His family dearly misses him back home in Russia, a whole different world from the one Sasha Kaun is getting used to at Kansas University.

They might as well be on the moon.

“I don’t go back,” Kaun said, looking down at his shoes. “Not as of right now.”

It’s easy for those in long-distance relationships to seek comfort in knowing that they’re just a plane flight away. But it’s not that simple for Kaun, KU’s sophomore basketball center.

“The army deal,” Kaun continues. “If I go back, I have to settle this army stuff : “

His voice trails off, but it’s obvious the thought remains.

The army deal.

Some 330,000 men are brought into the Russian armed forces each year through conscription, a system of enforcing mandatory service for two years to native Russian men over 18.

Kaun, to avoid it and continue pursuing his computer-science degree at Kansas, has to avoid Russia altogether. He hasn’t been home since he turned 18 two years ago – and has no plans to return anytime soon.

No matter how bad he might want to.

“It’s really weird,” Kaun said. “Some people are telling me, ‘Don’t go there,’ and some are telling me, ‘Go there, it’s not a big deal.’

“I just don’t want to risk it, go over and not be able to come back.”

Many Russian men Kaun’s age can avoid involuntary service by enrolling in school. Kaun obviously is a student, but where he’s learning might give the Russian government a loophole.

He’s just not sure.

Sasha Kaun talks with Brandon Rush during the team's scrimmage at Late Night.

“I don’t think they consider an American university in those terms,” he said.

So the face-to-face contact with his family is a one-way ticket to the United States. There’s no other option.

Kaun came to America in 2000 as a 16-year-old, 185-pound 10th grader. He enrolled in the Florida Air Academy and was asked by his mother, Olga, to give it one year. If Sasha liked it, he could stay. If he didn’t, he could go back to Russia.

He ended up liking it and even picked up a new hobby while settling in – basketball.

So Kaun stayed, showing remarkable advancement in his basketball game in the short time he lived in Melbourne, Fla. He picked Kansas over Duke and Michigan State after rising quickly to the top of national recruiting rankings with his combination of size and power.

Now he’s one of KU’s top weapons inside the paint, a 6-foot-11, 246-pound bruiser who averaged 2.6 points and 2.3 rebounds per game in a limited role last season. And, as quickly as he improved through high school, he’s showing just as much growth between years one and two at Kansas.

“Last year, the game was too fast for him,” fellow sophomore C.J. Giles said of Kaun, who scored four points off 2-of-7 shooting with five rebounds in Friday’s Late Night in the Phog season-opening scrimmage at Allen Fieldhouse. “This year, he has a lot more feel around the basket, a lot more awareness of where the hoop is.”

The homesickness lingers for Kaun, though, and he knows the answer to it is to realize there’s no safe way to combat it. His mother visited him in Kansas this summer, and the two went to Florida together to see friends in August.

Kaun smiles when talking about it.

He was asked, with conscription keeping him away from Russia, if Kansas could be considered his new home.

“I’m pretty comfortable here,” Kaun replied, “but home is home.”

He lets out a nervous chuckle before summing up his situation, one riddled by politics and displacement and so much distance between him and his loved ones.

“I guess I’ll have to adjust to things,” he said, “and just stay here.”

¢ Chicago pride: KU freshman Julian Wright, who had a tough Late Night with two points off 1-of-6 shooting with two assists, is following the progress of his hometown Chicago White Sox closely.

“I am a Cubs fan. In two to three years, I think they’ll get back on top,” he said, adding, “The Sox are doing well. I just want someone from Chicago to win any sport. It’s time.”

He wasn’t fazed when the White Sox won Game Two with the help of a controversial officiating call.

“That game is already decided. Hopefully the umpires stay gutsy and keep making the calls,” he said. “I’m rooting for the city right now.”