Late Night Notebook

¢ Missed it: Bill Self didn’t wince as his Kansas University men’s basketball players flew through the air and contorted their bodies during a wildly entertaining slam-dunk drill that highlighted Late Night in the Phog on Friday night at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I didn’t see it. I was doing an interview with ESPN,” he said.

So he didn’t witness a between-the-legs slam, a windmill jam and a one-bounce-off-the-floor, sky-high ram by sophomore Rodrick Stewart.

Nor did he see Mario Chalmers dunk after flipping the ball off the 30-second clock, or Julian Wright deposit the sphere after lobbing it off the backboard. C.J. Giles, Brandon Rush and Micah Downs also had some conventional – but vicious – rim-rattlers.

“Nobody got hurt, did they?” Self said with a smile, realizing all Jayhawks made it through Late Night unscathed.

“I said, ‘No jumping over people; don’t do that.’ If we were going to be rated on layup lines, I think we’d be rated high. I think we do have good layup lines.”

Though he didn’t see the slams, Self believes those who said Stewart, a 6-foot-4 sophomore from Seattle, had some vicious ones.

“We knew Rodrick was a good dunker,” Self said. “If he can become a great defender, he has a chance (to play significant minutes).”

¢ Scrimmage highlights: Senior Christian Moody opened the scoring in the 20-minute scrimmage, scoring inside off a feed from senior Jeff Hawkins. Then, Stephen Vinson drained a pair of threes. The first point by a newcomer came off a steal and layup by freshman guard Chalmers. : Sophomore center Sasha Kaun was active, with five rebounds, but missed five of seven shots. : Giles had a nice inside hoop off a feed from Russell Robinson, who had seven assists and six rebounds with three turnovers. He hit Darnell Jackson with a pinpoint pass for a layin. : Giles at one point missed inside, then put in his own rebound. He followed that with a slam off a pass from Vinson.

¢ Richey in house: Former Jayhawk Patrick Richey, who played at KU from 1991 to ’94, sat on press row working as a color announcer for KLWN-KLZR radio.

Richey loved the new look of the renovated fieldhouse.

“Awesome,” he said. “The paint job looks great. The red stairs make the blue stand out better.”

Richey, who works as a contractor specialist in Kansas City, is a fan of the new videoboard.

“I think what it’ll do is really add to the pregame excitement,” Richey said.

¢ Wheelchair phenom impressed: One of the top wheelchair basketball players in the country, Paul Schulte, attended and was honored with a video presentation of his skills on the videoboard.

“I heard about Kansas Jayhawk basketball, but, shoot,” Schulte exclaimed to the fans, his eyes scanning the arena. “I’ve been around the world and never seen a place with this much energy.”