Big Jeff Graves reported to Kansas University this semester more than a little out of shape.

He’s so out of shape …

“I was really ticked at Jeff,” KU basketball coach Roy Williams said of the former Iowa Community College forward who is listed at 6-foot-9, 275 pounds, but reported to KU at a whopping 293.

“He’s got a long way to go to be a player for us. He’s about as far away now (from) playing as I’ve ever had anybody at this time of year. If he does a lot of work he has enough ability to be a good player for us.

“But he’s got a lot of work to do,” Williams added, noting, “if you are 293, you just can’t play. He can play more than the Jayhawk will play, but that’s about it.”

Graves is recuperating from a concussion he suffered when he was a passenger in a car that was involved in an accident last Sunday. Graves spent the last week with his mom in Lee’s Summit, Mo. He hopes to return to KU early this week, his mom, Sharon, said Saturday.

“He’s doing a little better, resting a lot, taking muscle relaxers and pain killers. He’s had some dizziness, headaches and has been nauseous,” Sharon said.

“He has no mobility in his neck right now. He had a concussion. He’s doing much better. He doesn’t have as much dizziness now, but when he walks you can still tell his whole body moves except his neck.”

Graves was a passenger in the front seat and was wearing a seat belt when “the kid driving nodded off and they hit the guard rail and the car kind of flipped up,” Sharon Graves said. The passenger in the back seat also had a concussion; the passengers were friends of Graves’, not KU players.

“Even though he had a seat belt on, if you’ve been in a car accident it throws you around. Jeff had two lumps on his head,” Sharon said, noting none of the three in the car needed to be hospitalized.

“The best-case scenario is, the doctor clears him to return to school Monday and he is cleared to play soon. After you have a concussion, you usually have to take it easy,” Sharon Graves said. “You never know about head injuries. You have to be careful with them.”

As far as school … “he’s missed a week,” Sharon said. “They have make-up work for him to do. I teach, and as a teacher you know some things come up. You try to work with professors. They usually are sensitive if a kid’s been in a car accident. It’s not like he’s missed a month.”

The good news, she said, is Jeff is OK and actually has shed some weight.

“He hasn’t eaten much. His appetite is not super and he has lost eight pounds this week,” Sharon said. “He’s 280ish now. He wants to get to 250 to 270.”

Prior to suffering the concussion, Graves had begun a strenuous workout program. It appeared his attitude had been good.

“It doesn’t make any difference if your attitude is good or bad, you’ve still gotta do it,” Williams said.

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Williams has been busy recruiting. He was out four days last week and will be on the road four days this week. He has received commitments from Oklahoma preps J.R. Giddens and Jeremy Case, and last week was in the home of David Padgett, 6-10, Reno, Nev., and Omar Wilkes, 6-4, Los Angeles.

“We’d like to bring in four (signees) for sure and may try five. I don’t know yet. It depends who it’ll be,” Williams said. “If it’s not the right ones it doesn’t do you any good to bring in numbers.”

How is KU doing? “It’s like farming. You do everything you can until the very end you don’t know if you did very good or not,” Williams said.