just his facial expressions and the way he says things that make it funny. When it’s business time, it’s business time but aside from that, we’re close and one big family.”

As far as that first name ... how’d he get the name Niko?

“My mom always called me it. For some reason I just hate the name Nicholas, so I never tell anyone my name is Nicholas,” he said with a smile.

nikoROBeRts

It goes without saying that Niko Roberts is one of the most likeable players on Kansas University’s basketball team.

Normally a member of the unheralded, unsung scout team at practice — the unit that gets the firstteamers ready for games — Roberts for two-plus years has proven he’s willing to do what it takes for the betterment of the entire squad.

“Niko’s a great kid,” said KU coach Bill Self, who has known the 5-foot-11, 175-pound junior — the son of KU assistant Norm Roberts — since Niko was a baby.

“We wanted Niko to be happy so bad, we hired his dad,” Self cracked with a big smile.

Self brought Norm Roberts back for his second tour of duty at KU this past offseason. Norm was on Self’s first KU staff, then left to be head coach at St. John’s for six seasons, before taking a year off then resurfacing as assistant at Florida.

“It’s going to be even more special because my son is there,” Norm said of coaching KU the second time around.“He’s built his own life at KU. He wanted us to come and be there and obviously the mom and dad want to be near their son. His brother, Justin (ninth grader who is a point guard), is really excited. The opportunity to reunite our family in a place we love and enjoy is awesome.”

Niko arrived at KU with solid credentials. He was named to the senior all-star team of the Long Island Catholic League his senior season at Saint Anthony High School where he averaged 16.0 points and 5.0 assists a game.

“Actually, my dad didn’t become my coach-coach until my senior year when he moved on from St. John’s. Before that, he was as busy as any coach. He was on the road a lot,” said Niko, who chose KU over VCU and East Carolina.

“When he was home, he’d try to help me, but he wasn’t home as much as he and I would like. He helped shape my game tremendously.”

The two worked out at Niko’s high school.

“I was always around basketball because of my dad,” Niko said. “He never really forced it on me. It was just because I was around it so much and I liked playing it. I really got serious about it my freshman year in high school. That’s when I started working out with a lot of different guys trying to get better and I realized how serious I had to be about it.

It’s always been my focus, but my dad never really forced it on me. It’s just something I love to do.”

Both love it in Lawrence.

“Coach Self gave me the opportunity to walkon, and Kansas is the best program in the nation so nobody would turn down the offer if they had a chance to come play here and be a part of this program,” Niko said, adding, “I have known coach Self since I was about 3 or 4 years old. We have always kept in touch. He thought that I would be able to walk on here and contribute to the team.

“When I got here I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t know what to expect from college in general or from Kansas,” Niko added. “It’s been even

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Evan Manning, whose dad, Danny, happens to be the leading scorer and rebounder in Kansas University basketball history, has decided to follow in his papa’s footsteps at KU. The 6-foot-3, 170-pound former Free State High guard, who averaged just under 10 points a game last season at New Hampton Prep in New Hampshire, last spring accepted coach Bill Self’s invitation to join KU’s team as a walk-on.

He also had an offer to be a non-scholarship player for Danny, first year coach at Tulsa University after nine years on Self’s staff at KU. “It is a dream come true. It is such a unique opportunity. It’ll be cool to wear Kansas across my chest. It’s unbelievable,” Evan Manning said.

“My dad is my No. 1 supporter,” Evan added.

“He’d love for me to play for him at Tulsa, but realizes how cool it is and what a great opportunity it is for me to play at Kansas. It’s always been a dream of mine to play for KU and coach Self and be in Lawrence — to play in Allen Fieldhouse. It’d

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

be awesome if my dad was still here, but I’m the biggest Tulsa fan out there right now. He (Danny) will do big things there.”

Manning’s sister, Taylor, is a junior-to-be at KU. As a part-time starter for 26-9 New Hampton, Evan Manning averaged about nine points and six assists a game. His playing time was reduced when a standout guard returned from injury.

“He’s an incredible kid, very mature, one of the best teammates we’ve had at New Hampton since I’ve been part of the program (nine years),” New Hampton coach Peter Hutchins said. “He understands basketball and how to lead and comes prepared to work every day.”

Manning received the “Coaches’ Award” at the team’s postseason awards ceremony.

“It was a big honor,” Evan said. “I didn’t think I had that big an impact on the team.

It was a cool experience playing for him (Hutchins) and doing what I like to do — leading guys and cheering.”

Of his KU career ... “It’s going to be a challenge. It’s something I look forward to, to embrace my role as practice player,” Manning said. “I know the role I’m going into and what I need to do to help the team win basically.

Tough times are ahead, but fun times. I’d say I need to work on my strength and ballhandling, everything really. I’ll do what it takes to improve in all areas.”

He’s chosen to wear jersey No. 10 at KU, not his dad’s No. 25.

“It’s my mom’s favorite number,” said Evan, who wore No. 32 (Zach Peters’ number) at Free State and No. 5 (Jeff Withey) at New Hampton.

“My favorite numbers weren’t available, so I went with my mom’s 10.

Did he have any desire to wear No. 25?

“Definitely not. I mean that’d put a little extra pressure on me,” he said. “That’s my dad’s number. That’s not my number.”

Manning would love to have a KU career that rivaled that of former Free State High guard Brady Morningstar.

“I look up to Brady a lot,” Manning said. “I like the way he played, for the right reasons.

He wasn’t selfish. He always did what the team needed.”

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I honestly don’t see how anybody would want to go anywhere else,” said Tyler, who was a starter his senior year until hurting his ankle over winter break.

He regained his starting spot once he was back to 100 percent.

“I am excited to be part of the team, to do whatever I can to contribute. I think ‘excited’ is the right word for it,” Tyler said.

“It’ll be great,” noted Bill. “I haven’t had a chance to spend as much time with him as I’d like but this is a great opportunity. He loves KU. He loves the guys on the team. He’ll be a nice asset to our program, primarily through practice. He’ll be good in practice and a great teammate.”

By the way ... it’s unlikely Bill and Tyler will be playing any 1-on-1 basketball during breaks in practice.

