Kansas University doesn’t offer an undergraduate degree in basketball studies.

Not yet, anyway.

But KU Continuing Education will be offering one class in hoops this year as part of its “KU For Lawrence” program.

The class is titled “KU Men’s Basketball: Legends, Traditions and the Sixth Man” and will feature four, two-hour classroom sessions at Horejsi Center behind Allen Fieldhouse.

Cost is $48 for the class and is open to anybody.

No academic credit can be earned by taking the class, but, by enrolling, one will hear speakers such as KU coach Roy Williams, radio announcers Bob Davis and Max Falkenstien, professor and director of American Studies Norman Yetman, former KU assistant coach Jerry Waugh and others.

In all, there will be six different courses in the upcoming semester’s “KU For Lawrence” program, just the one in hoops, which will run on four Tuesdays in late September and early October from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“We had been kicking it around Continuing Ed since ‘KU For Lawrence’ started,” said Heather Hoy, program manager at KU Continuing Education. “We’d been thinking about working with the athletic department on something and pulled this together.

“A lot of people have a thirst for knowledge concerning KU basketball.”

Tentative plans a sneak preview will soon be available on the Web at kuce.org include one session on an overview of the early history of Kansas sports with an emphasis on basketball; one session with KU’s announcers; one session concerning KU game-day traditions and memories of the Phog Allen era as recalled by Waugh and the final session featuring Williams on his teaching methods with players and 15 years at KU.

“My favorite title is the Bob and Max session: ‘Bob and Max Unplugged,”’ Hoy said with a laugh. “Maybe we can get the MTV and VH1 generation with that title.”

The “KU For Lawrence” program, which will be featured in an upcoming insert in the Journal-World and www.kuce.org, is … “a good way for us to showcase the university to the community and showcase the talent we have at the university,” Hoy said.

“There are many people in the community interested in continuing education. They can enjoy a lecture and discuss the issues coming up and don’t have to worry about taking a test at the end. It’s an academic environment without the tests.”

If this works out, a course in football might be in store in the future.

“It’s still in the offing,” Hoy said. “We don’t have any way to test the market except put it out there. Everyone we’ve talked to have had similar responses: ‘Hey, you will fill that (basketball) class.”’

KU assistant associate athletic director/communications Doug Vance said the athletic department is enthused about the hoops class.

“Ordinarily it’s very difficult for us to make our facilities available for outside events because of game and practice-time issues,” Vance said., “but we felt this represented something important and we wanted to be a partner (with Continuing Ed) in making it a reality.”

To enroll in the class call 864-5823 or 877-404-5823.