Jeff Graves had nowhere to run — he was too tired to run, anyway — and nowhere to hide after getting lapped by every one of his Kansas University basketball teammates in the Jayhawks’ annual 12-minute conditioning run Aug. 22 at Memorial Stadium.

“I felt a little embarrassed at first, knowing I had two years left and I had to do what I had to do, but came in out of shape,” said Graves, a 6-foot-9, 280-pound transfer from Iowa Western Community College who reported to his first KU camp dreadfully out of shape at 293 pounds.

Graves completed just more than five laps around Hershberger Track in 12 minutes, needing 6 1â2 laps to qualify for admission to KU’s team.

“I was a lot harder on myself than anybody else was,” Graves said. “It was pretty painful and overwhelming at the same time. I had to get used to things, get in the swing of things real quick.”

Unfortunately for the Lee’s Summit, Mo., native, he suffered a concussion in a car wreck and missed two weeks of school in early September.

Once he returned to school and was cleared to resume physical activity in early October, Graves began reporting to the KU track on a fairly regular basis, attempting to successfully complete the 6 1â2 laps.

In all, Graves said he attempted the run “six or nine times.”

His most dramatic miss came on Nov. 3, when he fell short by 140 yards, his teammates cheering him every step of the way.

Kansas' Jeff Graves, right, smothers a Washburn player in the Jayhawks' exhibition win on Nov. 12. After being criticized by everyone from his coach to KU fans, the junior-college transfer wants to prove his worth.

“Keith Langford and Wayne Simien talked to me a lot. There were telling me, ‘Keep up your head, keep up the good work. Good job, don’t worry about it.’ The coaching staff, too. They said, ‘Don’t put your head down, just keep going,'” Graves said.

On the morning of Nov. 6, Graves finally eclipsed the 61â2-lap standard, this time with assistant coach Joe Holladay the only witness.

“The last time it was just coach Holladay out there pushing me. He was running with me the last 100 yards. He was saying: ‘Graves you can make it. You have 11:51 left.'” Graves said.

Actually he had more like 12 seconds left, Graves crossing the tape in a photo finish.

Everybody rejoiced at practice that afternoon, when coach Roy Williams welcomed Graves as an official member of the team.

“It was a relief for everybody. It was a lot of relief for me personally, because that was like the only little border I had to get over,” said Graves, who scored two points with three rebounds in six minutes of Tuesday’s 81-57 Preseason NIT victory over Holy Cross.

Williams said he was “really, really happy” for Graves, who would have had to run all season had he not met the standard.

“I tell the kids, ‘If you can’t run 61â2 laps you are not physically able to play at this level,'” Williams said. “Ten years ago I got mad at Alonzo (Jamison) for not making it. I went out and made it myself at 42 years old. He had no chance after that. Some kids have an easier time with it than others, but you’ve got to do it. One good thing about being coach is you can be as stubborn as you want to be.”

Williams has shown Graves, who still needs to lose 10 more pounds, some tough love at practice, more than once raising the Allen Fieldhouse roof by screaming at the junior college All American.

“Coach has been pushing me to the next level, driving me. I use that as motivation,” Graves said. “Practice is 100 times more than what I’m used to playing. You’ve got to get back on defense, hustle 110 percent at all times.”

There’s also a new system and new playbook to study and quickly learn or run the risk of Williams’ wrath.

“My teammates have supported me a lot,” Graves said. “They told me, ‘If anything, when coach is yelling at you, that means he’s caring about you. That means you have a lot of potential in you.'”

Williams said Graves needs do “continue to lose more weight so he’ll have the stamina to play a couple more minutes at a time. He’s still got a long way to go, just about everybody does. At least he’s on our team now.”

After finally conquering the 12-minute run..