Kansas University senior basketball players Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich are two of 50 preseason candidates for the Wooden Award, the Wooden selection committee announced Friday.

The Iowans also are Playboy Preseason All-Americans and members of Dick Vitale’s first-team Preseason All-America squad.

Other Big 12 players on the Wooden list are Oklahoma’s Ebi Ere and Hollis Price, Texas’ T.J. Ford and James Thomas and Missouri’s Ricky Paulding.

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Slamball premieres tonight: The TV debut of “Slamball” is set for 7 p.m. tonight on the new TNN (cable channel 56). Former Jayhawk Jelani Janisse is a starter on The Rumble, one of the six teams.

Slamball, as reported earlier in the Journal-World, is a new game billed as a combination of basketball, hockey and gymnastics. It features eight trampolines for players to sky for dunks, and allows full body contact.

Would former KU player Jerod Haase like to give Slamball a try?

“No. I get hurt playing golf,” quipped Haase, an administrative assistant on KU’s coaching staff.

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Bradford headed overseas?: Former KU guard Nick Bradford, who attained his college undergraduate degree last winter, says he won’t return to the ABA’s Kansas City Knights next season. He’s likely going to play in either Australia or France.

Look for former Jayhawk Steve Woodberry to surface in Italy.

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Recruiting update: Omar Wilkes, a 6-foot-2 guard from Los Angeles who has visited KU, tells Jon Kirby of rivals.com that he will visit UCLA, Cal and Stanford in September.

“There’s no one ahead of Kansas, but I want to take a look at other schools,” Wilkes told Kirby.

Of KU’s continuing interest, Wilkes said: “They send me funny articles and in some of them I will be dressed in a Jayhawk uniform. One of them was a puzzle and it had an open spot. The spot had my name on it and said I was the missing piece to the puzzle.”

Brian Butch, a 7-footer from Appleton, Wis., tells rivals.com and Carolina Blue he’s trimmed his list to KU, North Carolina, Arizona and Wisconsin and may also visit Marquette or Tennessee.

Butch told Shay Wildeboor of rivals.com he has a “deep pain muscle in his back” that’s been bothering him after a rigorous summer season. He’s going to take some time off away from the court and focus on recruiting. It’s believed he will visit Kansas for a football game.

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Game at Tech: KU’s hoops slate hasn’t been released yet, but Texas Tech’s has unveiled its schedule. The Jayhawks will travel to Lubbock, Texas, to meet Bob Knight’s Red Raiders on March 3.

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Brown picks MSU: Shannon Brown, a 6-3 prep shooting guard from Maywood, Ill., has chosen Michigan State over Kansas, Illinois and others.