“Not in a while,” Tyler said of the last time the two played in the gym or driveway. “I think he knew when to quit playing me as I got older because I don’t think he wants to lose.”

Tylerself

It was several days after Free State High’s graduation ceremony that Firebird shooting guard Tyler Self decided to act on the offer from his dad, Bill, to join Kansas University’s basketball team.

“It was my mother, him and I eating dinner at a little Mexican restaurant. I said something like, ‘I want to play.’ They were both kind of surprised. I think they both said, ‘Really?’ at the same time. It was pretty funny,” said Tyler, a 6-foot-2, 165-pounder who in early June announced his plans to become a nonscholarship player on Bill Self’s KU team.

Tyler — he averaged 3.9 points and 1.3 rebounds a game for the 7-14 Firebirds a year ago — chose playing at KU over dad’s alma mater, Oklahoma State, where he would have not tried to walk on the hoops team to instead concentrate on his career path in Business.

“I just love Kansas so much. I think it’ll be an amazing experience,“ said Tyler Self, whose sister, Lauren, is starting her senior year at KU. Both Tyler and dad are looking forward to four years of what, they hope, are special times for KU’s basketball program. Bill Self has led KU to eight straight conference titles, one national title and a national runnerup appearance.

“I don’t know if he has ever officially been my coach,” Tyler said. “He’s always kind of been my coach. Growing up, he’d help me all the time. He’s been way in the background (last several years of organized ball). He doesn’t want to interfere with anybody else or anything like that at all.

“We’re always talking after the games about different things I could have done or whatever ... what I could do to play better.”

Bill Self said that, indeed, he’s always respected Tyler’s coaches.

“I have never tried to pressure Tyler athletically,” Bill Self said. “In high school, junior high, I always let his coaches coach him.

This time, I actually get to do it,” he added with a smile.

“I am very pleased that he has decided to walk on. It’ll be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity for him and even a better opportunity for me to be able to see my son and be around him.”

Evan Manning, son of new Tulsa coach and former KU assistant Danny Manning, is a freshman walk-on this year. Niko Roberts, son of current KU aide Norm Roberts, is a junior on the squad.

“I think that KU is just an awesome place.

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nUmber 21 position guarD Year soPhomore

2012-2013 TeaM

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Kansas University sophomore basketball player Christian Garrett was a world traveler during his memorable spring/summer of 2012.

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound walk-on guard from Los Angeles, in late May/early June spent two weeks in Poland and Germany with former KU guard Jordan Juenemann as a member of Athletes in Action’s college all-star team.

In August, he and the Jayhawks headed to Switzerland and Paris to play six exhibition games.

The Athletes and Action squad, which was coached by Baylor assistant Tim Maloney, went 6-0 on its trip against pro teams in Germany and Poland’s national team.

“We won every game by 40 (points) at least,” Garrett said. “We did really well. It was really fun. I was backing up Brady Heslip of Baylor at point guard. He’s a really good player. I got a lot of assists, which was good. I did fine. I played my role.”

Playing time was divided almost equally with the players taking turns in the starting lineup.

The roster consisted of the two KU players, plus Heslip and Deuce Bello of Baylor, Memphis’ Drew Barham, Virginia’s Akii Mitchell, Mercer’s Daniel Coursey, Marquette’s Jamil Wilson, Tennessee’s Josh Richardson and Texas Arlington’s Jordan Reves and Karol Gruszecki.

“We focused on ministry, too, just how to play to glorify God and get close to the Lord,” Garrett said. “It was the best of both worlds, growing as a basketball player and how God can influence your sport was the main focus.”

Garrett said highlights included visiting Auschwitz in Poland and various sites in Berlin.

“My personal highlight was the bond I developed with all the players there,” Garrett said. “Taking that and seeing what I have here with my teammates is so awesome. Basketball was great, ministry stuff was great, but really, meeting new people and seeing how God works in their lives was really cool.”

Of course, he prefers the good ol’ USA. “Some places were nice. Some not very good at all. That’s how it is,” he said of restaurants overseas. “It’s definitely fun to travel, but it makes you appreciate America more. The United States is so special. Traveling makes you appreciate it.”

Garrett definitely likes what he’s seen from KU’s players on the 2012-13 team.

“I think we have depth unlike last year,” Garrett said. “We are young again. The guys returning are really good — Travis (Releford, Garrett’s roommate), Elijah (Johnson) and Jeff (Withey) are our leaders. I think we’ll be good again. I’m excited to get to work.

“After last year, everybody is excited to get back to that place,” he added of the Final Four.

“We just have to work hard.”

head CoaCh bill self

bill self

Story by JeSSe newell and tom KeeGan

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

Photos by nick kRuG

“I love it here.”

— BIll Self

efreshed after a golf excursion to Cabo San Lucas in May — and energized after watching three of his Kansas University basketball players graduate in the same month — an upbeat Bill Self returned to work ready for his 10th season as Jayhawk coach.

“I love it here,” Self said.

The coach was able to spend lots of time with his players over the summer, going through 10 practices before his team took an eight-day exhibition trip to Switzerland and France.

KU went 2-2 in its four exhibition games, defeating the Swiss national team twice before falling in a pair of games to AMW Team France, a team made up of French professionals.

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head CoaCh bill self

10th season at KU 2003–Present Record: 269-53 Percent: .835 1 NCAA Championship 2 Final Fours 8 Conference Regular Season Championships 5 Conference Tournament Championships

Self said he had one main takeaway following his team’s four-game European tour: that his team — at least at that point— wasn’t very good.

“Sometimes, you get a false sense of who you are by playing against each other,” Self said on Aug. 12 in Paris. “Playing against other people put a totally different spin on it that shows us there’s a lot of work to be done.”

That doesn’t mean the coach thinks his team won’t improve.

“Don’t get me wrong. We’re going to be good,” Self said. “But there’s a lot of preparation, a lot of work that has to go into us being good. The old guys have got to teach the young guys, and the young guys have got to grow up.”

Self said one focus going forward would be to work on the basics.

“We’ve got to improve our skill level — dribbling and passing. Very evident that it’s not very high with our newcomers,” Self said. “ ... To me, I think we need to get 40

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

back to work, get back to being who we are, and that’s got to be a very tough-minded, physical, aggressive basketball team, which right now, we’re not.

