The Jayhawks watch as Kansas Jayhawks forward Carlton Bragg Jr. (15) kicks off practice with a dunk, Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Louisville, Ky. ? A trip to Louisville wouldn’t be complete without an excursion to Churchill Downs, site of the world-famous Kentucky Derby.

“We had dinner there last night. The food was good. And it was interesting, too,” KU freshman forward Carlton Bragg Jr. said. “They showed us pictures of the jockeys and stuff, how short they were, what they go through to be a jockey. It was amazing.”

KU freshman forward Cheick Diallo, who hails from Mali, said it classified as a “new experience.”

“I don’t really care about horse stuff,” Diallo said with a smile. “I know horses are a lot of money here. I was like, ‘That’s a lot of money people spend on horses.’ In my country, we have a lot of donkeys, but horses, no. If you have a horse in Mali, it means you have a lot of money.”

The 6-foot-9 Diallo has never ridden a horse.

“I’ve been on a donkey. Some of them go fast,” Diallo said.

Of the trip to Churchill Downs, sophomore guard Devonté Graham said: “I’m not a big horse-racing guy, but you hear about it all the time. I’ve never actually watched one (race), but being there, it was a great experience. You get to see historic stuff like that. It’s nice.”

“I’m not big on horse racing,” senior forward Jamari Traylor said, “but it was still a good experience to go out there and see some of the tradition and be part of something like that. I know it’s big, especially here. So it was good to go out there and learn a little bit about it.”

Coach Bill Self wanted to make sure to have the Jayhawks witness such a historic track.

“It was a special deal for our fellas,” Self said. “People here are nice, very friendly. As long as we play well, I think I’ll really, really enjoy this place.”

Injury update: Self said Frank Mason III (foot, hip) is good to go. “I’ve said this before: Frank’s a little bit like Jim Brown when he gets tackled. It takes him forever to get back to the huddle. I think Frank’s fine. I think his health is fine. I think he’s had the nagging things that obviously bother everybody. Does his hip hurt? A little bit. Does his foot hurt? A little bit. But not to the point where I think he’ll be less than 100 percent when the adrenaline gets flowing.”

Kansas is hoops heaven: Self was asked to make a case for Kansas City being more a mecca for college basketball than Kentucky:

“I think, obviously, in the Bluegrass State, everybody loves ball. I mean, that goes without saying. I can’t speak to television ratings, because I have no idea. But I will say that when you stop and think about, obviously, us being 30 miles away, Missouri being a couple hours away, K-State being a couple of hours away, Wichita being three hours away, and then you look at the College Basketball Experience being there, the Hall of Fame (both in KC), and then you look at the NAIA national tournament being there and all the NCAA tournaments that have been played in Kansas City Municipal Auditorium, I think when you add up all the history, I think that you can make a case that Kansas is probably … Kansas City area is probably about as knowledgeable and historic a place that our game has seen.”

“You could say the same thing about Philadelphia, obviously. But Kentucky, unbelievable history, tradition and all these things. But when the inventor of the game is your first coach, I think it definitely gives you a leg up on some folks when you start talking about history.”

Self on this year’s team: “I don’t know if I’ve enjoyed coaching a collective group more than what I have this year just because it’s fun for them. My guys don’t get near the credit they deserve for being as good of players as they are and NBA prospects. But at least that’s my opinion. But the bottom line is, they enjoy that underdog role. They’re recruited to our place with the same expectations that (Andrew) Wiggins and (Joel) Embiid were recruited to our place. When people don’t talk about them, that gives them a chip, and I love teams that operate that way. But, still, yet they like each other and they basically — there’s one stat that matters, and that’s wins and L’s, wins and losses, and not individual performances. And they’ve just been so much fun to be around.”

KU freshman Bragg on Maryland: “Maryland’s really good. It’s going to be a challenge for us. Can we stop the transition? They’ve got one of the best guards in the country, Melo Trimble. It’s going to be all about defense.”

Halfcourt shots: KU’s Evan Manning and Lagerald Vick hit halfcourt shots in front of about 1,000 fans at the end of Wednesday’s shootaround at KFC Yum! Center.Ties to Brown: Self was asked about Maryland coach Mark Turgeon speaking with former KU coach Larry Brown this week. Turgeon played for Brown and worked on his KU coaching staff; Self worked on Brown’s coaching staff as well.

“Turg and Coach are close, and they should be. He recruited him, he played for him. But I would bet that Coach is not real comfortable talking to me or Turg about the other team. I would bet that,” Self said. “But when you’re a young player, a young coach, you think you know more than what you do, but you realize you don’t know anything when you get around coach Brown.”

Fun times: Traylor, on returning to the Sweet 16 after a pair of first-weekend eliminations the past two seasons: “It’s just a great, a great feeling to be able to get back here. These last couple years we’ve been bounced a little bit early, and it’s definitely left a bad taste in our mouth as a team. We’re just more focused. Every possession matters. We’re just more in tune, more of a tight-knit group. That’s pretty much it. We’re just living in the moment. We know any day could be our last day playing. So it’s just everything’s more magnified.”