With his shaved head and bright white smile, coupled with his ability to dunk a basketball, Kenny Gregory has long been compared to Michael Jordan.
"I don't see the resemblance, personally," Gregory, Kansas University's junior guard-forward from Columbus, Ohio, says with a grin.
But others do -- like the young campers tutored by Gregory and other college and pro players for a week last summer at the former Chicago Bull's camp in Elmhurst, Ill.
"Kids would tap me on the shoulder. I'd turn and they'd say, 'I thought you were Michael,''' Gregory said. "He made the comment that people were coming up to him saying, 'This Kenny Gregory guy from Kansas looks like you.'
"It was funny at first, but kind of got on my nerves after a while, especially after the dunk contest."
The 6-foot-5, 205-pound Gregory wowed the Jordan campers by winning the slam dunk contest the second night of camp.
"I think I put on a pretty good show," Gregory said. "I don't usually wear a hat, but later in the week I wore a hat so the people wouldn't bother me (about being Jordan)."
Gregory says he learned a lot by working with and playing against Jordan that week in late July. The future Hall of Famer guarded Gregory during games played during the night sessions of camp.
"That was the biggest upside of going," Gregory said. "Along with getting to work hard every day, I had the opportunity to play with him. I never thought I'd get that opportunity. With the age difference, I thought he'd be gone by the time I made it to the NBA. It was so much fun. I'll remember that forever."
Could Gregory stop Jordan on the court?
"I tried," Gregory said, laughing. "He has a real bad finger -- he will have surgery in December -- and hasn't played much since The Finals (two years ago). It was obvious he was still the best player on the court.
"He said to me, 'There won't be any dunking on me.' It was right after the dunk contest. That's about the only thing I might be able to do against him, dunk on him. He was a great guy, laid back. He gave me a lot of advice."
Gregory worked on his game a lot last summer.
He spent some time in Philadelphia scrimmaging against NBA and European-league players. He also lifted weights and practiced with his former AAU coach during a three-week period in Columbus.
"I watched a lot of tape from last season," Gregory said. "I saw myself make a lot of mistakes. I understand now why coach took me out of games in certain situations and why I wasn't playing as well.
"Once you see yourself make mistakes, missing 10- to 15-foot shots -- shots a college sophomore should make -- you see you have some work to do."
Gregory, who hit 47 percent of his floor shots and 47.8 percent of his free throws last season while averaging 11.3 points a game, worked on his shooting over the sumnmer.
"A two guard must knock down his shot. It opens it up so I can attack the basket," Gregory said. "You have to make your free throws. I worked on that a lot this summer. I think everyone will see a big change from 47 percent."
His poor free-throw shooting wore on him mentally.
"That has something to do with maybe not attacking the basket as often as I should," Gregory said. "If I attacked the basket, I'd score or get fouled and I had to go to the foul line. I was not confident in making free throws at 47 percent. I worked hard on that. I think it'll add three or four more points to my game."
Gregory -- he slumped after a strong start a year ago -- says he's refreshed mentally.
"At the middle of the season, I let things stress me out. I was not having as much fun as I should. At one point basketball became something I had to do. It wasn't something I wanted to do," Gregory said.
"Things started getting a little bumpy and I didn't know how to handle it. Every player, good and bad, has ups and downs and I didn't know how to adjust to get back where I was before.
"I think I've got the love back. I really want to play every day, lift weights and go to conditioning every day. I don't think this year I'll ever dread going to practice. It's like I felt in eighth grade. I love the game. I'm ready to cover up all the mistakes I made last year."
Gregory, by the way, says he enters preseason conditioning in good physical shape. His back, which has bothered him in his first two years at KU, is feeling OK.
"My back's been doing pretty well," Gregory said. "It has normal pains I'll probably have to deal with forever. I do my stretching and really don't pay much attention to it (pain) any more."
-- Gary Bedore's phone number is 832-7186. His e-mail address is gbedore@ljworld.com
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