KU Basketball All-Americans Show Super Hero Moves on the Cover ESPN The Magazine
Nov. 20, 2009
By Katie Cook, Media Relations Student Assistant
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas basketball pre-season All-American Sherron Collins, pre-season All-American Cole Aldrich and highly anticipated newcomer and high school All-American Xavier Henry got a chance to show their acrobatic skills on the cover of the November 16th issue of ESPN The Magazine (http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/magazine/index).
The cover features the three players in a dark gray box suspended in positions that can only be accomplished by superheroes, and the article details why this season Kansas has the opportunity to be a super-team. Also at the photo shoot was an ESPN Insider Web site video crew featuring a Kansas All-Access.
Aldrich is suspended in the air and looks as if he is flying, Collins is hanging over the bottom of the floor ready to pounce right off the cover and Henry is curled up into a tight ball with a serious grim on his face.
These super hero positions were created with ropes that were suspended from the ceiling and by standing on boxes that were later digitally removed. The players could climb and move in any position in any direction to create a magazine cover that fits the player’s somewhat quirky personalities.
The photographer’s goal of the shoot was to defy gravity and according to the article Kansas has the talent to defy the odds this year to go undefeated.
The team was pictured inside the article wearing humorous different colored sunglasses. The video gives viewers an up-close look at the player’s personalities and also shows their playful sides.
“Everyone is so fun to be around,” Aldrich said in the video.
The all-access video shows the KU team’s special handshakes, how they interact with each other and Collins comments that fight night video games is how the team builds chemistry.
“Thomas Robinson and Mario Little are always going back and forth at each other all day long, “sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor said in the video. “You crack on everybody and everyone gets it a little bit.”
“We are going to be special because we are so deep, we have bodies everywhere and we are talented as a whole team,” Henry said in the video. “I think we are going to go far.”
