Austin, Texas ? Last February, a video surfaced on YouTube of Keith Langford playing in Italy for Vanoli Soresina.

The six-minute clip, shot from long distance, showed the former Kansas University guard skying for rebounds, quickly slashing to the hoop and finishing vicious dunks.

He hadn’t shown that much spring since, well, midway through his junior year at KU.

Seated behind the bench at Monday’s KU-Texas game in Austin, Langford gave reason for that.

“It’s tough when you come back from a microfracture surgery,” said Langford, now starring for the Austin Toros of the NBADL. “A lot of people didn’t know that (I had it), but it was serious. It takes awhile to get the confidence back and the explosiveness, so I think that video was just a result of me being healthy.”

The microfracture procedure helps restore knee cartilage by creating tiny fractures in the neighboring bones, forcing new cartilage to grow. It’s the same procedure that kept Phoenix Suns standout Amare Stoudemire out most of the 2005-06 NBA season and is benching Portland Trailblazers rookie Greg Oden this year.

Langford said he originally hurt the knee in a Big 12 game against Oklahoma as a junior in 2003-04. The day after an overtime loss to Georgia Tech in the 2004 Elite Eight, the procedure was done.

Six months later, he was on the floor for the Jayhawks’ tour through Canada for four exhibition contests.

Now, Langford’s the top scorer for the Toros – led by former Missouri coach Quin Snyder – with a 24.5-point average. Langford’s also shooting 42.6 percent from three-point range. He’ll take part in the NBA Developmental League’s three-point contest, before playing in the NBADL All-Star game Saturday in New Orleans.

“Statistically, I’ve done everything possible in the D-League,” he said. “It’s a lot more spread out. A lot of guys have to understand that the help defense isn’t the same, you have the three seconds in the key defensively, the principles are a lot different, so for a guy like me that likes to penetrate and attack a lot, it works well.”

It even earned Langford a cup of coffee with the Toros’ parent club earlier this winter – the San Antonio Spurs. He played just under five minutes in two games during the stint before being released, scoring one bucket on four attempts.

“It was great,” Langford said. “I experienced it a little bit during preseason, but being there during the regular season, it was a very different experience. It keeps you hungry. You want to go back to that level.”

Darrell Demps, the Spurs’ Director of Player Personnel, told Langford he’s essentially one injury away from a return to the league. Langford added that if it doesn’t happen this year, he’d consider playing in Spain next season like former KU teammate Aaron Miles, currently hooping for Cajasol Sevilla.

But Langford isn’t ready to settle for having had just a taste of the big time.

“You see what hard work and putting up numbers gets you, and when you’re rewarded, you want to get rewarded again and again,” Langford said. “You see some of the (NBADL to NBA) success stories like (Golden State’s Kelenna) Azabuike or (San Antonio’s) Ime Udoka. You feel like you can be one of those type of guys.”