Sweat dripping from his forehead and drenching his practice jersey, Jeff Hawkins walked off the Allen Fieldhouse basketball court alone Monday afternoon after a 90-minute workout.

Hawkins, Kansas University’s junior point guard from Kansas City, Kan., was left to condition without teammates after being banned from KU’s pre-Canada tour practices as part of an indefinite suspension from the team.

“I’ve got to stay in shape,” Hawkins said, gasping for breath. “I know coach (Bill Self) will figure out some way to figure out if I’m doing what I have to do to work on my game.

“I’ve got to be disciplined.”

He and Self would speak only in generalities when discussing why Hawkins had been disciplined.

Hawkins will not practice this week and next and will not make the Labor Day weekend excursion to Canada. His status on the team will be re-evaluated later.

“What has transpired will definitely stay in our locker room,” said Self, indicating Hawkins’ suspension did not involve legal issues. “It’s certainly not behavior issues I’d consider extremely serious in nature, but certainly issues in our opinion worth addressing and having corrected.”

Hawkins, who played sparingly his sophomore season and will face stiff competition for playing time this year, also was vague about reasons for his penalty.

“Graduation-wise, I’m OK,” said Hawkins, who said he was academically eligible and taking an unusually heavy load of 21 hours of classes this semester.

“I’m OK with legal issues. I can’t tell you what I did. It’s between me and the team. It’s nothing major. I’ve got to take care of some personal aspects of my life, be a lot more positive. It’s what I’m working on now.

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“This has helped me a lot. I’ve already matured a lot. I’ve never been suspended before. I know I have to do positive things to show coach I want to be part of this organization.”

Self outlined what Hawkins would have to do to return to the team.

“He will have to just be a responsible student-athlete at Kansas,” Self said. “He has to put both feet on the circle and commit. I think he’ll do that. He hasn’t been negative in any way. He hasn’t been as positive as I think he could be. Although his leave is indefinite, we hope he’ll be back if the issues (that caused suspension) are addressed properly.”

KU has brought in perimeter players Russell Robinson and Alex Galindo in recruiting, while sophomore Jeremy Case also has looked good in pre-Canada tour workouts. Those players are ahead of Hawkins at the guard slot, as are returning players J.R. Giddens, Keith Langford, Aaron Miles and Michael Lee.

“I don’t even know how he’d stack up against our young guys because I haven’t seen him,” Self said. “I’ve told them all along: We return four perimeter players I guarantee are going to play. Everybody else is fighting for one or two spots. It’s where we are now.”

Nonetheless, Hawkins, who averaged 1.7 points while logging an average of 8.9 minutes in 31 games a year ago, insists he’ll return and be a factor.

“My teammates have been real supportive. I’ve joked with a couple and said they better take this time to get better and be ready for me to come back,” Hawkins said. “It’s all love (from them). The coaches have been supportive. My family has been supportive. I talked with my mom an hour and 45 minutes last night … talking about life. It’s the most support I’ve ever gotten from my family.

“All I can do is work hard until they get back from Canada. I’ll root ’em on. I’ll be like the rest of the fans watching the game on the scoreboard.”

KU’s exhibition game against British Columbia will be shown on the big screen at Memorial Stadium at 2 p.m. on Sept. 4.