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Kansas guard Russell Robinson was busy signing national championship items before playing in an exhibition game Saturday at Bishop Miege.
Sitting at one end of the table, senior guard Russell Robinson commented how sometimes it hits him on days like this that, “Wow, we actually did it.”
And so he continued signing his name to the myriad commemorative shirts, hats, pennants, etc., while embracing yet another opportunity to relive the Jayhawks’ first NCAA basketball title in 20 years.
“I’ll be reliving this thing the rest of my life,” Robinson said.
Sitting among the Kansas seniors — who had come to Bishop Miege as part of the Kansas Barnstormers tour — was Bishop Miege senior and KU recruit Travis Releford. Next to Sasha Kaun and two seats down from Robinson, Releford sat, dutifully adding his name to the same national championship items upon request.
Signing those items conjured different thoughts for Releford.
“There’s going to be a lot of pressure next year after them winning the national championship,” he said later.
After the autograph session, the Kansas fans filled nearly all of the bleachers in the Miege gymnasium to celebrate the Jayhawks’ outgoing seniors and catch a glimpse of part of the program’s future.
Releford didn’t set out to make himself the emphasis of the exhibition game. He flashed his potential a few times and unofficially settled for nine points while playing alongside fellow high school seniors from his own Miege team, as well as St. Thomas Aquinas and Bishop Ward.
The day was more about the outgoing Jayhawks.
For the fans, it was one more opportunity to see Kaun rattle the backboard with those familiar thunderous alley-oop dunks.
One more opportunity to see a Jeremy Case three-point-shooting barrage, Darnell Jackson launching deep threes of his own and that patented Case-to-Robinson alley-oop exchange.
OK, so there were a few new wrinkles in the Kansas playbook Saturday.
Robinson, Kaun, Jackson, Case, Brad Witherspoon and “coach” Rodrick Stewart led the Barnstormers to a 104-97 victory, so to speak.
The referees played along with the Barnstormers’ antics — such as when Robinson passed his uniform to a young kid in the crowd and let him score a basket. Or when Jackson passed the ball to one of the refs, who kept the possession alive by feeding it to another Kansas player. Even the injured Stewart got involved, firing an errant shot from his seat on the bench.
It wasn’t a game for defensive purists, but that’s not what it was about.
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