JERSEY CITY, N.J. | In his visits with recruits, Bill Self normally does most of the talking. But in this case, Tyshawn Taylor had to speak up.</p><p>They were discussing the East Coast players who had already signed with Kansas in the 2008 recruiting class: Quintrell Thomas of Newark, N.J., and the Morris twins, Marcus and Markieff, of Philadelphia. Taylor had played against all three, but when his team played the twins&#8217; team one summer, a scuffle had broken out.</p><p>&#8220;These twins, they&#8217;re rough guys,&#8221; Taylor warned Self.</p><p>&#8220;Yeah,&#8221; Self responded, &#8220;but that&#8217;s good when you&#8217;re on the same team.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re right,&#8221; Taylor reconsidered. &#8220;It is different.&#8221;</p><p>In 15 years at Kansas, Roy Williams brought in one East Coast player, and here was Self, trying to sign four in one year. Anyone who has seen Self work a living room will say he is a great salesman, but even for him, extracting a fourth player from just off the Jersey Turnpike seemed a bit extravagant.</p><p>Taylor had plenty of questions about leaving home for a place like Kansas. Most important, would he be bored out of his mind?</p><p>He was a city guy, fast-talking, fast-moving and ever-tied to his cell phone. Georgia Tech was after him, which meant Atlanta. He had been committed to Marquette, which meant Milwaukee. But, then again, Thomas had chosen KU over Maryland and UNLV, and the twins picked the Jayhawks over hometown Villanova. The peer pressure was being applied.</p><p>&#8220;Once you go on a visit,&#8221; Thomas told Taylor, &#8220;you can&#8217;t not go.&#8221;</p><p>Taylor, sitting in the food court of a shopping mall just across the Holland Tunnel from Manhattan, fiddles with his cell phone. He still can&#8217;t believe it&#8217;s happening, two kids from Jersey and two kids from Philly moving to Lawrence, Kan.</p><p>&#8220;This is a story,&#8221; he says.</p><p>Fittingly, the story begins with a Jersey boy.</p><p>&#8226;&#8226;&#8226;</p><p>Kansas hadn&#8217;t entirely disappeared from East Coast consciousness under Williams, but the Jayhawks weren&#8217;t trying to make inroads, either. They had switched their focus to California and to herding in the homegrown talent from the Heartland.</p><p>To get back in the game out East, Self needed someone with real connections to the area. Enter KU assistant coach Joe Dooley, who grew up in West Orange, N.J., and played at St. Benedict&#8217;s in Newark, where he once set the school record for career points.</p><p>If that wasn&#8217;t enough of a connection, longtime St. Anthony&#8217;s (Jersey City, N.J.) coach Bob Hurley coached against a teenage Dooley, and St. Patrick&#8217;s (Elizabeth, N.J.) coach Kevin Boyle has known Dooley for many years.</p><p>No matter where he&#8217;s been, Dooley has cultivated his relationships back home.</p><p>&#8220;Dools is a Jersey guy,&#8221; says Dan Hurley, son of Bob, brother of former Duke star Bobby and the coach at St. Benedict&#8217;s. &#8220;People trust him. There&#8217;s a certain language that people speak here. People don&#8217;t have a whole lot of time for B.S., and people speak pretty freely and honestly. Joe is very upfront.&#8221;</p><p>The 2008 recruiting class would be critical for the Jayhawks, who would lose five seniors and probably seven or eight scholarship players. Dooley first laid eyes on Thomas, a 6-foot-8 power forward from St. Patrick&#8217;s, in April 2007. The Jayhawks caught wind of Taylor, a 6-3 guard from St. Anthony&#8217;s, in July.</p><p>Both Thomas and Taylor were considered &#8220;late bloomers,&#8221; and it would be Dooley&#8217;s job to make sure they would finish blooming in Kansas. Dooley spent much of July in his native state, planting the seeds.