Ever heard the sound of 300 basketballs being dribbled in one gymnasium?

It’s like an inescapable noise of popcorn furiously popping in a high-powered microwave.

Kansas University women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson now knows that sound. As her residential camp for fifth- through 12th-graders wrapped up Wednesday, each of the record 300 campers who participated received a basketball for attending. And, well, they were on a basketball court in the Horejsi Center when they got it. Why keep it tucked under an arm?

“You try to tell them no dribbling,” she quipped, “but there’s no chance.”

Serving as a supervisor for hundreds of girls at camp is a whole different stress from coaching 15 women in the Big 12 Conference. Instead of breakdowns in executing the full-court press, Henrickson this week was dealing with breakdowns in attention span from girls who wanted to gossip, dance and do an occasional cartwheel between all the basketball.

But you know something? It’s just what Henrickson needed.

“It’s a time for us to be around our players,” Henrickson said of her team members, who coach the younger ones alongside the KU staff. “It’s more relaxed for them and fun. I get to talk about them at camp, and they do a question-and-answer with the campers. Our kids do a good job.

Kansas women's basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson, right, gives some pointers to Bailie Hendrickson, 15, of Willmar, Minn., during a camp session at Allen Fieldhouse.

“It’s fun for our staff because it’s basketball, and while we’re certainly teaching our (players), it’s fun to teach the little ones.”

Fun, and unpredictable. During the last round of scrimmaging Wednesday, games were quite intense for the older girls in Allen Fieldhouse.

But a short walk over to Horejsi, and younger girls were screaming at every loose ball, shouting encouragements to teammates and jumping up and down uncontrollably whenever a simple basket was made.

A team of campers gathers before a scrimmage game. Wednesday was the final day of the three-day camp that featured 300 campers receiving instruction from Henrickson, her staff and KU players.

The majority of campers were pre-high school, and there’s a reason for that. AAU basketball has taken over the summer months, drenching teenagers with coaching on different systems and strategy. While that’s beneficial for a player’s growth, Henrickson still sees a niche in the traditional summer camps like this week’s – a way to get back to the sometimes-forgotten basketball basics.

“Kids play AAU, and I think that’s important and very good, but I’m a little concerned that kids don’t spend as much time fundamentally as they need to,” Henrickson said. “If nothing else, they get reps of that here, and it’s reinforced how important it is. We get a lot of comments from parents saying how much they appreciate that we do break it down and do fundamental work.”

Fine and dandy, but that doesn’t really explain the day’s last group instruction. After the basketball wrapped up, every camper stood up, and in unison sang a song, did a few spins, clapped their hands, stomped their feet and cheered loudly. It was like an out-of-control ‘N Sync video with 300 lead singers.

Turns out, that was the banana dance. Try picking that up on the AAU circuit.

“Some of the kids were asking me if I made it up,” Henrickson said. “I’m not that talented. I can’t remember where I learned it. It’s the most amazing thing because kids love it.

“We didn’t do it the first two days, and all the kids were asking ‘Coach, when’s coach Bonnie going to do the banana dance with us?’ I guess that’s my claim to fame now.”