“But I didn’t anticipate us being that way.

We’ve only practiced 10 times. I can’t be mad at them for what they don’t know.”

Though KU should have a deep frontcourt stocked with skilled big men, Self knows it’s in the backcourt where this edition should have a different look than his last seven teams.

“We’ve got some talented kids back there, but getting the pieces to fit ... it’s a lot easier making the pieces fit if you’re playing with two point guards than it is when you’re playing maybe with half a point guard,” Self said. “To put our best team out there right now, you’re looking at a team that’s not a great ballhandling and passing team.

There’s going to be some pressure on Elijah (Johnson) to play well this year.”

With the likely starting five of Johnson, Ben McLemore, Travis Releford, Perry Ellis

“...there’s a lot of preparation, a lot of work that has to go into us being good. the old guys have got to teach the young guys, and the young guys have got to grow up.”

1819 W. 23rd St.

Lawrence, Kansas 66046 785-832-8775 Fax 785-832-1183

804 N. Iowa St.

Lawrence, Kansas 66046 785-331-2710 Fax 785-331-2703

1520 Wakarusa Dr., Ste F

Lawrence, Kansas 66049 785-832-2200 Fax 785-832-2201

—BIll Self

and Jeff Withey, it’s a bit difficult to identify the team’s second-best ballhandler.

“It’s probably Travis,” Self said. “But Ben’s getting better. But that’s the whole thing, we’ve always had guys who can make plays out there. Even on our championship team, we had three point guards out of our four perimeter players.”

Last year, KU had both Tyshawn Taylor and Johnson who could lead the break if needed.

“Those two combined were terrific,” Self said. “When you’re taking Tyshawn out of the equation, and adding Ben as far as playing the majority of the minutes, you gain so much in maybe shooting and size and that kind of stuff, but you do lose that guy who can just break a defense down and go make a play. That’s why Elijah has to get better, and I think he will.”

Sophomore Naadir Tharpe and freshman Rio Adams will push for time backing up Johnson and at times playing alongside him.

“Right now if I was nervous about a position, it would be our point-guard play, just because it’s not as natural for Elijah, Naadir’s unproven and Anrio’s never done it,” Self said.

Self has been pondering ways to maximize the efficiency of a backcourt that, at least compared to most of his teams, has an unconventional makeup.

“We don’t really change much how we play, but we tweak a lot more than what people think,” he said. “In the past, I didn’t care who fed the post. Now we might have to set it up where Elijah’s the one feeding the post, much like we did with Aaron Miles because we had a similar type situation with Aaron, Keith (Langford) and J.R. (Giddens). You know, it’s kind of similar.”

Self, along with assistants Joe Dooley, Norm Roberts, Kurtis Townsend and director of operations Doc Sadler, will start considering changes to the offensive gameplan before the season begins.

“We’ll go back and look at some of that film to see how we utilized putting Aaron in as many positions as possible to finish the plays,” Self said. “We haven’t had to play that way lately, but I could see us doing it more this year.”

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Find us on

season by season

KU MEN'S BASKETBAll

seasON-By-seasON CONfeReNCe RegUlaR seasON ChampiONs 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1914 1915 1922 1923 1924 1925

42

1926 1927 1931 1932 1933 1934 1936 1937 1938 1940 1941

1942 1943 1946 1950 1952 1953 1954 1957 1960 1966 1967

1971 1974 1975 1978 1986 1991 1992 1993 1995 1996 1997

1998 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

CONfeReNCe tOURNameNt ChampiONs 1951 1953 1956 1957 1962 1964 1965 1966 1968

1970 1974 1977 1978 1981 1984 1986 1992 1997

1998 1999 2006 2007 2008 2010 2011

1898-99: 7-4

1912-13: 16-6

Big 6

1943-44: 17-9

1899-1900: 3-4

1913-14: 17-1

1928-29: 3-15

1944-45: 12-5

1900-01: 4-8

1914-15: 16-1

1929-30: 14-4

1945-46: 19-2

1901-02: 5-7

1915-16: 6-12

1930-31: 15-3

1946-47: 16-11

1902-03: 7-8

1916-17: 12-8

1931-32: 13-5

Big 7

1903-04: 5-8

1917-18: 10-8

1932-33: 13-4

1947-48: 9-15

1904-05: 5-6

1918-19: 7-9

1933-34: 16-1

1948-49: 12-12

1905-06: 12-7

1919-20: 11-7

1934-35: 15-5

1949-50: 14-11

1906-07: 7-8

1920-21: 10-8

1935-36: 21-2

1950-51: 16-8

Missouri Valley

1921-22: 16-2

1936-37: 15-4

1951-52: 28-3

ConferenCe

1922-23: 17-1

1937-38: 18-2

1952-53: 19-6

1907-08: 18-6

1923-24: 16-3

1938-39: 13-7

1953-54: 16-5

1908-09: 25-3

1924-25: 17-1

1939-40: 19-6

1954-55: 11-10

1909-10: 18-1

1925-26: 16-2

1940-41: 12-6

1955-56: 14-9

1910-11: 12-6

1926-27: 15-2

1941-42: 17-5

1956-57: 24-3

1911-12: 11-7

1927-28: 9-9

1942-43: 22-6

1957-58: 18-5

KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

NCaa tOURNameNt fiNal fOUR 1940

1988

CoaCh: Dr. Forrest "Phog" allen

CoaCh: Larry Brown

1952

1991

CoaCh: Dr. Forrest "Phog" allen

CoaCh: Roy Williams

1953

1993

NCaa tOURNameNt ChampiONs 1952

CoaCh: Dr. Forrest "Phog" Allen Men'S nCaa TouRnaMenT MoST ouTSTanDing PLayeR: Clyde Lovellette oPPonenT: St. John's FinaL SCoRe: 80-63

1988

CoaCh: Dr. Forrest "Phog" allen

CoaCh: Roy Williams

1957

2002

CoaCh: Larry Brown Men'S nCaa TouRnaMenT MoST ouTSTanDing PLayeR: Danny Manning oPPonenT: Oklahoma FinaL SCoRe: 83-79

