ROELAND PARK ? Bill Self used an overhead projector to share some of the X’s and O’s of Kansas University basketball with 200 or so high school and college coaches Wednesday night at the Greater Kansas Basketball Coaches Assn. clinic at Miege High.

KU’s first-year coach didn’t just discuss technicalities of offense, defense and rebounding in his 40-minute presentation. He had the audience’s undivided attention in revealing generalities, too.

“If you are a coach,” Self told an audience that included Central Missouri State head coach Kim Anderson and North Kansas City High coach Jim Hinrich, the dad of former KU player Kirk Hinrich, “you’ve got to come up with a philosophy. Our philosophy on offense is to get one or more shots each possession. Our philosophy on defense is to limit teams to one or less shot per possession.

“We feel basketball is a game of comfort zones,” he said. “We’ve got to operate in ours and get them to operate out of theirs.”

If it sounds simple, that’s because it is.

“Whatever your philosophy is, stick with it,” Self told the coaches. “We will not change how we play game to game. If you change daily, what you are telling the kids is maybe the stuff you do doesn’t work so well.”

Self said he had a simple vision of the way his teams should play.

“If as a coach you tell me my teams are selfish or soft, you’ve hit me in the gut,” Self said.

One prep mentor asked, noting Self was known as a coach who had his teams play extremely hard, “How do you get your players to become the toughest team in America?”

“I do not know if we do that,” Self said. “I do think toughness is mental. You want strong guys who do things they did not think they initially were capable of doing.”

“At Illinois, we played Kansas in San Antonio (2001 NCAA Tournament). We had a bunch of big, slow guys. I never told them they were slow. We practiced the day before the game and we had five guys diving for a loose ball. I knew we were ready to play.”

The Illini won that Sweet Sixteen game, 80-64.

“Basketball is a lot like tennis,” the new Jayhawk mentor said. “Tennis is fun to watch but really fun to watch the important points. If you have a chance to break serve, you better take advantage. Same in basketball. In basketball you have to get the important stops.”

• Season nearing: The basketball season begins with Late Night in the Phog next Friday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“It’s getting close. Expectations are unbelievable. As long as we win 85 percent of our games maybe I’ll get to keep my job,” Self said.

On a serious note … “To be honest, I wish we had about 10 more days before practice started. No matter how organized you are, you are not quite organized enough. I look forward to practice. I think the six weeks we have at practice is what I’m looking forward to.”

He’s been pleased with KU’s conditioning drills the past week and a half, known as “Boot Camp.”

“It is going fine. Believe it or not we started with 16 (players) and there are still 16 out there. I guess that’s an accomplishment,” he said with a laugh. “We finish up on Friday. It’s a long season. That’s why I don’t like to condition for six to eight weeks.”

• Langford rehabbing: Keith Langford is recovering nicely from Sept. 30 arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Sept. 30

“He’s on the (stationary) bike. He’ll start running by the end of this week. That doesn’t mean he’ll be full speed by next Friday. We don’t know yet,” Self said.

• Chat Monday: Self will participate in an online chat at 10 a.m. Monday on kusports.com. He will answer questions from KU fans about the upcoming season and other topics of interest.
• Hairston still considering KU: Malik Hairston, a 6-5 high school senior guard from Detroit, talked a lot about KU in a diary on hoopmasters.com.

“Playing on the Allen Fieldhouse floor was unforgettable. It was the highlight of the trip,” he said of his official recruiting trip to KU, but then added, “the guys at Kansas were out of control. They beat up on each other and got into arguments during the games. It wasn’t my style at all.”

After first saying he probably wasn’t considering KU anymore, he noted: “I’m not writing them off yet. There’s still a chance there.”

As far as physical play in the pick-up game … the Journal-World attended that game in question and the action was no more physical than normal, players going at it extremely hard during the contest.

His list is now KU, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Kentucky, Michigan and Michigan State. KU has filled its three scholarship allotments for next season. It’s unknown if Self would oversign if Hairston wanted to commit.

• Incorrect report: An Illinois newspaper says KU will likely play Purdue in the Wooden Tradition Classic next season in Indianapolis. The other matchup in the one-day event would pit Illinois against Cincinnati. KU officials indicate that report is false and the Jayhawks will not be in the Wooden next year.