Kansas center Jeff Withey slaps hands with fans as he exits the court following the Jayhawks' 113-75 win over Longwood, Friday, Nov. 12, 2010 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Jeff Withey completed a Jayhawk Network radio interview Friday night on the Allen Fieldhouse floor, then made his way back toward the locker room through the fabled northwest tunnel 40 minutes after Kansas University’s 113-75 season-opening basketball lashing of Longwood.

The 7-footer from San Diego was taken aback by a thunderous ovation from about 200 autograph seekers — some screams could be heard from teens — as he inched to the front of the line.

“That’s pretty new,” Withey said, referring to fan adoration.

The No. 36-rated player in the recruiting class of 2008, who had fallen out of the spotlight following his transfer from Arizona and internship year playing behind Cole Aldrich, admitted he felt the love during and after collecting eight points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block against Longwood.

All in 12 minutes.

“When all the students are yelling at me and, ‘Put in Withey,’ it makes me feel good. The fans here are crazy. It’s why I chose KU. I love it,” said Withey, who had a vicious, crowd-pleasing slam off a Thomas Robinson miss in the first half and an eye-opening baseline jam and fierce rejection of an Earl Gee II shot in the closing minute.

He admittedly “got hyped up” after the rejection, scowling, prancing and looking into the stands.

“It was my first block of the year. It was kind of a volleyball block. I stuffed it,” said Withey, who grew up playing volleyball in San Diego. “I got really hyped up. I shouldn’t have, but it felt really good.

“It felt like I was in a zone. That’s how I want to play every time. I have this aggression every time I step on the floor, especially during games.”

He hasn’t played as much as he would have liked, suffering various injuries since arriving from the U of A. His most recent layoff stemmed from surgery to repair a broken bone in his right foot in late September.

“Today I didn’t feel any pain. I felt I could move,” said Withey, who said he’s about 80 percent with a chance of “being 100 percent by Monday (a 7 p.m. game against Valparaiso).

“I told coach (Bill) Self I felt my foot felt good and went out there and it still felt good. Pure adrenaline.”

Withey scored two points, grabbed three rebounds and had two steals in a four-minute stint that concluded KU’s 26-5 first-half run that opened a 50-23 lead.

“I try having fun. Once I get a dunk or something, I kind of get pissed off, just keep building from there,” said Withey, who hit all four of his shots.

Of course, his coach likes the intensity.

“Jeff surprised us tonight,” Self said. “I wasn’t sure if I’d play him that much. I thought we’d put him in a couple minutes. I think that adrenaline made it (foot) feel a little better.

“The great thing about this and the bad thing for Jeff is he’s shown us he can run, jump and be full speed now. So now when he says he can’t do it, he won’t have a built-in excuse. He’ll put pressure on those other guys to defend better,” Self added, noting Withey, “is gonna make us better. He makes it hard to score in practice. It’s hard to score over him. That’s good.”

The fans appear to enjoy getting to know Withey, who hopes he can remain healthy and play to his national ranking as a highly recruited prep center.

“I think a lot of things happened from going to Arizona and transferring and sitting out a year. I think a lot of people forgot about me, I guess. I don’t mind that at all,” Withey said. “I don’t mind being under the radar. It kind of works to my favor, just because everybody has their game plan to stop Marcus (Morris, 18 points) and Markieff (career-high tying 15 rebounds with 14 points). Being under the radar I guess helps.”

He teammates never take him for granted.

“You saw what he can do, and that was at 80 percent,” Markieff Morris said. “He’ll be even better at 100 percent.”

“Awesome,” Tyshawn Taylor said of the big guy’s play. “We all think he’s healed. It’s him that doesn’t think he’s healed yet. He’s trying to hobble on it and stuff. But he came in and played well tonight. If he keeps playing like that, I think he brings something to our team that we don’t have.”