Kansas guard Brannen Greene (14) reachesfor a loose ball against TCU's Kenrich Williams (34) on Thursday March 12, 2015 at the Sprint Center, in Kansas City, MO.

Jeffrey Greene noticed some signs that his son, Kansas University sophomore Brannen Greene, was hurting a bit more than the 6-foot-7 guard admitted to late last season.

To former Pittsburg State standout Jeffrey, his son’s shooting form looked flawed during a slump that lasted from mid-February through the rest of the 2014-15 campaign. Dad also noticed Brannen walked with the slightest limp and sometimes got up slowly after sitting in a chair for an extended period of time.

When asked about possible discomfort, the most Brannen would tell his family, teammates and coaches is he “may have tweaked something” at practice or in a game.

Finally …

“He came home two weeks ago and he yelled getting out of a chair and had trouble walking,” Jeffrey Greene said Thursday. “I said, ‘What in the heck is wrong with you?’ He said, ‘I got hit in the game, hit in practice and my hip has not been the same.’ He started explaining, ‘I can’t catch off the right side. I can’t push off the right leg.’ He had torn something.

“It’s fixed now,” Jeffrey added emphatically, speaking at noon Thursday from Nashville (Tennessee) Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center where Brannen had just undergone three-hour surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip.

Brannen should be able to return to the court in about five months.

“He will be in a state of limited physical activity the next two months and on crutches, and after that start physical activity. In four months he will be back 110 percent pain free,” Jeffrey Greene said.

The surgery was performed by Tennessee Titans team doctor J.W. Thomas Byrd, who has authored several textbooks on hip arthroscopy.

“The rehab will be somewhat significant because he’ll be on crutches for eight weeks and probably not return to the basketball court for approximately five months,” KU coach Bill Self said, explaining, “Brannen, his father and Bill Cowgill (KU associate director of Sports Medicine) traveled to Nashville this week to have hip surgery performed by Dr. (J.W. Thomas) Byrd, one of the most experienced hip surgeons in the United States. Surgery went very well. Everything went as planned. It should not impact practice as he should be full speed by the time we start practicing,” Self added.

Jeffrey explained the injury: “He had a torn labrum he did in early February that he didn’t tell anybody about. The inflammation was the pain he was feeling. It continued to swell and swell.

“Genetically when you are 7 years old you start to form that ball socket. The ball socket was a tiny bit bigger than they felt it should be, so they shaved it down a bit. He had no bone spurs.”

Jeff Greene said Brannen didn’t want anything to keep him off the court.

“I noticed he wasn’t getting any lift on his shot. It was flatter than normal at times. It wasn’t the same repeating motion,” Jeff said. “After a few games I was saying to him, ‘Why is your shot different? It’s a different shot than the one that got us here.’ He was trying to keep his condition from everybody, me, the staff, the trainers. He was saying, ‘I just need to stretch out a little more.’ He didn’t want us to know he was injured other than, ‘I think I tweaked something.’

“I said, ‘This happened right before the (shooting) slump didn’t it (mid February)?’ He said he hurt it then but it wasn’t as painful but keeps getting worse. So it’s been taken care of.”

Brannen addressed his fans on Twitter on Thursday.

“Thank you guys for all the well wishes. Just a bump in the road. Can’t wait to get back on the court with my brothers!” he wrote.

Ellis honored: KU junior Perry Ellis has been named 2014-15 Big 12 men’s basketball scholar-athlete of the year, the league announced Thursday. Ellis is a two-time Academic all-Big 12 pick with a 3.25 grade-point average in sport management.

This, that: Stephen Zimmerman, a 7-foot senior center from Gorman High in Las Vegas, on Thursday committed to UNLV on Twitter. He chose the Rebels over KU and others. … Zimmerman, KU recruiting targets Jaylen Brown, Cheick Diallo and Malik Newman will play in the Jordan Brand Classic at 7 tonight in New York. It will be shown on ESPN2. … KU is reportedly looking at Ty Outlaw, a 6-6 sophomore guard from Lee (Texas) Junior College, who averaged 23.4 ppg and 5.5 rpg last season, according to jucorecruiting.com. He hit 55 percent of his shots. He’s visiting Virginia Tech this weekend and considering Arkansas, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Oregon and Missouri.