SAN DIEGO — Though they had not previously been acquainted, Jamari McDowell became very familiar with the small Alabama-based Christian university Samford very quickly in March 2024 when the Bulldogs pressed relentlessly and made the Jayhawks work for 40 minutes to earn a 93-89 NCAA Tournament victory in Salt Lake City.
“How intense, and how much joy they played with, it was amazing,” McDowell recalled on ...
SAN DIEGO — As Kansas coach Bill Self recalls, it seemed great in theory for the Jayhawks to get to play the first weekend of the 2009 NCAA Tournament in center Cole Aldrich’s home state of Minnesota.
“Until we played … North Dakota State and then they had 20,000 people at the game, or 15,000 people (at the Metrodome),” Self said.
KU managed to escape that first-round battle with the Bison, who were ...
SAN DIEGO — Kansas had an unusually accomplished water boy at Sunday’s practice back in Lawrence.
Fifth-year senior guard Melvin Council Jr., given an unexpected day off by head coach Bill Self, found other ways to make himself useful: besides handing out water, of course, he was “rebounding, clapping, keeping the energy alive and stuff like that,” he said on Thursday.
As Self explained on Sunday, he ...
SAN DIEGO — It has been far from a guarantee in recent seasons, and even throughout Bill Self’s 23-year tenure as head coach, that a Kansas men’s basketball team arrives for its first NCAA Tournament weekend ready to play at full strength.
Two years ago on a Salt Lake City side street, Self ruled out Kevin McCullar Jr. for the duration of the postseason; last season when he spoke in a hotel lobby in ...
A lengthy recovery process after an injury is nothing new for former Kansas tight end DeShawn Hanika.
He just has a habit of making each one a bit less lengthy.
“You know, in my eyes, timetables are meant to be broken,” he said.
So there was Hanika on the turf field at the Anderson Family Football Complex running a 40-yard dash last Wednesday at KU football’s Pro Day, less than six months after enduring ...
Like so many young players, Jayden Dawson became more of a focal point each successive year he played for Eric Behrens at Omaha Central High School.
He could always shoot it, and he always had the right attitude — humble, quiet, still easygoing and friendly, as Behrens described him. It was the rest of his game that needed work, and Dawson was willing to put it in.
“He was pretty slender early on,” ...
