Tyrone Appleton will be in his home state, Indiana, for the second time in the past six days when Kansas arrives Wednesday in Indianapolis.

But the circumstances of the two visits couldn’t be much different. The Jayhawks will arrive in Indianapolis, just more than two hours away from Appleton’s hometown, Gary, to begin preparing for their Sweet Sixteen game against Michigan State on Friday.

“It’s a blessing,” Appleton, a junior guard, said.

And the reasons go far beyond basketball. Last Friday, after Kansas’ 84-74 victory against North Dakota State in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Appleton flew home to Gary to attend a funeral.

One of his closest friends since childhood, Dennis Williams, was shot and killed earlier in the week.

“It does put a perspective on everything,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “Because basketball is important and why we’re all here and all that stuff, but it is certainly not life or death.”

Appleton said he spoke with Williams — who was also the cousin of incoming recruit Elijah Johnson — on the phone an hour before his murder.

“He told me, ‘No matter what, whenever I got out there to just do my best,’” Appleton said. “He’s always going to be on my mind when I’m playing basketball.”

Williams repeated that same message to Appleton every time they talked. Appleton hadn’t enjoyed an easy year to begin with.

Appleton committed to Kansas out of Midland Community College, where he won a junior college national championship as a freshman, and expected to make an immediate impact. It hasn’t worked out.

Appleton averages only two minutes per game and didn’t appear in 13 of Kansas’ 32 regular season games. Back in Gary, some of Appleton’s friends couldn’t help but ask why.

“Everyone wonders what’s going on because I was highly recruited out of juco,” Appleton said. “But I tell everybody I’m new to it, too. Just like a freshman.”

Despite Appleton’s disappointment, he was never negative. Appleton said he never considered leaving Kansas and was fully committed to the program.

Part of his positive outlook came from telephone conversations with people such as Williams. Now, Appleton has to deal with knowing he’ll never have one of those again.

“It’s a hard situation for me,” Appleton said.

But something weird happened at Williams’ funeral the day before Kansas’ second-round game against Dayton. People kept coming up to Appleton. They wanted to talk about the Jayhawks.

They told Appleton to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Get to Indianapolis. That way, they could all go watch him perform on one of college basketball’s grandest stages. It would help the healing process.

Well, Kansas beat Dayton 60-43. Now, Appleton needs a few extra tickets.

“We’re going back to my home,” Appleton said. “It’s going to be real exciting.”

The most exciting part? Appleton even has a chance to contribute for the Jayhawks. In their first-round victory against North Dakota State, Appleton tied a season-high by playing six minutes.

These weren’t meaningless minutes, either. Self watched as North Dakota State guard Ben Woodside dominated the first three Jayhawks to defend him in the first half.

“Let’s put some guys in there who give us the best chance to get some stops,” Self said he thought to himself.

Self looked down to the end of the bench and called on Appleton in the middle of the first half. Appleton thought he heard Self wrong.

But when Self repeated himself, Appleton ripped off his warm-up suit and sprinted to the scorer’s table.

Although no one stopped Woodside that day — he scored 37 points, third most against Kansas in NCAA tournament history — Appleton did arguably the best job containing him. Self praised Appleton’s defensive effort after the game.

“That’s what he does,” Self said. “If he just focuses in on that then he can be really effective.”

There’s no guarantee Appleton will play a similar role against Michigan State, but the Spartans’ personnel suggests that he might. Their leading scorer is sophomore guard Kalin Lucas, who was the Big Ten Player of the Year and averages 15 points per game.

Appleton guarded Lucas for a stretch when Michigan State beat Kansas 75-62 earlier in the season. If the rest of the Jayhawks struggle to match up with Lucas, don’t be surprised if Self subs in Appleton.

Whether Appleton plays or not, he’ll have someone on his mind: Dennis Williams.

“Always,” Appleton said.

— — Edited by Jesse Trimble