Kansas City, Mo. ? So far, so good for the United States Olympic men’s basketball team, a squad that has stormed to a 5-0 record in pool play at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

“The way the ‘Dream Team’ is playing – and the way ‘Coach K’ has them playing – it is absolutely beautiful to watch, in my opinion,” Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self said Monday at the CBE Celebrity Golf Tournament at The National Golf Club of Kansas City.

“Having world-class guys, the best in the world giving of themselves … on a much higher level it reminds me a lot of our Kansas team last year. The leading scorer takes nine or 10 shots. They share the ball. It’s a different guy every night. Those guys are playing at a very high level,” Self added.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s U.S. team, which will meet Australia in the medal-round quarterfinals Wednesday, has won three of five games by at least 30 points.

“The way they are playing will be the goal of every team – junior high, high school, college, saying, ‘Hey, we’ll put forth the type of effort they are putting forth,”’ Self said.

He has been impressed that superstars LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and others have bought into the concepts of sharing the ball and playing lockdown defense.

“We have won a lot of games since we’ve been at Kansas, Illinois, Tulsa, Oral Roberts being able to guard people,” said Self, an advocate of intense man-to-man defense.

He’ll be doing what he loves best again Thursday, when his 2008-09 KU basketball team opens eight days of practice for its three-game Labor Day weekend trip to Canada.

“I found time to do a few things this summer. The most relaxing part for me is getting ready to happen, where I know I’ll be in Lawrence for the majority of the days and nights,” Self said. “I’ve been doing a lot of traveling, probably the most traveling I’ve ever done without question – recruiting and other things job-related.

“I’m ready for school to start. I’m ready to move forward and not be reminded of everything that happened last year. We need to focus on how we can get our guys better now.”