2003

2008

CoaCh: Dick harp

1971

CoaCh: Roy Williams

CoaCh: Ted owens

CoaCh: Roy Williams

1974

2008

CoaCh: Ted owens

CoaCh: Bill Self

1986

2012

CoaCh: Larry Brown

CoaCh: Bill Self Men'S nCaa TouRnaMenT MoST ouTSTanDing PLayeR: Mario Chalmers oPPonenT: Memphis FinaL SCoRe: 75-68 OT

CoaCh: Bill Self 1987-88: 27-11

2002-03: 30-8

Big 8

1972-73: 8-18

1988-89: 19-12

2003-04: 24-9

1958-59: 11-14

1973-74: 23-7

1989-90: 30-5

2004-05: 23-7

1959-60: 19-9

1974-75: 19-8

1990-91: 27-8

2005-06: 25-8

1960-61: 17-8

1975-76: 13-13

1991-92: 27-5

2006-07: 33-5

1961-62: 7-18

1976-77: 18-10

1992-93: 29-7

2007-08: 37-3

1962-63: 12-13

1977-78: 24-5

1993-94: 27-8

2008-09: 27-8

1963-64: 13-12

1978-79: 18-11

1994-95: 25-6

2009-10: 33-3

1964-65: 17-8

1979-80: 15-14

1995-96: 29-5

2010-11: 35-3 2011-12: 32-7

1965-66: 23-4

1980-81: 24-8

Big 12

1966-67: 23-4

1981-82: 13-14

1996-97: 34-2

1967-68: 22-8

1982-83: 13-16

1997-98: 35-4

1968-69: 20-7

1983-84: 22-10

1998-99: 23-10

1969-70: 17-9

1984-85: 26-8

1999-2000: 24-10

1970-71: 27-3

1985-86: 35-4

2000-01: 26-7

1971-72: 11-15

1986-87: 25-11

2001-02: 33-4

oVerall total 2,070 - 806

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2011-12 season wraP-uP

Story by Gary bedore

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

NO RegRets: Self savors special season

Photos by nick kRuG, RichaRd Gwin and Mike yodeR

Sure, he was disappointed.

But Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self absolutely had no regrets as he headed to the New Orleans Superdome locker room after his Jayhawks’ 67-59 loss to Kentucky and the Wildcats’ six NBA draft picks back on April 2.

“I never felt we lost. I felt we just ran out of time,” Self said several months later, referring to a game in which the Jayhawks cut a 14-point halftime deficit to five points with under two minutes to play.

“We didn’t lay an egg. We were right there. We just didn’t get it done.”

The final-game setback to Kentucky — the Jayhawks also fell to the Wildcats, 75-65, on Nov. 15 in New York — in no way soured a dream season for the Jayhawks, who entered 2011-12 with extremely low expectations. Remember, KU lost the Morris twins, Tyrel Reed, Brady Morningstar, Mario Little and Josh Selby off a 35-3 team that reached the Elite Eight.

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2011-12 season wraP-uP

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KUsports.com | Men’s BasKetBall 2012/2013 SeaSon

“It was like a surreal experience,” Self said of a magical 32-7 season that included the program’s eighth straight Big 12 regularseason championship.

“Going to the championship game was so cool, so unexpected, it didn’t feel like the San Antonio deal (2008 title) at all. I kind of expected us to do that. This was a little bit different.”

Some setbacks in recruiting — combined with the NCAA declaring frosh Ben McLemore and Jamari Traylor ineligible — seemingly left KU a few players short of the amount needed for a Final Four run.

Leaders Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor, coupled with Travis Releford, Jeff Withey, Elijah Johnson, Conner Teahan, Justin Wesley and Kevin Young, were the main men asked to hold down the fort while waiting for reinforcements to arrive in 2012-13.

“I’ll be candid. We were not very good starting out,” Self said.

Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr.

“At our coaching clinic (in late October), Larry Brown and Jeff Van Gundy watched us practice. I didn’t tell our players ... but they thought maybe we’d go .500, maybe we’d win 15 games.”

KU, of course, won way more than that.

“Our guys found a way. They had a will about them,” Self said, going on to report how he felt about the Jayhawks at various junctures of the season.

“Kentucky beat us by 10 (75-65) in the Garden. I thought, ‘maybe,’ ’’ Self said of a Nov. 15 neutral site loss in New York that dropped KU to 1-1. “We were not a team yet.

“In Maui, the guys came together. We grew up overnight. We learned about ourselves,” he added of a trip to paradise in which KU beat Georgetown and UCLA before falling to Duke in the Invitational finals and dropping to 3-2 out of the gate.

“We beat Ohio State (to improve to 7-2), but then Davidson

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whipped us,” he added of a lifeless 80-74 setback to the midmajor Wildcats in Sprint Center. “After that we started getting good. We’d play 35 average minutes a game, but five unbelievable minutes. We’d go on a 17-2 run and win the game.”

KU followed the Davidson downer with 10 straight victories, before a loss to Iowa State snapped a seven-game win streak to open league play.

“The guys bought in ... defending, rebounding, sharing,” Self said.

“The first time I thought we had a chance to be really good was the loss at Missouri,” he noted of a 74-71 defeat on Feb. 4, in which KU was outscored 11-0 in the final two minutes. “We took their best shot. We didn’t close, but Missouri was good.

“We didn’t lose again. We ran the table,” he added of a team that went 8-0 down the stretch to conclude league play with a 16-2 record. Included was an 87-86 overtime home win over Mizzou in which KU erased a 19-point deficit with 17 minutes to play, the biggest comeback in school history.

“The roles were reversed. Here Missouri outplayed us but we found a way,” Self said.

After a 1-1 showing in the Big 12 Tournament, the Jayhawks gutted out wins over Detroit (by 15 points), Purdue (three points), North Carolina State (three points), North Carolina (13 points) and Ohio State (two points) in earning its spot in the title game.

Senior Taylor and junior Robinson, of course, were instrumental.

“Tyshawn grew up in front of our eyes,” Self said of the second-round pick of the Brooklyn Nets in the 2012 NBA Draft.

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2011-12 season wraP-uP

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“I never had a guard play better than he did for a long period of time. Emotional, high energy, wound tight, competitive ...

