Jayhawks share basketball experience
Big men Sasha Kaun and Darnell Jackson played point guard and Jeremy Case was one of the stars of the show.
It was hardly business as usual for the Kansas University basketball players, but it hardly mattered to the hundred or so campers who filled two Kaw Valley League gymnasiums recently and spent their days with full-mouthed smiles.
The KU stars hit the floor June 4 and 5 at Basehor-Linwood High School to help Washburn University coach Bob Chipman run one of seven basketball camps around the state for athletes ages 7 to 17.
“You really can’t imagine playing against KU players,” Basehor-Linwood High School sophomore Dylan Belt said during one of the camp’s scrimmages. “It’s a dream.”
Over the past few weeks, Chipman has played host to camps in Basehor, Wichita and Blue Valley. He’ll wrap up the summer camp session later this month in Ulysses.
He said he chose BLHS for this week’s camp because the school offered great facilities and was a central location for a vast area of basketball fans.
“This seems to be a great location for us to reach a lot of kids in the area,” Chipman said. “Plus, using the KU players, we look for places that are close and easy for them to get to. Their time is precious.”
In addition to Kaun, Jackson and Case, who handled the June 4 session, Jayhawks Russell Robinson and Darrell Arthur were on hand June 5 to help Chipman run drills and scrimmages.
KU women’s player Danielle McCray also joined the June 4 session.
As each drill was unfolding at one of the dozen or so baskets used by the 107 campers, Chipman walked to each station and offered detailed instructions about what the campers were doing right and what they could do better.
“It’s been a lot of fun working with Coach Chipman,” Case said. “Listening to another coach give instructions is great because he says a lot of the same things as (KU) Coach (Bill) Self.”
Kaun and Jackson were able to do things on the floor they rarely did with the Jayhawks. Three-pointers, drives to the basket and behind-the-back passes were the order of the day for the two KU big men, and the overall skill sets of all the players impressed everyone in the gym.
“The one thing we were talking about was how athletic these guys are in person,” BLHS girls basketball coach Noah Simpson said. “Jeremy Case is one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen, and Danielle McCray is one of the most competitive people we’ve