The Gateway District construction project at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium not only affects KU’s football team on a home game day, but the men’s basketball squad as well.
KU’s hoops program not always, but quite often, brings a high school basketball prospect or two to Lawrence on a home football weekend. Typically, the recruits, after observing a practice, head to the stadium to watch a KU football game in the student section as part of the full official campus visit experience.
KU this season has two home football games scheduled at Children’s Mercy Park and four at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in response to the stadium renovation in Lawrence.
KU basketball coach Bill Self hasn’t changed his recruiting strategy for this school year. The current Jayhawk players are still bringing recruits who happen to be in town on official visits to the football games in Kansas City, even though the experience is a bit different from a game on KU’s campus.
“We took our visitors (Eric Reibe, London Jemison) last week to Children’s Mercy ( for the KU-Lindenwood game ). I’m sure we’ll do the same this week,” KU coach Bill Self said in an interview with The Star on Monday. He did not mention any prospects by name in accordance with NCAA rules.
“Since we are hosting a home event, yes, they (recruits) can go. The 30-mile (rule) doesn’t affect us if they want to go to the football game,” Self added.
The NCAA has a rule that forbids college coaches and/or players from taking a prospect more than 30 miles from campus for entertainment purposes. Both Children’s Mercy Park and Arrowhead are more than 30 miles from KU. The NCAA will not enforce that rule in this particular instance, since the KC games are official home games for the Jayhawks.
“It makes for a much longer day. Arrowhead definitely adds at least a couple hours to your day. It’s fine. It’s no big deal,” Self said of driving to KC and back for one season’s worth of football games, the trade-off being a renovated football stadium to be available for use in August, 2025.
Prospect Sebastian Williams-Adams, a 6-foot-7, 235-pound senior small forward from Houston who is making an official recruiting visit to KU this weekend, is expected to attend Friday’s football game against UNLV , set for a 6 p.m. start at Children’s Mercy Park.
“Football does more for our university, more financially for our athletic department and enthusiasm on campus in the fall,” Self said recently as a guest on Seth Davis’ Bleacher Report podcast.
“As far as helping basketball recruit, I still think there are a few other things in our lineup bigger than that. The games add excitement and energy. For football it is the same thing. The kids they bring in go to our games and it all adds to a good time. The good times (watching another sport’s athletes play a game) do not weigh as much as some other factors involving recruiting. I don’t know the top players in the country are going to say, ‘I want to go to Kansas; their football team is having success.’ Lance (Leipold, KU football coach) and his staff do a great job. It does help us with energy.”
Self is a big supporter of KU football. He has a suite at Memorial Stadium and has attended most of KU’s home games in his 22 seasons in Lawrence.
“It’s fantastic,” he said of the KU football program in a recent interview.
Leipold, who took over a program that struggled for many years, is 18-22 in four years at KU with appearances in two straight bowl games.
“Who would have thought in this short amount of time that we’d be in a position we’re in from a football standpoint? Travis (Goff, AD) deserves a lot of credit for getting the right guy. Lance deserves a lot of credit for putting together the right staff and reaching the kids, getting them to believe they are good enough, (saying), ‘If we do things right, we are good enough to beat people,’’’ Self said.
“The players deserve the lion’s share of the credit because as well as Lance coaches them and put them in the right place, those kids have got to execute, do what he wants them to do. It looks to me from afar they are putting themselves in the best position to win every Saturday.”
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