Most of the 8- to 18-year-olds who attend Bill Self’s basketball camp are diehard Kansas University fans.

There are a few exceptions, however, including the youngster who surprised Jayhawk senior forward/camp counselor Darnell Jackson last week at KU’s Student Rec and Fitness Center.

“A kid came into the gym and had a UCLA shirt on. I said, ‘Man, are you gonna wear that shirt?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you guys got blown out by them,”’ Jackson related.

“He wouldn’t take it off. I laughed about that,” Jackson added of the camper from Topeka.

UCLA, of course, is the team that derailed KU’s run to the Final Four last spring. The Arron Afflalo-led Bruins stopped the Jayhawks, 68-55, in an Elite Eight battle on March 24 in San Jose, Calif.

“That’s probably the wildest thing that happened to me at camp,” Jackson said with a smile.

The 6-foot-8, 250-pounder said he thoroughly enjoyed bonding with the campers 21â2 hours in the morning and 21â2 more at night the past two weeks. Sunday’s final day of Team Camp ended this year’s KU men’s camp season.

“It’s a good summer job. It’s better than any job I ever had,” Jackson said. “I get to help the kids every day, every night. I sit there and joke with them, laugh with them, talk with them, see what’s going on in their lives and try to teach them some things about basketball.”

Jackson, who averaged 5.5 points and 5.1 rebounds his junior year, has been doing more than working camps and attending his African American Studies 305 class this summer.

He’s expanding his game.

“I’ve been trying to work on my outside game a lot. Coach (Danny) Manning has been working on me with that a lot,” said Jackson, who also has worked on toning his body while staying at 250 pounds, the same weight he carried all last season.

“I am trying to do what I can to play both forward and the post. The coaches try to tell me I have good footwork in that I can get to the basket with one dribble, two dribbles. I need to start working on that more. It will help me develop my game.”

Jackson – he showed his outside touch by cashing a pair of three-pointers in Wednesday’s campers game – wishes he could report that his aching back is completely healed.

That’s not the case.

“The story on my back is the same. It’s not going to change,” Jackson said. “I still do everything the guys (teammates) do. I’m not babying it, and I’ll be all right when the season comes around.”

Jackson, who said his back is “sore,” not fractured, undergoes treatment every day.

“I have these ice packs in my room. When I go to my room, I ice it 20 minutes and do my exercises,” the Midwest City, Okla., native said. “It’s not a fracture. I just have really bad back pain. It’s like I’m almost 40, but I know I’m not. I just have to stretch. They have me do a lot of stretching and stretch some more.”

It’s not a stretch to see Jackson vying for a starting job his final season.

“Am I a starter right now? Nope. Nobody is a starter,” Jackson said. “You’ve got to earn your spot. Coach (Bill) Self doesn’t have any favorites. He tells everybody, even the guards, you’ve got to earn your spot. You don’t practice hard, you don’t start. You don’t play.

“When the season comes, I’m going to try to get out of it everything I can. College : I love it, man. It only comes to you once. I watch the highlight film in there (with campers) and I’m saying, ‘It’s my last time, last go-round.’ I’m really excited for my final season and school year,” noted Jackson, who will receive his degree next May in African American Studies.

¢Releford earns bronze: Future Kansas University basketball player Travis Releford scored 10 points off 4-of-5 shooting in the USA White team’s 123-101 victory over Brazil in Sunday’s bronze-medal game at the U.S. Development Festival in Colorado Springs. The 6-foot-4 Roeland Park Miege senior-to-be hit four of five shots with three rebounds and two assists in 23 minutes.

In five games, which included three victories, Releford averaged 14.2 points and 5.0 boards. He hit 26 of 51 shots (51 percent), including five of 14 threes. He made 14 of 17 free throws and had four assists with four turnovers.

¢Liggins visits Lexington: DeAndre Liggins, a 6-5 senior-to-be from Chicago’s Washington High, made an unofficial visit to Kentucky over the weekend and told Rivals.com he came away mighty impressed. Liggins, who made an unofficial to KU for Bill Self’s Elite Camp, has a list of KU, Kentucky, Memphis and Illinois.