PAGE 6
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2013
RECRUITING SWAG
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SELF IN THE CITY
Ties to Chicago extends recruiting success
BLAKE SCHUSTER
bschuster@kansan.com
Sherron Collins didn't want to leave Chicago. He didn't want to wear anything but orange and he didn't want to think about being surrounded by wheat fields for four years.
Collins, a former Kansas guard, made his plan. He would make the two-hour trip south to the University of Illinois, where countless other Chicago recruits dream of playing ball, and Patrick Beverley
- currently a starter for the Houston Rockets -would join him. Together the two would collect Big 10 championships and possibly more.
And if it weren't for Collins' mother pleading him to get away from Chicago and Beverley's commitment to Arkansas this might have been the way things turned out.
Even Kansas coach Bill Self was giving Collins reasons to join the Illini, but the more Collins thought about it he felt better off with Self.
"My first time meeting coach Self was incredible," Collins said. "I told my high school coaches he had this swag to him."
Self has always returned to Chicago for talent. Since 2005, Kansas has yet to field a team without a player from the southwest shores of Lake Michigan. When the Jayhawks take on Duke at the United Center on Tuesday, he'll have a chance to show off the product he's built with help from the city of broad shoulders. Just by stepping on the court, the team has already earned at least one victory.
"I don't think because you win a game a kid is going to go to your school," Self said. "I think playing in the area gives you the attention where you can be more visible."
It's not that most kids in Chicago don't pay attention to Kansas, it's that until recently there was hardly a reason to.
When Self took over as head coach, the Jayhawks hadn't recruited any kids from the area since the early 1990's. Two years after taking the job, Self changed that by signing the eighth best high school player in the nation, Julian Wright, a player Self was chasing before he ever considering going to Kansas himself.
"I was already being recruited by him when I was in high school." Wright said. "Possibly due to my collegiate success, I may have sparked confidence in other illinois players to leave their home state and play elsewhere."
"My first time meeting coach Self was incredible. I told my high school coaches he had this swag to him."
SHERRON COLLINS former Kansas guard
At least that was the case for Sherron Collins.
The two had played AAU ball together back in Chicago. Once Self was able to convince Collins to make his first trek to Lawrence, it was up to Wright to show him what the school could do for him
Wright made a simple pitch. He told Collins that basketball is religion here, and that he'll get a chance to show what he can do. But the presence of another Chicagoan was already enough.
"A lot of Chicago guards look up to each other," Collins said. "A lot of people look up to Julian and they see the success he had."
Collins took a few more trips to Champaign, but the atmosphere didn't compare. Kansas felt like home and nothing else mattered.
city. Even before the 2008 National Championship season, the Jayhawks were already becoming a more prominent name in the area.
After Collins' commitment and early success, Kansas, rather Bill Self, became a bigger name in the
First it was Wright, then Collins joined, followed by Mario Little and current Jayhawk Jamari Traylor, each of them being lured to Lawrence by an Aklahoman who made his presence felt with a short stint in Illinois.
"What? You don't think I'm cool?" Self said with a laugh. "You don't think I'm from the hood growing up in Edmond? I've thought I've always related well to most kids. I was around that area and stuff all the time."
Self maintains that if he could only sign players from one area there's no question it would be Chicago.
To help him, Self filled two of his assistant coaching vacancies with some of the best recruiters in the country, Jerrance Howard and Norm Roberts.
Howard played for Self at Illinois and has close ties to Chicago. Between his addition and playing at the United Center, Kansas has never been more relevant to the city. And as is the case with all movements, it just takes one person to get it started.
"Both of those guys, that's what they're known for," Jason King of ESPN said. "They're probably two of the top five in the nation."
"I feel like I followed the trend right behind Julian," Collins said. "Chicago area kids are opening up to Kansas just as quick as they open up to Illinois."
Edited by Lauren Armendariz
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STOMPING GROUNDS
ASHLEIGH LFEK/KANSAN
Sophomore forward Jamari Traylor returns to his home of Chicago to face Duke.
Traylor returns to Windy City
MAX GOODWIN
mgoodwin@kansan.com
home and an opportunity to play in front of his family.
Tuesday's showdown between Kansas and Duke is an opportunity for coaches to see where their teams are at early in the season against another elite team. For fans, it's a chance to watch two of the best freshmen in the nation go head to head.
"I'm looking forward to the game," Traylor said, "but when I go to Chicago it's going to be nice to play in front of my family and everything back home. Just getting to see my family again for a little short time."
For Jamari Traylor, it's a trip back
Traylor grew up on Chicago's south side, and though he was raised in a city that is recognized
or its basketball tradition, he didn't play organized basketball until he was in high school, making him one of the least experienced players on the Kansas team.
ESPN writer Jason King chronicled the story of Travler's rise from being homeless during his high school years in Chicago to playing basketball at Kansas.
In the article, King writes that Traylor's father is serving a life sentence in an Illinois prison for federal drug-trafficking charges. Traylor's mother struggled to raise Traaylor as he refused to follow direction and ended up spending three weeks in a juvenile detention center.
Traylor's basketball talent was discovered when Loren Jackson, a coach at Fenger High School in Chicago, convinced him to attend a workout. Jackson began to help Traylor and eventually Traylor followed him to Julian High School where he played one season.
Traylor was able to move up the rankings of a Chicago basketball website, and eventually caught the eye of coaches at some of the top basketball programs, including Bill Self.
Traylor averaged 2.1 points and 2.1 rebounds per game in his redshirt-freshman season. Teammates say his confidence has increased coming into this season. Bill Self said that Traylor had already displayed an offensive improvement after Late Night in the Phog.
Traylor can often be seen on campus and at Kansas athletic events wearing hats featuring the logos of Chicago sports teams, and on Tuesday he will have his first chance to take the floor at the United Center.
"I remember in high school when you get to the big championship games they have them there," Traylor said, "but I never made it there, so it will be my first time playing in the United Center."
Edited by Lauren Armendariz
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