Tyshawn Taylor could be my point guard any day, anywhere.”

Robinson was No. 5 overall pick of the Sacramento Kings.

“We watched this kid become a man,” Self said of the power forward deluxe. “His consistency, double-doubles night in and out, his effort. He’s going to make a lot of money playing this game.”

The two main men grouped with their supporting cast proved talented enough to finish as the country’s runnerup team.

“All teams say they like each other. These guys are absolutely brothers,” Self said of the 2011-12 squad. “I never coached a team that argued more, fought more, was more combative with me and still you’d get in a foxhole with any of those guys. Since ‘08 without question this is the team I enjoyed coaching the most.

They probably displayed more of a workmanlike, tough attitude than the other teams I’ve had. Other teams won and played well.

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“It’s good to look back and see a lot of happy memories.”

—Jeff WIthey

A group that Self believes actually could have defeated Kentucky.

“I wish we would have played better in the first half against Kentucky,” he said. “We went through a stretch where I thought we played too fast. It’s my fault. I said, ‘Let’s score before the defense gets set.’ We took that to a whole new level as far as playing fast. It got away from us (41-27 at half). We could guard them. They only scored in transition the first half. The second half, they didn’t score, but they already built a good enough cushion we had to play perfect. We didn’t quite play perfect.”

It turned out to be a near-perfect season, considering the results versus the expectations.

“It was a great team. It will go down in Kansas history obviously. We had a great run,” said Withey, back for his senior season. “It’s good to look back and see a lot of happy memories.”

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eUROpeaN VaCatiON The Kansas men’s basketball team received an early start on the 2012-13 season, going 2-2 during an eight-day exhibition trip to Switzerland and France from aug. 7-14.

Story by JeSSe newell Photos by Jesse newell The following is a recap of each of the Jayhawks’ four games played overseas.

Aug. 7 — Kansas 79, Swiss national team 76 Fribourg, Switzerland — Early in the fourth quarter, Jeff Withey playfully razzed teammate Kevin Young about his passing skills.

He probably won’t do it again after Young’s performance in the final minute on Aug. 7.

With 25 seconds left and Kansas leading by two, Young rebounded Naadir Tharpe’s miss and dished to Withey in one motion, providing a clutch play in the Jayhawks’ 79-76 exhibition victory over the Swiss national team at Fribourg Arena.

“Jeff, when he’s down there, you’ve got to get him the ball,” Young said. “He’s like a big billboard down there.

“I saw Naadir and I saw him, and I told Naadir in the locker room, ‘I would have passed it to you, but Jeff’s a little bit bigger, so I had to pass it to Jeff.’”

Earlier in the fourth quarter, following a well-placed lob pass to 54

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Zach Peters, Withey returned to the bench and jokingly told Young that it was a pass that he couldn’t make.

“He one-upped me on that one,” Withey said. “Definitely a great pass, and that saved the game for us.”

After Tharpe’s baseline jumper missed, Young leapt high under the basket for the offensive rebound before firing it to Withey in front of the rim.

“Right when I caught the ball, I knew he was open, because his man slid over to take Naadir,” Young said. “My man tried to box me out or come to me when I got the ball, so he was wide open.”

The basket pushed KU’s lead to 77-73, and the Jayhawks held on through a crazy final few moments.

Following a Swiss three that cut the lead to 79-76 with 1.6 seconds left, Tharpe caught the inbounds pass, holding it with outstretched hands to let the time run out.

The clock didn’t start, though (in Switzerland, of all places), and after a defender bumped Tharpe with his lower body, the KU sophomore guard lost his balance and fell out of bounds.

Officials gave the ball back to Switzerland, but Dusan Mladjan’s three-pointer from the corner bounced off the rim to end the game.

KU won despite some sloppy play.

The Jayhawks didn’t score in the game’s first 6 1/2 minutes; Withey finally ended the drought with an 18-foot jumper that cut the deficit to 3-2.

KU had eight turnovers before its first basket and finished the game with 28 giveaways.

“I think we were nervous,” KU coach Bill Self said. “(Freshman) Ben (McLemore) and those guys, this is the first game that they’ve played. I haven’t seen these guys play like this from a nervous standpoint yet.”

Withey also sensed jitters.

“All the freshmen, they’re not used to this kind of stuff — having coach, you know, coaching them finally,” Withey said.

“They’re probably pretty shocked. I think they’re going to get more comfortable as we keep on going out on this trip.”

Withey led KU with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Elijah Johnson and Travis Releford both added 11 points.

KU freshman Andrew White contributed 10 points, while Young posted nine points and eight rebounds in 13 minutes.

Aug. 8 — Kansas 83, Swiss national team 79 Fribourg, Switzerland — Elijah Johnson believes Kansas University’s come-from-behind, 83-79 victory over the Swiss national team Aug. 8 had greater significance than an early August exhibition game.

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Instead, it was more like an introductory course for KU’s eight newcomers on how the Jayhawks play.

“Now the team knows that it doesn’t matter if we’re all the way in Switzerland or in the Final Four. We’ve always got a chance to come back,” Johnson said. “I want to show these young guys that that’s what we do here no matter what.

“It’s a time we just clench in, and nobody knows what’s going to happen but Kansas.”

Much like a few of their NCAA Tournament games in 2012, the Jayhawks thrived when it mattered most, ending the game on a 10-2 run after trailing 77-73 with 1:30 left in the fourth quarter.

The run was sparked by Kevin Young, who for the second straight day was KU’s best player in the clutch.

After senior point guard Johnson missed two free throws, Young started to “play Superman” according to Johnson, grabbing an offensive board and putting it in for two.

About a minute later, he grabbed another Johnson miss before putting in a stickback to tie the score with 30 seconds left.

“I knew he was going to come through in the fourth quarter,” KU freshman Andrew White said, “just because the guys that play the hardest, usually something good happens.”

Young gave KU the lead for good thanks to his knowledge of the game.

KU’s Jeff Withey blocked a Swiss shot with 20 seconds left, and as he caught the block, the shot clock expired.

While most players stood around to wait for the shot-clock violation, Young knew from his previous experience with international play that if the offense possesses the ball when the shot clock goes off, no violation is called.

