Brandon Costner won’t be making an official recruiting visit to Kansas University this weekend after all.

Costner, a 6-foot-8, 218-pound basketball senior combo forward from Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, N.J., orally committed Wednesday to North Carolina State over KU, UCLA and Seton Hall.

Costner, the son of former Saint Joseph’s standout Tony Costner, visited the Raleigh, N.C., school during the weekend, and immediately there was speculation he soon would commit to the Wolfpack.

“I am trying to push Brandon to a new level of intensity, and when he is not the top dog and has to scrap for minutes at North Carolina State, that will help his intensity level,” Seton Hall Prep coach Bob Farrell told rivals.com on Wednesday.

KU, which has filled three of four scholarships for the Class of 2005, hotly is pursuing 6-5 C.J. Miles of Dallas, who has a final list of KU, Georgia Tech and Texas. Miles, who has visited KU, will visit Tech on Oct. 8-9 and Texas on Oct. 15-16.

The Jayhawks also are interested in Martynas Pocius, a 6-4, 175-pound senior guard from the Holderness School in Plymouth, N.H.

Pocius, who starred for Lithuania’s Junior National Team last summer, has received recent interest from KU, Duke, North Carolina, Arizona and others. Known as a great shooter and ballhandler, Pocius has been under the radar until recently.

His coach told rivals.com there was a chance Pocius would visit KU for Late Night in the Phog on Oct. 15.

¢

Busy coach: KU coach Bill Self has been working on his frequent-flier miles during September, traveling all over the U.S. making in-home and high school visits since KU’s Labor Day-weekend excursion to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Late last week, Self flew from New Jersey (to visit Costner) to Seattle (to visit Micah Downs) to Anchorage, Alaska (to visit Mario Chalmers) and back to Kansas City in a span of 36 hours.

He’s also been to Chicago to visit Julian Wright, Texas to check on Miles and other points unknown.

“I try to sleep on planes when I can,” Self said. “All coaches do it. It’s part of the job.”

¢

Rules, rules: Two of the three prospects who have committed to KU — Downs and Wright — have said they would attend Late Night in the Phog on Oct. 15.

Because of NCAA rules, prospects cannot be introduced to the fans or run out of the tunnel with members of KU’s team.

“That’s not a problem for us. We did not do that last year,” Self said. “Last year, the kids (recruits) walked out of the tunnel to get to their seats. The way I understand the rule you can’t advertise the kids are there or running out at a scripted time. If fans want to acknowledge recruits, I’m sure they can do it on their own. We have never scripted anything like that.”

¢

Junior recruiting: Proof that recruiting never ends is the fact juniors already are shortening their lists of prospective schools. Christian Polk, 6-3 from Glendale, Ariz., tells rivals.com he likes KU, Arizona, Arizona State, Florida State, Indiana, Kentucky, UCLA, North Carolina and Connecticut.