KU hoops to play LHS grad’s Rams in K.C.

Kansas University’s men’s basketball team will play Colorado State in the Jayhawks’ annual nonconference game in Kansas City’s Sprint Center next season.

It’ll be a homecoming of sorts for Rams freshman standout Dorian Green, a 6-foot-2, 170-pound guard out of Lawrence High.

“When coach told me, I smiled and told him I was kind of excited about it,” Green said of the Dec. 11 dream matchup against his dad’s alma mater. Darren Green was a receiver for the Jayhawks from 1981 to ’83.

“When I heard, I wish it had been in Allen Fieldhouse. But it’ll be fun to come back and play in front of my family. I have a lot of friends who go to KU,” added Green, who averaged a team-leading 11.8 points and 2.8 rebounds a game for the Rams (16-16).

CSU coach Tim Miles welcomes back Green and three other starters. The Rams also return guard Jesse Carr, a former starter who missed this past season because of injury. Iowa State transfer Wes Eikmeier will be eligible, as will 7-foot red-shirt Trevor Williams.

“We have some pretty talented freshmen coming in,” Green said. “Our coach said it’s the most talent and the most competition he’ll have had.”

Of the KU game, Green said: “I think there will be butterflies, but more than anything, I’ll be excited. I want to come back and be close to home, but I really want to win.”

Green, who averaged a team-high 35.0 minutes a game, hit 35.7 percent of his shots. He canned 59 of 152 threes for 38.8 percent. He also had 80 assists against 74 turnovers.

“I played OK. I was a little up and down,” Green said.

In other news involving KU’s 2010-11 schedule, KU likely will play Memphis in the one-day Jimmy V. Classic doubleheader on Dec. 7 in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“They are in it, and we are in it,” KU senior associate AD Larry Keating said of KU and Memphis. “They still need two more teams, so they could always flip-flop it,” Keating added, indicating KU could play somebody besides the Tigers in the event.

KU will play Ohio (Nov. 26) and Arizona (Nov. 27) in the Las Vegas Invitational. KU will play UCLA (likely Dec. 2) and USC (Dec. 18) in Allen Fieldhouse. KU will travel to Michigan (Jan. 8 or 9) and travel to Cal-Berkeley (no date set). Several games against mid-majors still need to be scheduled for the fieldhouse.

It should be noted the dates in this story are not final and could be changed. The slate will be announced this summer.

Kansas State will meet Xavier in a Sweet 16 game at 8:30 tonight in Salt Lake City.

“I’m for Frank,” KU coach Bill Self said of KSU coach Frank Martin. “It’s not so much they are 90 miles down the road. I happen to like him. I respect their team, and I would like to see our league do well, but I’m not a big fan (of tournament) right now. I don’t know if any coach becomes a big fan after they are knocked out.”