Shady’s absence a shame

Kansas University’s Cole Aldrich and Tyrel Reed were disappointed Jayhawk teammate Darrell Arthur was unable to play for the U.S. Under 19 Select team in the Global Games finals in Dallas.

Even without the injured Arthur, U.S. Select clipped Reed and Aldrich’s Global Games AA squad, 86-72.

“We saw him at their exhibition game against China Sunday,” Aldrich said of sophomore power forward Arthur. “We couldn’t really talk. They had a busy schedule like we did. We weren’t able to talk to him until the Argentina game. He was hurt. We were all bummed about that.”

Lots of activity

This is one of the busiest summers for KU players in recent history with Reed, Aldrich and Arthur at the Global Games, Arthur at the Under 19 tryouts; Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins at the Pan Am tryouts as well as the Steve Nash Skills Camp in New Jersey; and Sasha Kaun at the Amare Stoudemire Skills Academy for college and high school power forwards and centers in Phoenix. Also, most of the Jayhawks are playing in the Kansas City summer league at Penn Valley CC.

Recruiting:

Verdell Jones, a 6-4 senior from Central High in Champaign, Ill., improved his stock by playing well at the RBK U summer camp in Philadelphia. Jones, who has made several unofficial visits to Kansas, is considering KU, Illinois, Southern Illinois, Kentucky, DePaul, Louisville, Arizona and others.

Summer league update

San Antonio’s Keith Langford scored five points with two rebounds, a steal and a block in the Spurs’ 79-68 loss to Minnesota on Wednesday. He made two of four shots and one of two threes in 14 minutes. … Washington’s Aaron Miles scored five points off 2-of-5 shooting (1-for-3 on free throws) in the Wizards’ 84-70 loss to Detroit. Miles had seven assists against one turnover in 24 minutes. … Billy Thomas had three points off 1-for-3 shooting with two rebounds and two assists in Milwaukee’s 92-85 win over Seattle. He played 13 minutes and hit his only three.

Travels

Look for the Jayhawks to take a foreign tour of Canada over Labor Day weekend in 2008. The Jayhawks, who played four games in Vancouver in September of 2004, are eligible for an outside-the-country tour once every five seasons. Coach Bill Self has said it’s a perfect time for the Jayhawks to be allotted 10 practices and four games, with a big recruiting class coming in before the 08-09 season.

“We’ll probably do something similar to ’04,” senior associate athletic director Larry Keating said. “Canada seems to be a good place. There are a lot of college teams available for games, though we don’t know where we’d go. We’ve not talked about it yet.”