“So I started taking off. I beat everybody down the court,” Young said. “Jeff was still holding the ball, so I looked back to see what was going on.”

After a few seconds, Withey passed ahead to Travis Releford, who threw it to Young for a slam that put KU up, 81-79, with 13 seconds left.

Young screamed out his satisfaction following the dunk, one that resulted in Swiss coach Sébastian Roduit kicking a black barrier by his bench in frustration.

“Young made all the plays down the stretch,” Self said. “He drives me nuts because he does things all the time that bother me.

Then when the game’s on the line, he usually comes up with some extra possessions and some key plays. That was certainly the case.”

Switzerland missed a long three-point try with five seconds left, and White sealed it by grabbing the defensive rebound and putting in two foul shots with 2.6 seconds left.

“I think that was the best part of this trip so far is we had a major test early,” White said. “I know it was nothing like a game, but it felt like something we needed to win. We had all these fans here, all these people. We needed to win this game.”

Johnson also wanted to play well for the approximately 200 KU supporters in the crowd.

“It made me feel good to look over and see the coaches’ wives smiling and knuckling down and showing us the same thing they show us when we’re in the States,” Johnson said. “We’re doing it for our program, and I felt like our program came over here with us.”

White led KU with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting. He also went 2-for-3 from three-point range.

“He’s not scared,” Self said. “We’ve got some other guys out there playing passive, and here’s a freshman … I don’t know who our leading scorer is in the two games we’ve been here, but it may be him (At the time, White led KU with a 13-point average). That’s

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not a lot of points, but still though, that’s pretty good that he’s aggressive enough to believe that he can score.”

Johnson added 14 points, while Young contributed 12 on 6-for-7 shooting.

Withey also posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Aug. 11 — AMW Team France 74, Kansas 73 Paris — Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self wasn’t in the mood to discuss moral victories following the Jayhawks’ 74-73 exhibition loss to AMW Team France on Aug. 11 at Stade Pierre do Coubertin.

“You’ve got four returning guys that have been told for three months how great they are and all this and all that. Hey, they were humbled,” Self said of returning rotation players Elijah Johnson, Jeff Withey, Travis Releford and Kevin Young. “All of them got their butts handed to them by pro players in France.

“So if you think you’re an NBA guy, and you can’t handle a guy in France, then probably you’re not an NBA guy. So they’ve all been humbled. They know now they’ve got to get to work, because that was a good water in the face for all of us to know that, ‘Hey, nobody cares what happened last year.’”

KU ended a 41-game exhibition win streak that stretched back to 1995 with the loss, though the Jayhawks still had their chances to win at the end.

After trailing by as many as 10 in the second half, KU turned to its playmaker, Young, who came through with the Jayhawks’ biggest play for the third straight game.

Off a quick feed from Johnson, Young put in a baseline slam with 22 seconds left to give the Jayhawks a 73-72 lead.

After a timeout, Team France’s Diot Antoine was fouled on a drive by Zach Peters with 6.1 seconds left and made both free throws.

On KU’s final possession, Johnson drove the length of the floor before kicking out to Naadir Tharpe for an open three-pointer on the left wing.

The shot hit front iron before bouncing away.

“I thought it was going to go in. As many shots as I didn’t shoot 56

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well tonight … I felt like that last shot that I shot was going to be able to go in,” said Tharpe, who scored eight points on 4-for-11 shooting from the floor and 0-for-5 from three. “But it didn’t fall.

I’m going to get another chance to shoot that shot, and I’m going to be ready to knock it down.”

KU played once again without freshman guard Ben McLemore, who was hampered by a sore groin.

Self still wasn’t taking it easy on his guys.

“We’re not very good at all. We can improve on everything,” Self said. “I would just like to be able to pass and dribble and catch. That would be a good starting point. Forget about shooting or guarding or anything.”

KU had 27 turnovers, compared to 23 for AMW. Self was so frustrated with his returning players that he started the second half — KU led, 36-34, at the break — with a lineup of that included walk-ons Evan Manning and Niko Roberts.

“To be honest with you, I just thought that our main guys were so bad they didn’t deserve to play,” Self said. “I really thought that if we hadn’t have played some of those guys, we would have had a chance to have had a bigger lead at halftime. Obviously, we had to play them to have a chance to win the game, but I wasn’t happy with any of them. I didn’t think any of them played worth a flip.”

Johnson, who finished with five points on 2-for-10 shooting to go with four assists and two turnovers, said his coach’s assessment of the veterans was accurate.

“A lot of people go against the grain, or a lot of people just say what they think they should say in the interview. But I personally agree with him,” Johnson said. “He’s setting standards right now.

Last year, he set standards, and it got us second place, which disappointed our whole state.

“So I understand everything he’s doing and setting standards and wanting more out of us, because he knows he can get more out of us. So why not test us? Why just say, ‘Hey, it’s OK, Travis. It’s OK, Elijah. It’s OK, Jeff. We lost. It’s OK.’ It’s not OK.” Self added: “We weren’t ready to play. Maybe Paris can do that to you.”

Aug. 12 — AMW Team France 79, Kansas 60 Paris — Kansas University coach Bill Self already knew winning without four potential starters was going to be difficult Aug. 12.

That task became nearly impossible when AMW Team France’s Kevin Seraphin decided to elevate his game late.

The Washington Wizards forward — and 17th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft — dominated during a crucial stretch, helping to lift Team France to a 79-60 blowout victory over KU at Stade Pierre de Coubertine.

“In the second half,” Self said, “he showed that he’s a man.”

KU trailed just 51-50 with a minute to go in the third quarter before Seraphin took over.

The 6-foot-9, 275-pound forward scored seven points during a 19-2 run over the next five minutes that turned a close game into a rout.

Seraphin, who didn’t play in the two teams’ game Saturday, finished with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting.

“I was just chilling at my house, and my friend told me there they’ve got a game against Kansas,” said Seraphin, who averaged six points and three rebounds for France’s national team in the Olympics earlier in the month. “I said, ‘OK, let’s go. Let’s play.’”

Self went without seniors Elijah Johnson, Jeff Withey and Travis Releford, saying he wanted to get his young guys more experience.

Another potential starter, Ben McLemore, also didn’t play because of a nagging groin injury.

