The Kansas men’s basketball team began on Tuesday morning its annual boot camp, the intense fall conditioning regimen that helps prepare players for the season ahead.
Boot camp, which typically continues for up to two weeks, although it spanned just one week last year, is a tradition that dates back to coach Bill Self’s first head coaching job at Oral Roberts.
The rationale behind it, as he explained in a video introducing last year’s edition of boot camp, is to provide players with an experience so challenging that the various on-court obstacles his team will face going forward seem easier by comparison.
While this year’s Jayhawks are a veteran team, many of those veterans are nevertheless new to KU. Among KU’s scholarship players, KJ Adams, Zach Clemence, Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris Jr. and Jamari McDowell have experienced at least one iteration of boot camp, while Flory Bidunga, David Coit, Rylan Griffen, Zeke Mayo, Rakease Passmore and AJ Storr are going through the rigorous program for the first time.
Returner Elmarko Jackson and incoming transfer Shakeel Moore are currently injured, with Jackson undergoing a yearlong recovery process and Moore slated to miss six to eight weeks of action.
The KU basketball team posted a brief video on social media featuring the “sights and sounds” of the first day of camp that briefly highlights newcomers Bidunga, Coit, Mayo, Passmore and Storr.
The Jayhawks open their season at Allen Fieldhouse on Nov. 4 against Howard. Late Night in the Phog is set for Oct. 18.
Journal-World file photo
