It starts with a pass.

A smooth, quick flick of the wrist sends the ball in the general direction of the backboard.

The ball rotates slowly in the air, leaving watchful fans in a trance and rendering grounded defenders helpless. It seems to float as if there is no gravity until it finally connects, mid-air, with the hands of another player at the apex of his leap.

It ends with a bang.

Sound familiar? Well, it should. That play is the alley-oop, and Kansas routinely throws a few of them every game.

“We may get one or two from a set,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “The way we play we try to give ourselves a chance to throw them if certain things are open.”

Against Missouri last Saturday, those “certain things” were open a lot. Kansas completed six alley-oops. At one point in the second half, the Jayhawks scored on alley-oops three out of four times down the court.

Sophomore forward Julian Wright was on the receiving end of half of the six, including one where he slammed it home with one hand.

“A lot of people go for one hand,” he said. “You can go for one hand if you’re wide open.”

Wright may have turned the alley-oop into an art form, but he didn’t invent it.

The origins of the play can be traced back to the mid-1970s. According to www.NBA.com, North Carolina State was the first team to regularly execute the alley-oop.

The Wolfpack had one of the game’s best leapers on their team: David “Skywalker” Thompson. In order to utilize Thompson’s 48-inch vertical leap, they had to discover a way to get him an easy shot without dunking the ball (dunking was illegal back then). Thus, the alley-oop was born. NC State guards lobbed the ball high in the air to Thompson, who soared over his overmatched opponents and dropped the ball in the hoop, mid-air. Most oops end with dunks rather than layups.

The Jayhawks and Thompson and the Wolfpack are successful at alley-oops for the same reason. When it comes to high-flying, it’s all about the athleticism, baby.

“We have a lot of athletic guys,” freshman Sherron Collins said.

“We just have athleticism,” Wright said.

Wright, sophomore guard Brandon Rush, freshman forward Darrell Arthur and junior forward Darnell Jackson can run quickly enough in transition to beat their opponents to the basket for alley-oop opportunities. Plus, nearly everyone on the team has the athleticism to rise high enough to grab the ball when it’s next to the hoop. Even Collins, who is 5 feet 11 inches, can dunk. He threw an alley-oop to himself off the backboard in last year’s McDonald’s All-American game.

The Jayhawks have as many players capable of throwing the lob pass as those who can finish it. It’s not out of the ordinary to see junior center Sasha Kaun pinpoint a pass to another big man.

That said, throwing an alley-oop is not easy. It requires a perfectly timed and placed pass. In a halfcourt set, the passer has to be able to see the play developing amidst action from the other nine players on the court. In transition, the passer has to be able to dribble past defenders speedily and heave the ball in mid-run. The best thing to do in either situation is place the ball near the rim.

“I don’t worry about throwing it hard or soft,” Collins said. “I just throw it anywhere and they get it.”

The receiver’s job is a little bit tougher than the passer’s. In the half-court set, they have to create separation from their defender, usually by going back door or with the help of a screen. In transition, they have to beat the entire defense down the floor.

Then comes the really tricky part. Basketball players have a harder task than wide receivers when it comes to snaring lobs. They often collide with other bodies in mid-air while trying to finish the alley-oop. Wright did this to perfection against Missouri. He finished two alley-oops while being fouled.

“It’s pretty hard,” he said. “You just have to be focused once you catch the ball. You don’t always have to dunk it. Sometimes you just have to catch and hold onto the ball.”

A well-executed alley-oop can double a team’s momentum. It demoralizes the opponent and enlivens the crowd.

Wright especially likes to do the special plays for the fans, but he knows the real purpose of any alley-oop.

“You have to finish the ball,” he said. “That’s the main thing. Don’t worry if the crowd will go ‘ooh-aah.’ If you have a chance to make the basket, make the basket.”

Kansan sportswriter Mark Dent can be contacted at mdent@kansan.com.

— Edited by Will McCullough