KU basketball’s boot camp concluded Friday morning: ‘It was a hard but very good week’

Bill Self’s 21st annual Kansas basketball Boot Camp ended early Friday morning with the Jayhawks’ coach pleased with the effort of his 2023-24 team.

The five-day camp, which consisted of an hour’s worth of player conditioning drills from 6:50 a.m. until about 8 a.m. Monday through Friday, lasted one week instead of the usual one and a half to two weeks in response to the Jayhawks having participated in such an active summer-school session.

KU coach Self conducted 10 official practices prior to the team’s week-long trip to Puerto Rico in August. The Jayhawks played three games in San Juan. Before the trip, the Jayhawks players also worked with coaches/trainers up to eight hours a week from June through July, in accordance with NCAA summer school rules.

“Boot Camp has gone great. We finished up today. (It was) only one week since practice starts next week,” Self told The Star Friday in a text message, referring to Monday’s official start of the 2023-24 season.

The Jayhawks this year will practice several times before their first appearance before the public. That will come during an intrasquad scrimmage at the Oct. 6 Late Night in the Phog event at Allen Fieldhouse.

“All the players were good. Kevin (McCullar) probably stood out the most. It was a hard but very good week,” Self said.

Boot Camp conditioning consisted of an hour’s worth of non-stop sprints, backboard touches, defensive slides and rope-jumping — with no basketballs in sight.

The Jayhawks have a batch of newcomers who made their Boot Camp debuts: scholarship players Parker Braun, Hunter Dickinson, Johnny Furphy, Elmarko Jackson, Jamari McDowell and Nick Timberlake, plus walk-ons Justin Cross, Chris Carter and Patrick Cassidy. Cassidy worked the last three Boot Camps as a manager. This was his first as a member of the team.

Jackson, a 6-3 guard from Marlton, New Jersey, did not attend Friday’s session. KU coach Self said he went home Thursday for a relative’s memorial service. And newcomer Arterio Morris did not take part because he’s suspended from the program indefinitely.

A video of McCullar running sprints at Boot Camp is available on the KU team’s X social-media account.

“All did well,” Self told The Star when asked specifically about the new players. “They got stronger as the week went on. Hunter killed it,” he added in applauding Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson.