<table> </table> LAWRENCE | When he wasn&#8217;t around his son, Derek Page felt as if something was missing. So the father would find reasons to peek his head into Jamal Greene&#8217;s Kansas City, Kan., home. Usually, Page would take Greene, now a Kansas defensive tackle, straight to the mall.</p><p>&#8220;He always wanted Ninja Turtles,&#8221; Page says. &#8220;He loved Ninja Turtles and Superman, Spiderman, he always wanted some toys. That made him happy. It made me happy to see him happy.&#8221;</p><p>Page was 19 or 20 years old when Greene was born. He can&#8217;t remember exactly. He wasn&#8217;t going to marry Greene&#8217;s mother, but he was going to be there for his son. In fact, he would give the boy whatever he wanted.</p><p>&#8220;It was a joy,&#8221; Page says.</p><p>&#8226; &#8226; &#8226;</p><p>Jamal Greene, now a 20-year-old sophomore, is the father of two children from different mothers. Justice, an 11-month-old girl, lives in Kansas City, Kan., with her mother. Jamal Jr., a 3-month-old boy, is in Lawrence with Greene&#8217;s current girlfriend.</p><p>This is not what Greene had planned, but he learned from his father that he couldn&#8217;t run from it. He had to be there.</p><p>So while Greene is doing his best to replace James McClinton, one of the best defensive linemen in KU history, in the middle of the Jayhawks&#8217; defense, he is also learning every day how to be a dad.</p><p>Take Wednesday, for instance. Greene had class and practice, but he also had to find a babysitter for Jamal Jr. on short notice. He called his grandmother, Vivian Thrower, who obliged. Or, take the night two months ago when Jamal Jr. had a fever. Greene called his mother, Wyvonne Hill, in total panic mode.</p><p>&#8220;Mom,&#8221; Greene said, &#8220;What do I do? What do I do?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Calm down,&#8221; Hill said. &#8220;Calm down.&#8221;</p><p>Hill talked him through it.</p><p>&#8220;He was getting a slight cold,&#8221; Hill said, &#8220;so they undressed him, cooling his body off, and gave him children&#8217;s Advil. That brought his temperature down.&#8221;</p><p>Sure, there have been some scary times in the last year. But it&#8217;s been worth it for Greene.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a joy,&#8221; Greene says.</p><p>&#8226; &#8226; &#8226;</p><p>From the moment he was born, Jamal Greene was spoiled. Vivian Thrower insists it&#8217;s not the rotten kind, but it&#8217;s probably pretty close.</p><p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t have any boys,&#8221; says Thrower, Greene&#8217;s grandmother, &#8220;so he was my first boy. I gave him everything, you know. He was just my heart.&#8221;</p><p>You can tell by listening to Page, Hill and Thrower talk about Greene that he never grew up wanting for affection. At some point, he figured out they were all putty in his hands. Greene, always a big boy, would often run around the house with the specific purpose of leaving destruction in his wake. Sometimes, he would become his own casualty.</p><p>&#8220;Jamal was a rough little boy,&#8221; Hill says. &#8220;He was a spoiled brat.&#8221;</p><p>There&#8217;s that word again. Really, they just couldn&#8217;t help themselves. Hill encouraged Greene&#8217;s behavior by playing rough back with him and his little brother and sister.</p><p>&#8220;A typical day around here with me and the kids,&#8221; Hill says, &#8220;we&#8217;d have water-gun fights, we&#8217;d run through the house, we&#8217;d throw buckets of water on each other. We had fun.&#8221;</p><p>Greene&#8217;s parents eventually figured out that sports would be a good outlet for their hyper child. Plus, he was clearly gifted athletically. At Washington High School, Greene didn&#8217;t have to put out much effort to dominate the guy in front of him.