Gary Bedore’s KU basketball notebook

Forward sets visit: Pencil in another blue-chip basketball player for a visit to Kansas University’s campus.

Quintrell Thomas, a 6-foot-8, 225-pound power forward from St. Patrick High in Elizabeth, N.J., tells Rivals.com he will visit Lawrence on Sept. 28-29.

“Kansas, Maryland, Rutgers, UNLV and Houston are the only schools on my list,” Thomas told Rivals. “I am definitely going to visit Maryland before I decide, but I don’t have anything planned yet. I don’t know if I am going to use all five official visits, but I am going to take some visits before I pick a school.

“The style of play is what sticks out about Kansas,” he added. “I really like the way they play the game at Kansas. The coaching staff also does a great job of developing players and preparing them for the NBA. Coach (Bill) Self isn’t going to leave for another school, which is also important.”

So far, KU also has set visit dates with Phillip McDonald, a 6-5 shooting guard from Cypress (Texas) High on Toledo football weekend Sept. 14-15 and Terrance Henry, 6-9 forward from Caroll High in Monroe, La., for the Oct. 12 Late Night in the Phog. There is no home football game scheduled the week of Thomas’ visit.

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Arthur a football follower: Kansas University sophomore Darrell Arthur is not just looking forward to basketball season.

He’s a big KU football fan, too.

“I will go to all the games. I love our football games. They are exciting,” Dallas native Arthur said, acknowledging he also is a fan of University of Texas Longhorns’ football.

“Dexton my cousin plays receiver. I look out for all those guys. I root for ’em,” he added.

Dexton, of course, is Dexton Fields, KU’s 6-foot, 200-pound junior wide receiver, who like Arthur attended South Oak Cliff High.

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College on his mind: Arthur, by the way, has made it clear he won’t be talking about the NBA in interviews with media members this school year.

On Tuesday, he was asked if he pays attention to draft sites like NBAdraft.net and Draftexpress.com that have him being tapped No. 4 and No. 9 respectively in the 2008 Draft.

“I’m not paying attention to that. I don’t check them,” he said of Web sites. “I’m just worried about the season and being healthy.”

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Rim rattler: Former KU forward Nick Collison, who did not make the final roster of the U.S. National Team, did leave training camp with a lasting memory.

He broke a rim on a dunk at last Saturday’s practice.

“I was hoping practice would be over,” LeBron James told NBA.com. “I was hoping coach would say, ‘Hey, practice is canceled.’ That’s the first thing that came to my mind. The second thing is ‘I hope he didn’t shoot a jumper and the basket fell,”’ he cracked.

Collison told NBA.com something had to be wrong with the rim since he didn’t dunk especially hard.

Here, you can see a picture of Collison posing with the rim.