Treadmill talk

Kansas University’s fabled treadmill has been situated just off the northwest corner of the Allen Fieldhouse court for two-a-day practices this week.

It’s used as a penalty for various transgressions, like soft play or sloppy play.

“The treadmill is out. The treadmill has been out,” junior center Cole Aldrich said, asked if he has been on it. “It’s not fun. It’s at the highest incline, the fastest it can go.”

“I don’t even like to see it,” sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor said. “They put it on fast on an incline. It’s tough. If you are not running fast, it’ll throw you off. Nobody’s got thrown off yet, but somebody will.”

This, that

KU leads the all-time series, 6-3, against Temple. The series dates to 1940 when the Owls defeated the Jayhawks, 40-35, in Philadelphia. … Five of the nine meetings have been played on neutral courts. … KU is 46-14 all-time against current membership of the Atlantic 10. …The Owls returned to the national rankings on Dec. 21 for the first time since Nov. 2001. Included in the current win streak are victories over then-No. 3 Villanova, at Miami and at Seton Hall. … The Owls are 4-0 in the Liacouras Center … Sophomore guard Ramone Moore and junior forward Craig Williams come off the bench to score 5.3 and 5.2 ppg. … KU’s last trip to Philadelphia was in 2004-05 and was a blizzard nightmare. The then-No. 2 Jayhawks were 14-0 on the season and lost to Villanova, 83-62, at the Wachovia Center. Following the game, KU’s players and coaches spent an extra night in Philly as the airport was closed for the first time in 25 years. … Taylor’s mom and two sisters live in Lawrence. Today, “my aunts and cousins are coming,” the Hoboken, N.J. native said. “They’ve only seen me play on TV.” … KU’s Thomas Robinson, a Washington D.C. native, noted, “This is like a home game for me. I’ll have a lot of relatives at the game.”

Self lauds Dunphy

KU coach Bill Self has served on coaching committees with Temple coach Fran Dunphy.

“He reminds me so much of coach (Eddie) Sutton,” Self said. “You have to go beat them. They don’t panic under pressure. Villanova had them down double digits and it didn’t rattle them a bit. They’ve got nice pieces, guys who can play anywhere in the country.”

Dunphy on a few topics:

• On the keys to the team: “The two rocks that we have are Lavoy Allen, who’s seldom ever out of position, and Ryan Brooks, who is a terrific on the ball defender. Everyone else is just filling in.”

• On Temple’s ranking: “Everyone’s excited about it. It’s been a hard road to get to where we are. It’s going to be an even harder road to try to stay there because we have some great games coming up against some really good basketball teams and we haven’t even started our league yet. Our league has just done a phenomenal job in terms of the nonconference schedule. We’ve got our hands full.

“We’ve put ourselves in pretty good position. We’re not a team that if we lose a game we’re going to fall three spots. We’re going to fall mightily. So we really need to concentrate our efforts each and every night out. It’s a tough, tough task to stay there. There’s a reason all those great teams are there each and every year. We hope to be one of them. Right now, we’re still a work in progress in many, many ways. We’ve had a great start, but we need to continue to play as good a basketball as we can.”