Though that left the Jayhawks with just one scholarship

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upperclassman — senior Kevin Young — they still managed to take a 34-31 lead into halftime.

“We were just competing,” KU freshman guard Andrew White said. “That competitive edge and defending, that’ll hold a team in the game that’s missing their three star players.”

It didn’t keep the Jayhawks in it the whole game, though, as Seraphin’s inside presence contributed to the French making all seven of their two-point attempts in the fourth quarter.

KU didn’t help itself offensively, making just 9 of 39 second-half shots (23 percent) with 12 turnovers.

The Jayhawks ended up with 26 giveaways.

“Offensively, we’re not very good. And we turn that sucker over at an alarming rate right now,” Self said. “Our newcomers are unbelievably poor at taking care of the basketball.”

The loss was the Jayhawks’ second straight defeat after not losing an exhibition game since 1995.

“Our veterans need to really step up, because there’s no reason why we should

have lost back-to-back games,” Self said.

“Tonight’s a little bit expected, based on the personnel, but last night was inexcusable.”

Perry Ellis led KU, scoring 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting to go with 12 rebounds in 24 minutes.

Still, Self believed the freshman forward had the potential to play better.

“He’s a guy that, to me, his talent level is so high that he’s just got to be more aggressive all the time,” Self said. “If he’s not aggressive, then obviously, he doesn’t play to

his talent level — to what I think it is.

“Because he’s one of those guys that gets 16 (points) and 12 (rebounds) in 20 minutes, and you think he should have had 25 and 16. So he’ll get better at that. He’s improved a lot since he’s started.”

Andrew White added 15 points on 5-for-13 shooting from the floor and 3-for-7 shooting for three.

The freshman guard White led KU in scoring average on its exhibition trip, posting 11 points per contest.

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fOReCast 1. KANSAS: For the past eight seasons, Kansas University’s basketball team has either won or shared the Big 12 Conference regular-season title.

To win No. 9, the Jayhawks will have to overcome the losses of Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor, who will be playing for the Sacramento Kings and Brooklyn Nets this season.

Of course, the holdovers include senior starters Elijah Johnson, Travis Releford and Jeff Withey as well as senior Kevin Young. A batch of newcomers, including Ben McLemore and Perry Ellis come aboard making No. 9 seem a real possibility if not a foregone conclusion.

Here’s a look at the other teams in the league: 2. BAYLOR: The Bears, who were led by NBA Draft picks Perry Jones III, Quincy Acy and Quincy Miller, went 30-8 last season (126 in Big 12) and reached the Elite Eight. The 30 victories were most in school history. Scott Drew’s team returns leading scorer Pierre Jackson (13.8 ppg), as well as accurate three-point bomber Brady Heslip (10.2 ppg). A.J. Walton (3.8 ppg), Gary Franklin (2.1 ppg) and Deuce Bello (3.3 ppg) all played meaningful minutes a year ago. Imposing Cory Jefferson (3.6 ppg), who is 6-foot-9, is expected to have a breakout season. BU is bringing in a big-time talent in freshman Isaiah Austin, a 7-1 center from Arlington, Texas. He’s expected to be a top five pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.

3. OKLAhOMA STATe: The Cowboys, who went 15-18 a year ago and 7-11 in the league, lost senior guard Keiton Page, the seventh-leading scorer in school history. An unexpected loss during the summer was guard Cezar Guerrero, who transferred to Fresno State for personal reasons. Forward LeBryan Nash elected to return for his sophomore season after averaging 13.3 ppg. Markel Brown (10.5 ppg) and Brian Williams (9.6) join highly touted recruits Marcus Smart (6-4) and Phil Forte (5-11) both from Flower Mound, Texas. KU coach Bill Self said this past summer he considered coach Travis Ford’s Cowboys favorites to win the league.

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4. TexAS: Rick Barnes’ Longhorns went 20-14 overall and 9-9 in the league last year. Leading scorer J’Covan Brown is gone, but guard Myck Kabongo, who had entered college as a likely one-anddone is back for his sophomore season after averaging 9.6 ppg with 176 assists against 102 turnovers. Kabongo had five or more assists 20 times, including six of his last seven games. He finished the year with 176 assists, a total that ranks fourth on the all-time Big 12 freshman list. Sheldon McClellan (11.3 ppg, second on team in scoring), Julien Lewis (7.8 ppg) and Jonathan Holmes (7.1 ppg) are back. McClellan scored in double digits in nine of the final 12 games. A strong freshman class is led by Cameron Ridley, 6-10 from Fort Bend, Texas. Also in the class: Ioannis Papapetrou, 6-8 from Greece, who visited KU; Damarcus Holland, Prince Ibeh, Danny Newsome, Connor Lammert, Will Temple and Javan Felix.

5. KANSAS STATe: The Wildcats suffered a huge loss in the offseason when popular coach Frank Martin bolted for South Carolina. His final KSU team went 22-11 overall and 10-8 in the league. He was replaced by former Illinois coach Bruce Weber.

The Cats return leading scorer Rodney McGruder (15.8 ppg) as well as Will Spradling (9.7 ppg), Angel Rodriguez (8.3 ppg) and Jordan Henriquez 7.6 ppg). Henriquez averaged 14.2 points and 10.6 rebounds in the last five games of the season, shooting 57.1 percent.

6. IOWA STATe: Fred Hoiberg’s Cyclones went 23-11 a year ago and 12-6 in the league. The squad lost standout Royce White to the NBA as well as three-point bomber Scott Christopherson and Chris Allen. However, the Cyclones add transfers in former Michigan State point guard Korie Lucious and former Utah guard/ forward Will Clyburn. Melvin Ejim (9.3 ppg) and Chris Babb (7.8 ppg) are back with Tyrus McGee (7.8 ppg, 50 threes). The incoming recruiting class is led by No. 69-rated Georges Niang, 6-7 from The Tilton School in Massachusetts as well as Naz Long, 6-4 from Canada.

