Jayhawks begin Week Two of Boot Camp. It ‘has been successful,’ KU coach Bill Self says
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, who attended Saturday’s KU football game against his alma mater, Oklahoma State, walked a short distance from his family’s suite to the press box in the third quarter of the Jayhawks’ 47-7 loss to OSU.
He stopped for just a few moments, long enough for reporters to ask him to assess the first week of his two-week Boot Camp conditioning program for the 2020-21 Jayhawks.
“Boot Camp has been successful,” said Self, who was to bring together his squad in KU’s practice facility at 6:30 a.m. Monday for the final few days of Boot Camp.
“We think it’ll come to an end this week. We haven’t decided what day yet, depending on how they do. We anticipate completing it maybe the first half of the week then we’ll get down to more basketball related (drills),” Self added.
Boot Camp consists of sprints, defensive slides, backboard touches, rope jumping and other exercises that constitute an hour of non-stop movement each morning Monday through Friday for two weeks. Weekends are for rest.
Coaches at this time are allowed to practice in the gym with players eight hours a week until the official start of college basketball practice on Oct. 14.
Asked to identify which players have emerged as “stars” of Boot Camp 2020 thus far, Self smiled and said: “I would say the guys so far to me who have had the most success are Jalen Wilson, Ochai (Agbaji), Bryce Thompson and David McCormack.”
He added that the players overall were “tired” heading into the weekend.
Self recently praised KU junior big man McCormack, this year’s replacement for the 7-foot Udoka Azubuike inside.
“He has had a great summer,” Self said of 6-10, 265-pound McCormack. “If we can get our big guys, primarily Dave, to defend even though he won’t be a rim protector as much as Doke, but a paint protector … David has the abilities to do that,” Self stated.
This year has been a bit different in that the Jayhawks held some early morning practices the past two months, even before the start of Boot Camp.
“We’ve got great young guys. They’ve got enthusiasm, want to learn and grow,” KU assistant coach Norm Roberts said recently on Self’s “Grill With Bill” feature at kuathletics.com.
The newcomers on the team include above-mentioned freshman Thompson, plus juco transfer Tyon Grant-Foster, freshman Latrell Jossell, frosh Gethro Muscadin as well as redshirt freshman Dajuan Harris.
Wilson is also a redshirt freshman. He was injured in the first game of the season a year ago and did not play in any additional games thus receives a medical redshirt.
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 9:47 AM with the headline "Jayhawks begin Week Two of Boot Camp. It ‘has been successful,’ KU coach Bill Self says."
