Jeremy Case didn’t make a great impression the first time he played with Kansas University’s basketball team.

Case, then a high school senior from McAlester, Okla., misfired on most of his shots at a pickup game last February during his official campus visit.

“Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison were out there, and I was shocked a little bit to see the guys I’d been watching on TV,” Case said.

Hinrich and Collison have moved on to the NBA, and Case will be the one wearing Hinrich’s old No. 10 when KU opens the season Nov. 4 with an exhibition against EA Sports All-Stars.

Case picked his number out of respect for his father, Win, who wore No. 10 at Oklahoma State.

“I’m not really worried about it,” he said of following Hinrich, “but it is a big number to play in.”

Case knows about big numbers. He left McAlester High as his school’s all-time leading scorer with more than 2,000 points after averaging more than 20 a game three years in a row.

Here’s another big number — nine. That’s how many guards KU has on its roster, including seven scholarship players.

First-year coach Bill Self said he hoped to settle on a rotation of four big men and five perimeter players, an equation that likely will leave a few players watching from the bench.

“We’re not worried at all,” Case said of playing time. “We just want to get out there and compete. We just want to go out and play the best we can. We haven’t talked about red-shirting at all.

“It makes everybody work harder. The more competitive practices are, the better team we’ll be. I want to make my teammates better, and hopefully they’ll make me better.”

Case’s fellow freshmen include two McDonald’s All-Americans — post player David Padgett and swing man J.R. Giddens — and one son of an NBA player — guard Omar Wilkes.

Case has received little fanfare compared to his classmates.

“I’ve always known what I can do,” he said, “and that’s all I care about. I’m not worried about what other people think.”

Junior Keith Langford knows the feeling. He was a member of the same recruiting class as McDonald’s All-Americans Wayne Simien and Aaron Miles. He and Michael Lee received less attention than their classmates, but both have made contributions in two Final Four runs.

Langford said Case and Wilkes could do the same.

“I look at those two and their situation, and they’re important kind of like I was my freshman year,” Langford said. “Wayne and Aaron were the McDonald’s guys, but I made a few plays my freshman year. I think those guys are going to do the same thing. That can motivate them and they can use that throughout the season.”