Jason Kapono stood at center court, dribbled forward two steps and hoisted a rather long three-point try early Friday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.

Swish.

Darned if Kapono, UCLA’s 6-foot-8, 215-pound senior forward didn’t work on his halfcourt shot for about five minutes, sinking about 10 desperation bombs while working up quite a sweat after the Bruins’ practice on Kansas University’s court.

“Just having some fun,” Kapono said with a grin. “Those are the cleanest looks I’ll probably get the rest of my career.”

Kapono, who takes a team-leading 17.4-point scoring average into today’s game at No. 19 Kansas (4 p.m., channels 5 and 13), had a good time Friday in KU’s tradition-rich building.

“I’ve never been here before. It’s pretty tight,” the Lakewood, Calif., native said. “It’s nice and old. It has that nice, little home feel to it.”

Kapono knows all about historic basketball palaces.

For four years he’s played his home games in Pauley Pavilion, where he scored 10 points in last year’s 87-77 victory over KU.

“Even though we are both struggling, having a tough time getting started,” Kapono said of the 2-3 Bruins and 5-3 Jayhawks, “the programs are two of the best in history.

“Coming in here and seeing the players who have played here before — Wilt (Chamberlain) and those guys. Plus, the players who have played for us — (Bill) Walton and Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) — those are pretty big names throughout the game of basketball.”

Kapono has heard plenty of stories about Allen Fieldhouse from KU’s Nick Collison, who like Kapono was a member of the 2001 World Championship For Young Men team which went 8-0 and won a gold medal in Japan.

“Collison said it’d be packed tomorrow and they’d have a nice, cheering crowd to taunt us. We better be ready,” Kapono said. “I just talked to him today. He was supposed to come by the gym. I guess he stood me up.

“He’s a great guy, great player and is really playing well,” Kapono added of Collison, KU’s leading scorer at 19.3 ppg. “He has a chance to show the perimeter skills he thrives on. He’s a force. We’ll have to try to get the ball out of his hands.”

The Jayhawks realize slowing Kapono could be a key today in stopping the Bruins. He’s hit 11 of 32 threes this season and is the school record holder for threes made (264) and attempted (581).

UCLA also boasts double-digit scorers in forwards Dijon Thompson (16.2 points per game) and T.J. Cummings (11). Point guard Cedric Bozeman averages eight points and four assists a game, while shooting guard Ray Young tallies 9.6 points per contest.

“Jason Kapono’s outside shooting … of course we have to be aware of that,” KU sophomore forward Wayne Simien said. “UCLA is athletic across the board.”

Indeed. …

“Jason Kapono’s ability to shoot the basketball and their athleticism is the first thing that comes to mind,” KU coach Roy Williams said of the Bruins, who suffered a shocking 67-63 loss to Northern Arizona on Tuesday at Pauley.

“Last year, 48 hours before they played us they played their cross-town rival in their first conference game and didn’t play well,” Williams said of UCLA’s 81-77 loss to Southern Cal last season, two days before beating then No. 1-rated KU.

“They didn’t seem to be into it emotionally (vs. USC). Those who saw our game against them, they were into it emotionally at that point.”

Nobody can really explain what happened to UCLA on Tuesday.

“We are extremely disappointed with how we played against Northern Arizona, (but) we always bounce back well,” Kapono said. “That’s kind of been our motto during my career. We always bounce back and play well and hopefully that will hold true tomorrow.”

Bruin coach Steve Lavin hopes so.

“It’s exciting for our players to go against a basketball powerhouse like Kansas, which has such a great tradition and heritage,” Lavin said. “To play in Allen Fieldhouse, which is one of the great venues in all of college basketball … it’s a great opportunity.”

The environment had the Bruins wide-eyed at Friday’s practice.

“This is pretty nice,” sophomore Bozeman said, eyeing the upper deck from his perch near the scorer’s table. “It’s old school, but it has a new feel to it, too. A little old with the new. I heard it gets pretty loud in here.”

Real loud.

“There will be a sea of red in the stands, the sunlight coming through the window … the banners, the great names hanging in the rafters. It reeks with tradition,” Lavin said.