7. WeST VIRgINIA: Former K-State coach Bob Huggins is back in the league, running the program at his alma mater. West Virginia has made seven NCAA appearances in the last eight years, including all five years under Huggins. The Mountaineers reached the 2010 Final Four. The Mountaineers, who have lost leading scorers Kevin Jones and Truck Bryant, went 19-14 a year ago. Deniz Kilicli is returning leading scorer at 10.7 ppg. Jabarie Hinds (7.4 ppg), Gary Browne (6.5 ppg) and Aaron Brown (4.2 ppg) are back.

Transfers Aaric Murray (LaSalle) and Juwan Staten (Dayton) should start from day one.

8. OKLAhOMA: Lon Kruger’s first Sooner team went 15-16 overall and 5-13 in the league. The squad returns leading scorer Steven Pledger (13.0 ppg) as well as Romero Osby (12.9 ppg), Andrew Fitzgerald (8.5), Cameron Clark (8.5) and Sam Grooms (6.7). Osby scored in double figures in the last seven games, averaging 15.1 points during that span. He ranked sixth in the Big 12 in rebounding with 7.3 boards per game. Pledger is the 38th player in OU history to reach the 1,000-point plateau (1,022). He scored in double digits 25 times. Grooms had at least five assists in 12 of his last 14 games, including 68 in the final 10 contests (6.8 apg). He had two turnovers or less in 20 different outings.

9. TCU: The Horned Frogs, who went 18-15 a year ago, will be led by first-year coach Trent Johnson. Garlon Green (9.9 ppg) and Kyan Anderson (8.3 ppg) are the only two returning starters.

Amric Fields came off the bench last year to the tune of 9.6 ppg.

Former Arkansas forward Devonta Abron joins the program as well as Aaron Durley, Charles Hill, Clyde Smith III and Christian Gore.

Johnson arrives at TCU from LSU, where he worked the last four

seasons. He previously held head coaching positions at Stanford (2004-08) and Nevada (1999-2004). A veteran program builder, he has guided his teams to eight postseason appearances, including five NCAA Tournaments, in 13 seasons. Two of his squads (Nevada, 2003-04; Stanford, 2007-08) reached the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament.

10. TexAS TeCh: Billy Gillispie’s first Red Raiders team went a horrific 8-23 overall and 1-17 in the league. Jordan Tolbert led the way at 11.5 ppg, while Ty Nurse contributed 8.9 ppg and Jaye Crockett 8.8 ppg. Crockett scored in double digits in four of his last five games with seven or more boards three times. Tolbert, just a freshman, posted 15 points or more in three of his final four games with 16 double-digit scoring outings. He was the only Big 12 freshman to lead his team in scoring. Nurse missed just six free throws all season (55 of 61). He had 13 double-figure scoring games, including six of his last 12. Gillispie was hospitalized with high blood pressure during September with his status for the season unknown at magazine presstime. His players had gone to the athletic director to complain about the way the coach was running his program.

Athlon Magazine this summer had a preseason All-Big 12 first team of Pierre Jackson, Jeff Withey, Rodney McGruder, Steven Pledger and LeBryan Nash; second team of Elijah Johnson, Jordan Henriquez, Isaiah Austin, Marcus Smart and Myck Kabongo; third team of Cameron Ridley, Romero Osby, Melvin Ejim, Brady Heslip and Jordan Tolbert. The magazine had Jackson player of the year; Withey defensive player of the year; Markel Brown most underrated player and Will Clyburn newcomer of the year.

2012-2013

KU

MEN'S BASKETBAll SCHEdUlE

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Tue, Oct. 30

ESU at KU (Exhibition) 7:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Mon, Jan. 14

Baylor at KU, 8:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Mon, Nov. 5

Washburn at KU (Exhibition) 7:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sat, Jan. 19

KU at Texas, 1:00 pm Frank erwin Center, austin, tX

Fri, Nov. 9

SE Missouri State at KU, 7:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Tue, Jan. 22

KU at Kansas State, 7:00 pm bramlage Coliseum, manhattan, ks

Tue, Nov. 13

Michigan St. vs KU, 6:00 p.m. atlanta, ga

Sat, Jan. 26

Oklahoma at KU, 3:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Thu, Nov. 15

Chattanooga at KU, 7:00 pm allen Fieldhouse , lawrence, ks

Mon, Jan. 28

KU at West Virginia, 8:00 pm WVU Coliseum, morgantown, W.V.

Mon, Nov. 19

Washington State vs KU, 9:00 pm sprint Center, kansas City, mo

Sat, Feb. 2

Oklahoma St. at KU, 3:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Tue, Nov. 20

St. Louis/Texas A&M vs KU, 6:00 pm/8:30 pm sprint Center, kansas City, mo

Wed, Feb. 6

KU at TCU, 8:00 pm Daniel-meyer Coliseum, Fort Worth, tX

Mon, Nov. 26

San Jose State at KU, 8:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sat, Feb. 9

KU at Oklahoma, 3:00 pm lloyd noble Center, norman, ok

Fri, Nov. 30

Oregon State vs KU, 7:00 pm sprint Center, kansas City, mo

Mon, Feb. 11

Kansas State at KU, 8:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sat, Dec. 8

Colorado at KU, 1:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sat, Feb. 16

Texas at KU, 8:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sat, Dec. 15

Belmont at KU, 6:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Wed, Feb. 20

KU at Oklahoma St., 8:00 pm gallagher-iba arena, stillwater, ok

Tue, Dec. 18

Richmond at KU, 6:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sat, Feb. 23

TCU at KU, 3:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sat, Dec. 22

KU at Ohio St., 3:00 pm Value City arena, Columbus, ohio

Mon, Feb. 25

KU at Iowa State, 8:00 pm Hilton Coliseum, ames, ia

Sat, Dec. 29

American University at KU, 7:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sat, March 2

West Virginia at KU, 1:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sun, Jan. 6

Temple at KU, 12:30 pm/3:30 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Mon, March 4

Texas Tech at KU, 6:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Wed, Jan. 9

Iowa State at KU, 6:00 pm allen Fieldhouse, lawrence, ks

Sat, March 9

KU at Baylor, 5:00 pm the Ferrell Center, Waco, tX

Sat, Jan. 12

KU at Texas Tech, 3:00 pm United spirit arena, lubbock, tX

Wed, Mar. 13-16 Big 12 Tournament sprint Center, kansas City, mo

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