2006-2007 Jayhawks to be enshrined in KU Hall of Fame

The 2006-07 Kansas University men’s basketball team will be inducted into the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame during the Oct. 26-27 K-Club and Homecoming weekend.

Bill Self’s 33-5 squad — which won Big 12 regular-season and postseason tourney titles and advanced to the Elite Eight — will be enshrined with KU soccer player Holly Gault and track and field All-American Egor Agafonov in a ceremony on Oct. 26 in the Booth Family Hall of Athletics. The group will be introduced during KU’s Oct. 27 homecoming football game against Texas.

The ’06-07 Jayhawks were led by first-team All-Big 12 pick Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Julian Wright, who averaged 13.8, 12.2 and 12.0 points per game respectively. Their teammates: Darrell Arthur, Brennan Bechard, Jeremy Case, Sherron Collins, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun, Matt Kleinmann, Brady Morningstar, Russell Robinson, Rodrick Stewart and Brad Witherspoon. Using the same core group, KU went 37-3 the following season and won the national title.

Gault, a native of Spring Hill, earned first-team All-America mention in 2004 while leading the Jayhawks to the Big 12 title. With Gault in the backfield, the Jayhawks set a program record, allowing 13 goals total.

Agafonov, a native of Togliatti, Russia, won 2007 and ’08 indoor national championships in the weight throw, joining Jim Ryun, Leo Bookman and Karl Salb as the only Jayhawks to repeat as indoor national champions. He won three-consecutive Big 12 titles in both the weight and hammer throws. He’s KU’s record holder in the hammer with a heave of 233-0.

The Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame was established to “formally recognize outstanding individual and team achievements, and to preserve the heritage and tradition of the University’s intercollegiate athletics program.” The Hall of Fame display is located in the Booth Family Hall of Athletics.

More on draft: ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb has ranked former KU players Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor the Nos. 15 and 30-rated prospects in the upcoming NBA Draft.

“A monster in college, Robinson is likely a rotation guy in the NBA at worst, a starting power forward at best. He has stretched his range to 20 feet and will finish above the rim, but he doesn’t have the fluidity to be special in face-up opportunities in the league,” Gottlieb wrote on ESPN.com.

“Kansas fans can save their hate mail for my evaluation of Robinson, as I wrote similar things about Tyler Hansbrough when he came out. Robinson was a great (not just good, but great) college player, but the NBA game turns him into a 4, so he is likely a starter on a bad team and a rotation guy on a good team,” Gottlieb added.

Of Taylor, he wrote: “Taylor is an athletic scoring point guard who can guard and makes an ideal backup in the league.”

Robinson on Twitter responded to some of the mock drafts that have had him as low as No. 5 overall.

“I could care less where im at on any of your draft boards these the Same so called experts WHO didnt even know i exsisted a yr ago smh Lol,” he wrote on Twitter.

After the draft lottery on Wednesday, he told draftexpress.com: “It’s not the fact I’m angry, not at all. I’m here. I’m in the conversation. As long as I’m in the conversation (to be No. 1 overall), I’m blessed.”

Asked what he thinks of perhaps playing in Charlotte, which has No. 2 pick, he said: “As long as it’s got an NBA patch on the jersey, it sounds good.”

Lucas update: Incoming KU freshman forward Landen Lucas tells JayhawkSlant.com he will report to campus for summer school on June 12. The unranked player from Westview High in Portland, Ore., who averaged 19.3 points and 13.5 rebounds his senior year, said he’ll wear No. 33 at KU.

As far as his official height and weight … “Flat footed, I’m 6-9 1/4 and with shoes on I’m 6-10. I stepped on a scale a couple of days ago and I was 244. The most I’ve weighed is around 250, or a little more. I’d like to stay around my current weight, but just change the kind of weight that it is and have less body fat,” he said.