Courtney Kuhlen

Mike Lee, senior guard, answers a question about the team making up for Keith Langford’s absence at yesterday’s press conference in Oklahoma City. Lee, junior forward Christian Moody and junior guard Jeff Hawkins answered questions about tonight’s match-up against Bucknell

OKLAHOMA CITY — If Kansas’ locker room was any indication of the Jayhawks’ attitude going into tomorrow’s first-round game against Bucknell, the Jayhawks will be loose, excited and anxious.

After their 6 p.m. practice yesterday — it was more like a shoot-around — the Jayhawks headed to the locker room to change clothes and talk to the media, although most of the time was spent goofing around.

Sophomore guard J.R. Giddens couldn’t stop laughing while he

was being interviewed by reporters because on one side of him, freshmen forward Alex Galindo and freshman guard Russell Robinson were pinching his feet. On the other side, his roommate, sophomore guard Jeremy Case, was dancing to a song playing on his iPod.

The Jayhawks were clearly having fun.

Junior forward Moulaye Niang gave one of the earpieces on his headphones to sophomore guard Nick Bahe. Soon after, the two were up dancing around the locker room, still sharing a set of headphones. It’s quite a site to see a 6-foot-10 man share headphones with a 6-foot-2 man while dancing around a crowded locker room. It made all of the players around roar with laughter.

Slightly more calm and reserved than the underclassmen were senior forward Wayne Simien and senior guard Aaron Miles. After finishing his interviews, Simien sat in the back corner of the locker room and read a book. Aaron Miles just smiled. He had a look on his face that said it all.

“We are anxious,” Miles said as a big grin crossed his face. “It’s our last chance. It’s our last opportunity to accomplish a goal that we set when we got here.”

Giddens said he might be more anxious tomorrow.

“We’re going to want to play,” Giddens said. “You see a lot of teams losing, and we’re not ready to do that.”

The Jayhawks will start their journey into the NCAA Tournament tonight when they face Bucknell at 8:40 p.m. in the Ford Center, which is where a large number of Kansas fans gathered yesterday to watch the Jayhawks’ 6 p.m. practice.

Kansas held its final full practice before the Bucknell game at noon yesterday at Oklahoma City University. It lasted about two hours and was closed to the public. After practice the team visited the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.

The players arrived at the Ford Center at 5:30 p.m. for their 6 p.m. shoot-around.

About 5 minutes before it was scheduled to start, a loud stomping sound filled the otherwise quiet Ford Center. Children wearing their Jayhawk gear suddenly stormed through bleachers, thundering echoes through the arena. They all carried sharpies and pieces of memorabilia in hand.

They were waiting for the Jayhawks to arrive for the shoot-around. The problem was, they were all crowding around the wrong tunnel.

When they found out the Jayhawks would enter at the other end of the gym, they pushed and shoved their way across the arena.

Loud cheers erupted from the fans when the Jayhawks, wearing their blue practice uniforms, took the court. They got even louder when Keith Langford came out, dressed in full practice attire.

Langford practiced yesterday in the Jayhawks’ closed noon practice at Oklahoma City University. After the shoot-around, Langford said he would try to play tonight if the training staff cleared him.

“With the training staff, there are still some questions, but if you ask me then I will go,” Langford said.

He said he suffered a setback Wednesday with the flu-like sickness that has been bothering him for a week.

Kansas coach Bill Self said Langford would have an input into the decision to play tomorrow, but it would be up to the coaching staff to decide how much to play him. Self was optimistic about Langford’s condition saying that he was feeling much better than he did Wednesday.

“Well, Wednesday he was zero percent, so I would say he is feeling much better today,” Self said.

During the shoot-around, the Jayhawks did some passing, shooting and full-court drills, but did not do a full speed workout.

Junior guard Jeff Hawkins got a charley horse in his left thigh and had to be attended to by the trainer. After the shoot-around, he said that he felt fine.

The Jayhawks spent the last 18 minutes of practice putting on a dunk show for the fans. Oklahoma City native and freshman forward Darnell Jackson slammed a 180-degree dunk and received an ovation from the audience.

The Jayhawks headed back to their hotel 20 minutes north of downtown at about 7:45 last night.

Senior guard Mike Lee said it might be a rough night of sleep.

“We’ll all probably loose a little sleep tonight because everyone on this team is excited,” Lee said. “We’re just excited to get it started. It’s tourney time.”