It pained outgoing, energetic Kansas University basketball freshman Julian Wright to sit quietly on the sidelines and watch his teammates compete in pick-up games during August.

“Any competitor would be frustrated,” said Wright, a 6-foot-8 guard/forward from Homewood-Flossmoor High in the greater Chicagoland area. “I had great support, our coaching staff telling me to be patient. It’s easier to watch your teammates play in the offseason rather than in-season.

“I want to play all season.”

Wright, who had surgery July 28 to repair a stress fracture in his left foot, just now is swinging back into pick-up action.

“I’d say I’m 90-percent recovered,” he said. “I’m still trying to take it easy. I’ve not been going full-blast. I take it step by step. I should be fine and in shape by the season. I’m not worried. You can’t build up too fast.”

Wright suffered the injury in his fifth metatarsal at the Jordan Classic all-star game last April in New York.

“I started experiencing pain. The shoe support didn’t really match the way my foot was (shaped),” Wright said of shoes provided the players that week.

“A lot of players, including myself, were playing in shoes they were not used to playing in. They had to match shoes with everybody in an all-star game. It started hurting a bit. I came here for the summer and was down here playing, and the trainer recognized the problem and got on it in the summer as opposed to going through the summer and me having problems during the season.”

¢ New business for Boschee: Former KU basketball player Jeff Boschee is going into business for himself.

Boschee, a shooting guard from North Dakota who last played at KU in 2002, has formed a “Jeff Boschee Basketball Academy.”

He will conduct individual workouts for players by appointment and run practices for youth basketball teams.

Interested players (from third grade all the way through high school) and coaches can get more information at jboscheeacademy.com.

“I got the idea from Rex Walters,” Boschee said of the ex-Jayhawk, who, like Boschee, started his coaching career at Blue Valley Northwest High. Walters is now associate head coach at Florida Atlantic. “We’ll do hour and a half, two hour workouts using things we did at KU.”

Boschee is going to travel to Ames, Iowa, to meet with former Iowa State player Jake Sullivan, who has a similar academy that has had run-away success in Iowa.

“His program has taken off, with 16 teams sponsored by adidas. Maybe that is something we’ll do here down the road,” noted Boschee, who lives in Overland Park.

¢ Ugly situation: University of New Orleans coach Monte Towe tells ESPN’s Andy Katz that his best player, sophomore guard Bo McCalebb, has been approached by representatives of unnamed schools about transferring in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“We’re a microcosm of the whole city of New Orleans because now someone is trying to loot my players,” Towe told Katz, not naming the schools.

New Orleans will field a team this season, relocating to Tyler Junior College (Texas) or Chipola Junior College (Fla.).