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SPORTS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
19
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2003
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Mock draft predictions cite Hinrich
By Saju Nu'alla
snglaa@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The Internet has hundreds of mock drafts floating around, and a number of major sport magazines have released their own pick predictions. Nearly all predicted that Kirk Hinrich would be a lottery pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.
Hinrich
Collison
However, sport analysts have predicted Nick Collison—arguably the most dominant player on the 2002-03 Kansas Basketball team—to go in the first round, but not as a lottery pick. The lottery includes the 13 worst teams in the NBA.
"I know I need to get a little stronger," Collison said in a recent interview with the Chicago Bulls, which is posted on the team's web site.
"Scouts do not see Collison as a can't miss prospect because he lacks the athleticism that surefire lottery picks often possess."
"And I need to become more consistent from the outside."
said a scouting report from ESPN.com. Scouting reports described Collison as an excellent position rebound with a creative touch when scoring from the interior. The reports also added that Collison lacked the strength and the aggressiveness to be an effective power forward in the NBA.
Kansas coach Bill Self listens as former Jayhawk Nick Collison addresses basketball campers in the Horesji Family Athletics Center. Though Collison played under former Kansas coach Roy Williams, he returned to speak Monday at the renamed Bill Self Basketball Camp.
Zach Straus/Kansan
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Self continues Roy's camp
By Saju Ng'alla
snglaa@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The new men's basketball staff at the University of Kansas still wants former players, such as Drew Gooden, Nick Collison and other Jayhawk greats from the past, to treat the University as their home.
For the last 15 years former players flocked to the Roy Williams Basketball Camp. This year, with the arrival of a new men's basketball coach, the name has changed to the Bill Self Basketball Camp, but everything else remains the same.
Children from all over the nation still come to participate and former Kansas players, most of them from the Williams' era, still come to share their knowledge with the young campers.
Collison said he returned because of the tradition and the sense of family that
surrounded Kansas basketball.
“This is important to coach Self," said Ben Miller, Kansas men's basketball assistant coach, "He has a great appreciation for the history of Kansas basketball and the legacy of former players."
Miller said Self made special efforts such as writing letters and making phone calls to reach out to former Jayhawks to let them know they would always be welcomed at Kansas.
Self said he wanted to keep the legacy of former players alive at the University.
"This is important so that the players who do come in see that it is a family atmosphere," said Norm Roberts, Kansas men's basketball assistant coach. "When you come to KU, you don't just play for four years and go — you become a family member for life."
Roberts said the traditions of Kansas basketball were alive and those traditions
lured former players back to enjoy the campus, current players and the winning legacy of the basketball program.
The basketball camp was just one of the means of keeping the legacy and tradition alive, Miller said. That is why when Self took over the basketball program, he wrote personal letters to former players to let them know how excited he was to be a Jayhawk and that Kansas still needed them.
"One of the first orders of business is to stay in contact and stay connected to the people that came before me, stay connected with the players that came before these guys and make sure that this is going to be a family," Self said when the University hired him.
Former Jayhawks Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich, Drew Gooden, Greg Ostertag,
SEE CAMP ON PAGE 24