Kansas making pre-season tour to Canada

The Lawrence Journal-World is reporting that the Kansas Jayhawks "likely will be touring either Toronto or Ottawa" when they make a foreign trip on Labour Day weekend of next year.

Coach Bill Self's Jayhawks are 11-0 this season and have risen to a No. 3 ranking in the NCAA. Their top four scorers so far this season could all potentially return next season, including 6-foot-9, 225-lb. sophomore forward Darrell Arthur, who is generating some NBA buzz. Going off his averages of 13.2 points and 5.7 rebounds, Arthur sounds like the type of big man who would need another year of work on his game before he declares for the draft.

Granted, for NCAA schools the foreign trips are mostly for their freshmen and sophomores or to try a player out at another position in a game environment. Self stressed that his 2008-09 team will "be as young as a team can be." Still, it's a kick for Canadian hoopophiles to learn that such a storied program is coming north, especially if the Jayhawks end up making a run in the NCAA Tournament come March.

A little bit of trivia: If the Jayhawks play Carleton, it would be the second year in a row the Ravens host a team with a past winner of the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player on its coaching staff. Danny Manning, the 1988 MOP, is an assistant at Kansas. Ed Pinckney, who won in '85, coaches with the Villanova Wildcats, who visited the nation's capital this year.
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