Nick Bahe, an all-state football quarterback from Lincoln (Neb.) Southeast High, whose father and uncle both played football for the hometown Nebraska Cornhuskers, has decided to play college basketball at … Kansas University.

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Bahe said Friday he had accepted KU coach Bill Self’s offer to walk on the Jayhawk hoops team.

“Man, I’ve always been a fan. Ever since I was little I loved Kansas and Kansas basketball,” Bahe said Friday from his home in Big Red country, a day after meeting with Self and his staff on an unofficial recruiting trip to KU.

“Anybody that’s a basketball fan and knows what good basketball is … you’ve got to love Kansas and how they play and how the players carry themselves on the court. I’d say it’s every kid’s dream to play at a school like Kansas.

“For me it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” added Bahe, named all-state in basketball the past two seasons.

Former KU coach Roy Williams and his staff began recruiting Bahe his junior year — when he averaged 20 points a game and hit a state-record 58 straight free throws.

“Kansas started coming in the picture last year. I saw a game at Allen Fieldhouse and was sold from that,” Bahe said. “Last year in the spring I played in a pickup game with Kirk (Hinrich), Nick (Collison) and Drew (Gooden). I met all the guys. They’ve always made me feel so welcome.”

Bahe — who averaged 15 points a game this past season, helping Southeast to a second-straight runner-up finish at state — declined full scholarship offers from Ohio, Bowling Green, Marist and Cal Poly. He was offered walk-on slots at Nebraska and Creighton. Creighton coach Dana Altman indicated he would have put Bahe on full scholarship after a year.

In recent weeks, Bahe thought he might be headed somewhere besides Lawrence.

“It worried me a little when coach Williams left, because the whole walk-on thing is having comfort and trust with the coach. It definitely threw a loop in my situation. It made me go back to square one,” Bahe said.

“I was excited when coach Self said he wanted to meet with me. It was the most amazing 20-minute conversation I’ve ever had with anybody. He made me comfortable. I had a list of questions to ask him and he said, ‘I want to begin by saying,’ and answered all my questions in his whole spiel. My parents and I had no questions to ask.

“He made it known he wanted me there, so I just kept smiling. He said, ‘You really like to smile a lot, don’t you?'”

Bahe, who didn’t entertain any football scholarship offers after deciding his junior year he’d play only basketball in college, threw for 1,236 yards his junior year but just 450 yards in four games this season.

Bahe suffered a dislocated left shoulder in the fourth game. The injury forced him to miss the first 10 games during basketball.

“I was trying to pull a two-minute drill, trying to bring us up the field,” the right-handed Bahe said. “I dropped back, scrambled right and broke my fall with my left elbow. I dislocated the shoulder. It’s basically the same thing that happened to Wayne (Simien).

“It was the same surgery. They initially told me I’d be back in mid-February. I was back Jan. 10.”

Lincoln Southeast won the state football title this year and Bahe’s sophomore season, in which he scored the winning touchdown on a seven-yard run. Southeast lost in the state semifinals his junior year.

In hoops, it was a pair of narrow losses in the state title tilt.

“Heartbreaking games,” Bahe said. “I’ve been playing football and basketball from the second I could walk. I always loved basketball. There was a mini-hoop in my basement, and I’d play for hours, shoot for hours. It’s my true love. In college you’ve got to go with what you love. I love basketball.”

Bahe, who said he had a 3.4 grade point average, plans to major in journalism at KU with his eye on being a sports broadcaster.

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Villanueva update: KU recruit Charlie Villanueva returned to Blair Academy in New Jersey Friday after his two-day official recruiting trip to Kansas.

Villanueva, who is considering attending KU, UCLA or UConn or entering the NBA draft, told Shay Wildeboor of rivals.com that he would announce his final decision Monday, the last day a player can enter his name in the draft.

“If I decide to attend college, I am not going to test the NBA waters,” he said. “I plan on having a final decision about my future on Monday.”

Villanueva said he still might make an unofficial visit to UConn, but North Carolina and Illinois are out. He has visited UCLA in the past.

“It’s like a family environment and atmosphere, which is something I really like,” Villanueva said of KU. “It was great spending time with all the coaches and all the players.”

While Villanueva said the decision was coming Monday, his AAU coach, Gary Charles, told Mike Sullivan of rivalshoops.com that Villanueva definitely had decided to enter the NBA draft.

Charles told Sullivan that Villanueva had not ruled out college and still could play college ball next season. Villanueva could put him name in the draft and pull out by June 19 and still be eligible to attend KU or any other college as long as he doesn’t sign with an agent.

Chances are Villanueva’s final decision won’t be official until it appears on charlievillanueva.org.

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Bahe vs. Charlie: New KU walk-on Bahe played against Villanueva last summer on the AAU circuit. His Nebraska Bison AAU team scared Villanueva’s Long Island Panthers before falling late.

“Their team hit a last-second three to beat us,” Bahe said. “He’s a nice guy. He was there yesterday (at KU), and I talked to him. I like him a lot, and he is obviously a talented player.”

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Explanations: A walk-on is a non-scholarship player who is eligible to practice and play in games, but does not receive free tuition, room and board. KU will have four walk-ons next year with Bahe, Brett Olson, Stephen Vinson and Christian Moody. … Bahe is pronounced, “Baaaa.”