Amid all the “Lazy Sunday” remakes, “Seinfeld” outtakes and other YouTube wonders, a video features a high school player throwing a basketball off a backboard, leaping into the air, dreads flowing, and then dunking with his left hand, yes, his left.

Interested in watching it? Just type in Sherron Collins.

Back then, he was high school Sherron, a chiseled hunk of athleticism who could do whatever he wanted on a basketball court. Recently, the player from that video started to return. Collins is averaging 14.7 points a game in the last three games, and is one of the major reasons the Jayhawks are playing their best ball of the season as they prepare to play Nebraska in the Big 12 Tournament tonight at 6.

With Collins playing so well, Kansas coach Bill Self admitted the sophomore guard was close to being the player he thought he’d be at the beginning of the year. The key word there is “close.” Collins still isn’t the speedy kid with flowing dreadlocks who Anthony Longstreet, Collin’s high school coach, remembers from Crane Tech High School.

“Kansas,” Longstreet said, “still hasn’t seen how fast as he is.”

One could say Collins was quick in high school. He made varsity as a freshman, once scored 45 points against Young High School and developed the best first step in the city. Collins dribbled, drove and at 5-foot-11, dunked with ease.

“He was the best I’ve ever coached,” Longstreet said.

Sometime between that YouTube dunk in the McDonald’s All-American game in March 2006 and his first game at Kansas that fall, Collins changed, and Jayhawk fans still haven’t gotten to see high school Sherron.

His weight ballooned from 185 pounds in high school to about 225 the summer before his freshman year in college. Collins shed enough of the excess baggage to average 11.3 points a game in league play and star in a few midseason conference games. But by the end of year, his play tailed off largely because his weight went back up.

Injuries ruined the early part of this year for Collins. It started with a stress fracture during the second game of the season. He wore a pink cast for a couple of weeks and didn’t return until mid-December. Then he had a sprained ankle, a screw placed in his foot, knee problems and a chipped bone in his ankle.

“I chipped a little piece off,” Collins said. “It went away in about two weeks.”

That toughness kept him on the court through all the injuries since December, but his performance lagged. He couldn’t zoom down the court or penetrate in the lane like he used to or thought he could.

“My mind would tell me I could do it,” Collins said, “and my body would be like ‘nah.’”

He played arguably the worst game of the season against Oklahoma State three weeks ago, attempting just one field goal in 11 minutes. His knee bothered him that game. Self called him a shell of what he used to be.

Afterwards, Collins really started to get frustrated. He’d stayed positive all season, barking orders at teammates when he had to sit and laughing when roommate, sophomore guard Brady Morningstar, or coaches made fun of his cast. But this one hurt.

Fortunately for Collins, a few days later something clicked. He can’t remember exactly when or how it happened, but his body just started feeling good. His numbers went up, culminating in a 13-point, seven-assist performance against Texas A&M, and with them so did the team’s play. Kansas has blown out its last four opponents after losing two of three before the streak.

“That’s what we’ve been missing the entire year,” Self said about Collins, “someone that explosive who can change the game.”

Collins said he was about 90 percent back from the injuries. He is still not where he wants to be, still not able to dunk in games and still not at the level Longstreet saw two years ago in Chicago. But Longstreet said Collins was getting closer. He watched the entire Kansas State game and liked what he saw.

With the NCAA tournament approaching, Longstreet hopes Collins can continue to progress with his health and fitness level. His energy off the bench will be crucial for the Jayhawks to make a deep NCAA Tournament run.

Collins knows how to perform as a sixth man in big games since high school, from when he came off the bench as a freshman on a team that had five seniors. During the championship game of a Christmas tournament that season, he stole the ball and got trapped by two opponents. Collins broke through then ran into another defender.

“He did an Earl the Pearl spin move and got by him,” Longstreet said.

Immediately after, Collins spun the other direction to evade another defender before finally making a layup on the other end. His play helped rally his team from a 10-point deficit.

That was high school Sherron. It could be what Kansas fans see this March, but the stakes will be higher, and Collins’ heroics could be even more impressive.

“When he gets to 100 percent,” Longstreet said, “he’ll be even quicker than he was in high school.”

—Edited by Russell Davies