Officially, Kansas University senior Nick Collison is listed as a practice player/alternate on the United States world championships basketball team.

To the 12 NBA players on Team USA, however, the 6-foot-9, 257-pounder is much, much more.

“I felt like I was a teammate,” Collison said Wednesday after returning to Lawrence this week following two-plus weeks with Team USA. “The players were all cool. They tried to kind of look out for me because they knew I was new.”

The only college player on the team was so well-liked and accepted, he’s been invited to return to the tourney in Indianapolis to sit behind the bench for this weekend’s semifinals and finals if indeed the United States advances that far.

The Americans lost to Argentina, 87-80, on Wednesday night and will take a 5-1 record into tonight’s quarterfinals vs. Yugoslavia.

“I don’t think they were originally going to have me come back,” Collison said, “but I think Reggie Miller talked to them (USA Basketball officials) and told them they (players) thought I should be there, that I’d been practicing just like they had.

“I thought that was a pretty neat deal. They thought enough of me they wanted me to come back there and watch.

“It’ll be a good experience. Hopefully I’ll see ’em win the gold.”

Maybe, maybe not. Wednesday’s loss was the first for the U.S. in international competition since NBA players began representing their country in 1992. It’s an especially bitter loss because the Americans haven’t been taking the opposition lightly, Collison says.

“I think they are taking it pretty seriously. There’s nobody out there trying to do anything but win games. It’s not like an all-star game where guys are trying to almost jack around. They’ve been very serious,” Collison said.

The mature Jayhawk fit right in with the pros.

“I didn’t feel out of place at all,” Collison said. “I’ve got a ways to go before I can play at that level, just in terms of strength. They are stronger than me, but it wasn’t where I ever felt I was overmatched.”

Collison had a blast living the NBA lifestyle for two weeks, but is not kicking himself for deciding to return to KU for his senior year. It’s believed he would have been a late first-round pick had he entered the 2002 NBA draft.

“I’m really going to have a good time this year. I didn’t think about that at all,” Collison said. “It never got to that point where I really wished that I would have left. All this did was give me the confidence that someday I could play at that level.”

Eligible to play in the team’s two exhibition games, Collison logged four minutes versus China, missing his only two shots. Both were blocked by 7-5 center Yao Ming.

“I took him outside, drove him and as I was going up I lost control of the ball. He hit it away and they called it a block,” Collison said. “Statistically I was 0-for-2.

“He’s good,” he added of Ming, No. 1 pick in the draft. “I was kind of skeptical like a lot of people are. A lot of our guys beforehand were pretty excited about trying to take it to him, intimidate him. They didn’t really do that. He had a pretty good game against us (13 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks). He’s gonna be good.”

Notes

Collison served as “attendant of honor” at 24-year-old sister Katie’s wedding last weekend in Iowa. He was touched to be chosen by his sister, accepting some good-natured ribbing about serving the role usually filled by a woman (maid of honor).

“I was going to (wear a dress) but couldn’t find one that fit,” Collison quipped. “I had to talk at the reception. It was all right because the rest of the girls talked it’s like a group of girls that are all friends. They all did this poem thing. They did that, then I proposed a toast. It took some of the heat off me.

“The priest did (crack a joke) at the rehearsal,” Collison added. “I can’t remember what he said. Everybody was laughing, ha ha. It was kind of the joke of the week.”

The world championships have drawn tiny crowds at two sites in Indianapolis. The U.S.-Russia game attracted just 5,379 fans at 18,345-seat Conseco Fieldhouse.

“In the big dome especially it looks bad. It’s so huge and there’s not many people in there,” Collison said of the RCA Dome, which seats 35,669 but has attracted about 7,000 fans per game.

“People in Indiana are supposed to be basketball crazy and they’ve got the best team right there. For whatever reason they are not coming out. Maybe people are trying to wait (for weekend action) because they don’t want to go every night.”

Collison is not behind in his classwork. “I missed two days and a week. I have two assignments where teachers are letting me turn it in the next day and other than that I’ll just have to catch up on some reading,” he said. “It worked out pretty well. I didn’t miss a whole lot. One class we had a quiz but you can take the top four out of six. I just won’t take that one.”

On his weekend in Chicago with Kirk Hinrich for the Playboy All-America photo. “The picture was kind of a disappointment. There were no bunnies walking around,” quipped Collison, wearing his Playboy All-America shirt. “The (Hefner) mansion is in L.A. In Chicago it’s just a studio.”