When the United Center was mentioned to the Jayhawk players, they all thought of the same thing: Michael Jordan.

Kansas will take its turn in the famed Chicago arena on Friday night when it begins the NCAA tournament at 6:10 p.m.

Two Jayhawks already have experience in the arena. Freshman guard Sherron Collins and sophomore forward Julian Wright both grew up in Chicago, where they played during high school.

“It’s fun playing there,” Collins said. “Michael Jordan played there, so when I make a shot, I think, ‘Michael Jordan made a shot from here.’”

Collins has only fond memories. His team played three games there, and left with victories in all three. Wright didn’t fare quite as well. During his junior year, his high school team won at the United Center to advance to the state tournament. His senior year, the team lost its super-sectional game at the arena.

Both players said the main adjustment would be to the size of the arena. It is much larger than Allen Fieldhouse.

“It has a feel like an NBA floor,” Collins said. “But once the game starts, you just concentrate on that.”

It won’t be the first time this season that the two have returned home. In early December, the Jayhawks lost to DePaul 64-57 at the Allstate Arena. Since then, Collins has been given a major role in the offense, and Wright has taken his numbers to superstar levels.

Coach Bill Self said that he was glad the players weren’t having their first home game during the tournament, because now they knew what to expect from family members and friends trying to contact them.

“There are a lot of distractions you deal with, whether it be tickets, seeing people, people calling wanting tickets or people disappointed because you can’t get them tickets,” he said. “That is going to happen this week. Sherron and Julian won’t be able to get tickets for everybody, so there will probably be people mad at them for that.”

Wright said he was going to decide who was on his ticket list by today so it wouldn’t be a distraction to him for the rest of the week.

“My family will always come first,” he said. “It’s not that bad, really. A lot of people are understanding.”

Chicago is also familiar territory for Self. He coached at the University of Illinois before moving to Kansas.

Self won’t have to worry too much about receiving a hostile welcome, because the Illini are playing this weekend in Ohio. He’s not anticipating a lot of demands on his time this weekend.

“I doubt it,” he said. “Believe it or not, there were some people who were quite upset with me when I left Illinois. There won’t be a lot of people calling for tickets.”

Kansan senior sportswriter Michael Phillips can be contacted at mphillips@kansan.com.

— Edited by Stacey Couch