Roommates tend to look out for each other during two weeks of Kansas University basketball Boot Camp.

“I always wake up first. I’ve got to drag him out of bed,” KU sophomore Brady Morningstar said of delivering a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call to junior Sherron Collins.

“We’ve got to be on the court at 6:05. (We) sleepwalk out there,” Morningstar added with a laugh.

The good news Monday was none of the 15 Jayhawk players were late for the first day of Boot Camp, Bill Self’s annual fall conditioning program designed to get players in shape and build camaraderie for the upcoming season.

If one person is late, all 15 pay the price with extra running.

“When you walk out the door (of Jayhawker Towers), you make sure you are with your roommate,” said sophomore center Cole Aldrich, who rooms with Tyrel Reed. “If somebody 15 minutes beforehand is not at the gym, we start calling people, making sure they are on their way.”

Day One of Boot Camp was typically difficult, Aldrich noted.

“It was tough. The first day is not quite as tough as day seven or eight just because you’ve had so many days before that, and you are starting to get worn out,” the 6-foot-11, 250-pound Aldrich said.

“The new guys did really well this morning from the fact they didn’t quite know what was going to happen. We all got through it.

Morningstar, who red-shirted last year, is experiencing his third Boot Camp.

“We did a lot of slides, a lot of running, a lot of quick-feet stuff, stuff to help you get in shape,” Morningstar said. “It’s fun.”

Fun?

“Yes, because it means the season is about to start,” he said. “The closer you get to being done with Boot Camp, the closer the season is.”

The non-stop moving for an hour takes its toll physically on the players.

“I think Buford got it again,” Aldrich said with a smile, referring to sophomore Chase Buford losing his breakfast. “He’s 1-for-1 so far. I didn’t quite see him. I saw him leaning his head over the trash can.

“It was the first day, but just a regular day of Boot Camp, a lot of running, non-stop stuff that takes its toll on you. We’re excited to continue Boot Camp as a team,” Aldrich added.

Boot Camp runs through Friday, then after two days off, picks up again next Monday through Friday.

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Brady’s ankle OK: Morningstar, who suffered a severe right-ankle sprain in the second of three exhibition games over Labor Day weekend in Canada, is 100 percent healed.

“The first week-and-a-half we were back, I was doing rehab. I started playing a week-and-a-half ago, back at full speed,” Morningstar said.

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Banner unfurling: Pencil in the Oct. 17 Late Night in the Phog and Nov. 18 CBE Classic game against Florida Gulf Coast as “banner days” for KU basketball.

ESPNU will televise KU’s unveiling of a temporary national championship banner as a highlight of this year’s Late Night, KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony confirmed Monday. That banner will hang at a yet-to-be determined place in the south end zone.

“It will be there at least through this year. We’re still talking about that,” he added of future plans for the south end zone banner. “It may end up in the new practice facility.”

A smaller rectangular Final Four banner and Big 12 championship banner also will be unveiled at Late Night.

An official 2008 national championship banner, identical to the four in the north rafters, will be unfurled next to the other four in a pregame ceremony before the Gulf Coast game Nov. 18. That banner unveiling will be shown on ESPN, the game itself on ESPNU.

It will be one of the highlights of ESPN’s all-day coverage celebrating the opening of college hoops season. KU’s women will play Iowa at 1 p.m. that day on ESPN, meaning there’s a rare men’s-women’s doubleheader at KU.

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Henry update: Xavier Henry, a 6-foot-6 senior guard from Putnam City (Okla.) High, will make his official visit to Memphis this weekend. He will visit KU for the Oct. 17 Late Night in the Phog, then pick between the two schools, his dad, Carl, told Rivals.com.