Notes from the Road: KU seniors nix trip to Disneyland

Anaheim, Calif. ? Don’t go looking for Nick Collison, Keith Langford or any other Kansas University basketball player in the Magic Kingdom this week.

Disneyland is for kids, not players aiming for a national championship.

“Disneyland is a great place, but we’re on a mission,” guard Aaron Miles said Wednesday before practice at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, Calif. “We don’t want to get tired.”

The Jayhawks had been scheduled to bus up Harbor Boulevard and into Disneyland about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, but the team’s seniors nixed the trip.

“I didn’t want to go,” said Jeff Graves, a junior forward. “It’s kiddie stuff. It’s too much a kiddie-like atmosphere. Plus, we’d have to wake up at 8:30.”

Langford, for his part, wanted to make his first-ever trip to Walt Disney’s land of enchantment. But he wasn’t complaining.

“It’s best we didn’t go,” he said. “I don’t want anybody saying we lost because we got tired at Disneyland, just like they said we lost in Maui because we went to the pool. We will be rested, not tired. …

“I’m not here to go to Disneyland. I’m trying to win and go to New Orleans.”

The KU pep band is hoping to play a gig Friday at Disneyland.

A KU win tonight would give the band a day off before Saturday’s West Regional final. The students have an invitation to play KU fight songs in the land of Mickey Mouse.

Tom Stidham, associate director of bands, relishes the opportunity to play in the world of perpetual smiles. But he has a bit of a concern.

It would be nice to have something to play with.

“Our instruments are being shipped,” Stidham said Wednesday at the team hotel. “We hope they’re here in time for (today’s) pep rally.”

  • Baby makes three?

Danny Hernandez and his son, Nick, were among the dozens of fans soaking up the KU atmosphere at the Jayhawks’ open practice Wednesday.

And the residents of south Orange County were feeling some good vibes. Dad, sporting a Collison jersey, and son, wearing a Kirk Hinrich uniform top, watched the team intently as they waited for a chance to grab some autographs.

“I was born in ’52, when they won their first championship,” said Hernandez, a lifelong KU fan from Topeka. “Nick was born in ’88, when they won their second.”

No word yet on whether there’s another child on the way.