It may seem as if it’s taking a long time for Kansas University officials to release the 2002-03 Jayhawk men’s basketball schedule.

In reality, however, the schedule figures to be announced close to the same time as a year ago  that is, on or around July 25.

KU officials are waiting for Big 12 Conference officials to finalize the league schedule. Also, KU senior associate athletic director Richard Konzem is trying to fill one remaining home date on the slate.

“Our nonconference schedule was shortened on the front end in the November time period by a week because of our participation in the Preseason NIT, so we lost that week of scheduling nonconference games,” Konzem said.

KU will play Holy Cross in its NIT opener on Nov. 19 at Allen Fieldhouse. If KU wins, a second NIT home game will be played against UNC Greensboro or Wagner on Nov. 22. The semifinals and finals are Nov. 27 and 29 in New York.

“We lost that week of scheduling, theoretically, two nonconference games,” Konzem said. “The Big 12 Conference starts Jan. 11, but in our case we’ve been notified that on Jan. 6 we will be on (ESPN) Big Monday. So that means we also lost a week at the end of the nonconference schedule. We know we play Jan. 6 and Jan. 11th with an open date the 15th. So we’ll have a nonconference home game on Jan. 9, 14th or 15th, something like that.”

Konzem has a list of 20 nonconference schools looking for games, so he hopes to schedule one of those teams in the near future. It will not be the type of school that requires a return game.

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Norm visits Alvamar: Former University of Missouri basketball coach Norm Stewart, who used to say he’d never spend a penny in the state of Kansas, played golf at Alvamar on Thursday with KU associate athletics director/development John Hadl, former USC head coach Bob Boyd and three other golfers.

KU coach Roy Williams, who lives right on the golf course, walked a couple holes with the two threesomes.

“I actually played two days with Norm,” said Hadl, referring to a Wednesday round at Olathe Shadow Glen. “It was better than on the field of battle. We had a good time. Everybody was in good spirits.”

Is former KU football standout Hadl a better golfer than former MU basketball and baseball standout Stewart?

“He’s about like me, a 12 to 15 handicap. Put it this way, I won the money,” Hadl quipped. “KU won the deal, no doubt about it. I like Norm. He makes it clear about (a dislike between) Kansas and Missouri just like we make it clear about Kansas and Missouri.”

Hadl, who is involved in fund raising, is looking for a donor to fund KU’s proposed videoboard for Allen Fieldhouse.

“We’re talking to a couple people,” he said. “We’re doing well considering the current (economic) climate (in America), really doing pretty well,” he added, referring to KU’s overall athletic fund raising efforts.

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Gooden update: Ex-Jayhawk Drew Gooden will be playing for Memphis at the Rocky Mountain Review from July 19 to July 27 in Salt Lake City. Memphis will play Cleveland at 1 p.m. CDT July 23 and Chicago at 7 p.m. July 25 in games on ESPN.

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Recruiting: Analyst Bob Gibbons rates future Jayhawk J.R. Giddens (6-foot-5, Oklahoma City) 37th in next year’s recruiting class. Future Jayhawk Jeremy Case (6-0, McAlester, Okla.) is not in the top 100, but listed as a top-200 player. KU target David Padgett (6-11, Reno, Nev.) is ranked eighth.