INDIANAPOLIS -- Kansas is having its own mini-camp at the five-day Nike All-American Camp, a clear sign the Jayhawks' 2003 national title hopes begin here in July, not just in Lawrence in October when the full team gathers for the first day of official practice.

Sprinkled among some of the best high school prospects in the country, four potential Kansas starters are working as camp counselors. But their real work this week is hardly voluntary. Rising senior Nick Collison and rising sophomores Wayne Simien, Aaron Miles and Keith Langford are going through a morning and evening session of individual shooting (for everyone) and low-post (for the forwards) drills in addition to getting at least one big-time run of a game a day against other college stars and counselors like Oregon's Luke Jackson and Luke Ridnour and Cincinnati's Jason Maxiell and Xavier's David West.

	While his teammates gathered in Indy, Kirk Hinrich stayed in Lawrence to get ahead in the classroom.

The Nike camp traditionally has better college camp counselors than the adidas camp in New Jersey this week. One NBA scout said there could be as many as 18 potential NBA players working the camp as counselors, including other prominent names to know in 2002-03 like Notre Dame's Chris Thomas, Connecticut's Emeka Okafor, Illinois' Brian Cook, Oklahoma's Ebi Ere, Arizona's Channing Frye and Jason Gardner, Missouri's Ricky Paulding, St. John's Marcus Hatten, Colorado's David Harrison and Georgia State's LaMont McIntosh.

But Nike camp director George Raveling said the camp has never had four players from the same team working together as counselors.

And it could have been five, if perhaps the best returning Jayhawk -- rising senior guard Kirk Hinrich -- decided to come to Indianapolis. Instead, Hinrich is back in Kansas finishing up summer school so he'll be on target to graduate in the spring of 2003. He'll head to Michael Jordan's camp in Santa Barbara, Calif., later this month.

"Any time you have your players together playing basketball in a concentrated period of time it's going to be a benefit," said Kansas coach Roy Williams, who probably got more out of watching his players during the noon workouts Monday than evaluating potential Nike high school prospects. "These guys are getting great instruction and great competition. It's a win-win-win situation."

Williams isn't just spinning this for his interest. He's exactly right, especially in regards to the players simply being together. The quartet's camaraderie is evident when they sit down to talk about the game they just played on the court, helping each other out with a screen for a shot or a defensive adjustment by letting the teammate know that a pick is coming.

"I already know my team really well, but coming here really helps me know my players even more," said Miles, who will be the primary point guard for the Jayhawks next season, freeing up Hinrich even more on the offensive end. "We're just so much more confident and we're playing real well together."

The Jayhawks, like their Big 12 neighbors and fellow 2002 Final Four participants Oklahoma, could actually be as good next season despite losing their primary players. The Sooners lost inside leader Aaron McGhee. The Jayhawks said goodbye to Big 12 player of the year Drew Gooden, the No. 4 pick in the NBA draft. But in the case of Kansas, losing Gooden's double-double every night doens't necessarily mean it'll drop down a notch -- not if the three rising sophomores continue to improve and Collison and Hinrich elevate their games to the status Gooden held throughout the Big 12 and NCAA Tournament.

"The biggest jump players make is from freshman to sophomore year," Collison said of his teammates. "Wayne is looking great here in the individual stuff around the basket. Keith has gotten stronger and Aaron is shooting the ball more consistently. Without Jeff (Boschee) we'll need more outside shooting. But these three players are more comfortable. Every freshman hits a wall and ends up not feeling as good about their game."

But it was the contributions of Miles at the point, Langford on the wing and Simien inside that helped the Jayhawks get past Illinois and Oregon and out of the West Regional and into the Final Four this past March. The minutes and numbers for Simien (15.2 mpg, 8.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg), Langford (20.9 mpg, 7.9 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 26.8 on 3s) and Miles (27.5 mpg, 7.1 ppg, 6.8 apg) should increase next season.

"I always think that freshman players, even if they're good, make it on ability their first year," Williams said. "By their sophomore year they're more comfortable. These players will have the normal big jump and it has to happen because they're going to be in the starting lineup."

And the numbers put up by Collison (26.8 mpg, 15.6 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and Hinrich (30.9 mpg, 14.8 ppg, 5 apg) are all but a lock to increase in their senior seasons. Collison is the only college player on the U.S. World Championship roster. He's an alternate and will be at the practice sessions. But the 6-9 power forward could be on the roster when the tournament begins here in Indianapolis in late August.

	“	Money talks. (Collison and Hinrich) had the opportunity to leave. But they have a lot of fun on our team, and if our team wasn't so close, then they probably wouldn't have stayed. ”
		— Aaron Miles, Kansas rising sophomore guard

"Nobody in the NCAA can stop him at his position," Langford said of Collison. "It's going to help us that he's on that team."

But, nobody on the 2002-03 Jayhawks is or will be as revered as the absent Hinrich.

Like Collison, Hinrich is a first-round lock in the 2003 NBA draft, but the buzz has already started that he could move up into the lottery and even possibly the top five because of his versatility. Hinrich is as quick as any guard in the nation and is as complete a player as they come in the college game. He's quick out on the break, can handle, drive and shoot off one-touch pass. He's got the hops to flush a dunk on the break or on a drive or an alley oop. He's a selective, but effective, 3-point shooter (48 percent; 67 of 139) and has the long arms to pick up plenty of steals (58 in 2001-02).

"There won't be a guard who can touch him," Langford said.

"He's as good as any guard here (as a counselor)," Collison said.

"He's lottery, no question," Langford added.

"Kirk has improved like crazy," Collison chimes in. "Every year we play the former Kansas players on the last day of coach's camp, guys like Jacque Vaughn and Billy Thomas. I couldn't play because I had tweaked my shoulder, but we won by 30 and Kirk had to have had 30 or 40 points."

Williams said the reverence the players are showing Hinrich comes as no surprise. When he held exit interviews with the players shortly after Kansas' heartbreaking loss to Maryland in the national semifinals, to a man they said Hinrich was the toughest competitor and the hardest worker.

Like Collison, Hinrich could have bolted to the league with Gooden. The two would have been chosen in the first round. But the seniors-to-be chose to go for another title, graduate and be assured they'll be in the lottery -- facts that aren't lost on their appreciative teammates.

"Money talks and they had the opportunity to leave," Miles said. "But they have a lot of fun on our team, and if our team wasn't so close, then they probably wouldn't have stayed."

The underclassmen respect Collison and Hinrich so much that they're grateful they don't have to be the stars just yet. But getting back to the Final Four isn't lost on this youthful crew.

"Our hunger and drive is more intense this summer," Simien said. "We want to get back there."

"Our No. 1 goal is the national championship," Collison said. "There's no reason why we can't get there. We're confident and we've got the bunch to win it. We've got the experience and now all we have to do is play."

And, playing in Indy today could mean playing in New Orleans come March.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.