While the rest of us were bidding adieu to summer by grilling burgers and hot dogs, sloshing down potato salad and baked beans and last-gasping in the pool, Bill Self and the boys were in Canada shooting hoops.

This is not your average way of spending the Labor Day weekend, obviously. Basketball isn’t a September sport, even if the WNBA still is playing.

Nevertheless, if the NCAA allows it, you do it because when the other geese are flying in formation you had better be a gander, not a passenger pigeon.

So, then, what did the Kansas University men’s basketball gain from its trip to Vancouver — other than avoiding the heartburn that afflicted the rest of us at work Tuesday?

Probably not that much, really. Not when you consider the Jayhawks can’t practice together again until Oct. 15.

Few remember, for example, that the KU women’s team made a similar foreign junket during Labor Day break 2003. Coach Marian Washington took her players to Mexico, where, like the men in Canada, they outmanned four teams far below their NCAA Division One status.

What good did the Mexico trip do for the KU women? Very little, if you consider Washington’s team finished with a 9-19 record, including 2-14 in the Big 12 Conference. Then again, would they have posted an even worse record if they hadn’t journeyed south of the border? We’ll never know.

Not that anyone is expecting the KU men’s team to struggle next season, not with four returning starters and four four-year players on the roster. You don’t win in basketball with four of anything, however.

Basically, then, the swing to British Columbia was a showcase for the newcomers. We know what Wayne Simien can do, and he darned sure reinforced his reputation against the Canucks. We know what Keith Langford, Aaron Miles, Michael Lee and J.R. Giddens can do, as well.

Cell phone updates for KU basketball E-mail updates for KU basketball

But we didn’t know about freshmen Sasha Kaun, Darnell Jackson, Russell Robinson, Alex Galindo and C.J. Giles.

Only one starting position is available, and it almost assuredly will go to either Jackson, Kaun or Giles. Based on how the three played north of the border, Giles may be the front-runner based on his athleticism.

“C.J. and Darnell were the most consistent,” Self said in a post-trip assessment, “but when Sasha plays well he’s really good. What we need is for two of the three to play well at the same time.”

Pressing need No. 2 is a formidable three-point threat off the bench. Say hello to Alex Galindo, who started slow but caught fire. The slender 6-foot-6 Galindo made only two of his first 11 three-pointers, then drilled four of his last seven.

“The guy can score,” Self said.

Third on the priority list is a backcourt reserve capable of spelling Miles at point guard. Robinson didn’t shoot all that well — 14-of-33 from the field; four-of-13 from three-point range — but the 6-1 guard had 18 assists — just two fewer than Miles — and shared the team-high in steals with Jackson. Each had eight thefts.

Of the five freshmen, Self calls Robinson “the most advanced. He knows how to play the game.”

Galindo and Giles — the two frosh who showed the most flash — are on the Kansas roster only because Omar Wilkes and David Padgett left the KU program and only because the coaches of the schools Galindo and Giles originally signed with departed those schools — Galindo at Texas-El Paso and Giles at Miami of Florida.

Galindo, in fact, didn’t receive a complete release from his UTEP letter of intent until early July. Giles had received his release earlier in the summer.

All in all, the trip to Canada just whetted our appetites. It’s easy to become euphoric after four lopsided victories, but from all indications the Jayhawks will be better in 2004-2005 because they will be deeper.

“I think,” Self said, “we addressed a lot of our needs.”