THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY OCTOBER 13, 2008
BASKETBALL PREVIEW
3C
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Fans hold a special place in their heart for Bill Self
Coach Bill Self cuts down the nets after the Jayhawks advanced to the Final Four during the NCAA tournament in March. Self spent the last two weeks putting his team through boot camp.
Imagine this. Five oclock, Friday evening at the foot of Mount Oread, Fans, thousands of them line a sidewalk in all directions, waiting patiently. Many of them are students, but many of them have come from all over the state. A farmer from Gardner. A barber on Massachusetts Street whose family has been in business for nearly a century. An insurance salesman from Topeka. An oil refinery worker from El Dorado. A doctor and his teenage son from lola. A family of five from Overland Park. All of them, dressed in blue.
Fans surround Allen Fieldhouse, the home of college basketball. The season doesn't start for another month, no exhibition games, no cheerleaders doing back flips after a free throw is made. In the surrounding parking lots there are several cars with Obama and McCain bumper stickers. But for all these stickers, there are far more with the Kansas Jayhawk. A few fans that have been waiting at the front of the line since sunrise fold up their camping chairs and press toward the entrance. A woman stands guard at the entrance of the 53-year old building.
That's what the scene will look like for Late Night on Friday.
"The doors don't open for 30 minutes," she'll probably say.
The spectacle used to start at midnight, but was switched to an earlier time a few years ago. Once a year, fans flock to Allen Fieldhouse to ring in a new season of Kansas basketball. It was here at the turn of the 20th century where a physical education instructor from Springfield, Mass., brought to Lawrence a game he created in which players shot a ball into a peach basket. For the better half of the next century, a man named FC. "Phog" Allen perfected the game and turned coaching it into a profession. He is responsible for the building of the Fieldhouse and the school's ascension into a basketball powerhouse. Later coaches would hold the position as an honor, for there is no more prestigious job than Kansas basketball.
The man at the reigns of the program is Bill Self. As a country boy from Okmulgee, Oka, Self has been around the sport since his days as an all-conference player in the '80s at Oklahoma State. Since then, he has taken each school he has coached at to unprecedented levels, including Kansas. After leading Kansas to its best record in school history and winning the first National Championship in two decades, Self has become a hero in Jayhawk Nation. But for all his success, he is a busy man. After an early morning trip up Jayhawk Boulevard to field questions from the media, he is focused on continuing his success. After last season, he lost five seniors to graduation and another three underclassmen to the NBA Draft. For the past couple of weeks, he has been putting seven new guys and returning players through his
basketball boot camp.
A day before, players took photos and responded to questions about the upcoming season from reporters on the court in the field house. Sitting in the bleachers next to the court, a couple of guests watch the occasion. Wearing one of his finest suits, Self might walk down a staircase between seats and greet the two. "Hey Lance. Hey Xavier. How's it Going?"
That's what it might look like on Friday.
He then heads onto the court for a team picture. If the day's events unfold as Self would like, the two young men watching commit to Kansas. As two of the top basketball recruits coming out of high school, they are considering both Kansas and Memphis — the team the Jayhawks defeated for the National Championship.
This is college basketball at the University of Kansas in 2008. It's been over a 110 years since James Naismith brought the sport to Lawrence. It's been 56 years since Phog Allen took Kansas to the NCAA Championship and then took seven of his players on to take the gold medal for U.S.A. in the Olympics. A few years later, Wilt Chamberlain would begin a Hall-of-Fame career. In the late '80s, the legendary Larry Brown recruited and coached Danny and the Miracles to a National Championship. Roy Williams, led Kansas to more wins in the '90s than any other program and was a great recruiter. Williams
had 17 players drafted by the NBA during his tenure. Now, Self must continue the legacy and land top recruits year in and year out.
This could be the discussion amongst fans waiting outside on Friday. Ever since Mario Chalmers made The Shot that led to Kansas' victory over Memphis, fans have wanted to relive the glory. For the past six months, anticipation has grown high and expectations even higher. Self has done what Williams couldn't. He closed the deal, won a championship and restored order. It had been two decades since Brown took Kansas to the big dance.
Self has also done what Williams couldn't do — stay at Kansas. Speculation rose about whether Self would leave Kansas when Oklahoma State fired its coach. Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, an Oklahoma State alumnus, was to make an offer Self couldn't refuse. Self stayed at Kansas.
At about 5:30, and fans will pack into Allen Fieldhouse for Late Night in the Phog. All 16,000 of them, if the place is full, will want to see what their hero has put together for the season.
The players will dance and perform skits, but there is no game - just a 20-minute scrimmage. The fans have embraced Bill Self and trust him with their team. Players will come and go throughout the years, but Self is here to stay. As the eighth coach in Kansas basketball history, Self understands what he means to them.
Good luck to the men's and women's basketball teams this season.
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It was only the beginning of the ride — a twisting, six-month roller coaster worthy of a spot at Worlds of Fun.
On a Monday night in early April, Sherron Collins drove up court in San Antonio and — before slipping and sliding four feet — forever entrenched himself in Kansas basketball highlight lore with the biggest assist of his life.
You know the rest. Mario drained it, Mass Street was turned upside down and students were granted a day off from classes to welcome home the champs and recover from the late night liba.
The summer of our discontent
"Where were you?" became a pertinent question to ask a fellow Jayhawk regarding the night of April 7. But the real story is about players, coaches and some recruits would (or wouldn't) be in the days, weeks and months that followed.
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Bill Self had finally done it. Every conceivable burden on his back was gone. Avoid another Bucknell/Bradley debacle. Check. Reach the Final Four. Check. Roy who? Check. National championship. Check.
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How sweet it was.
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But two days after cutting the net in the Alamodome, Self found himself in Stillwater, Okla., meeting with his alma mater's athletic director for more than two hours. The Oklahoma State Cowboys had a head coaching vacancy. They wanted Self to be their man and the deep recesses of T. Boone Pickens' pockets were thought to come into the fold.
Suddenly, impossibly, talk shifted from Mario and the Miracles. "Where were you Monday?" was replaced by "Will it happen to us again?"
But Jayhawk nation instead had more reason to be whipped into a frenzy for the weekend's parade as Self said thanks but no parade as his alma mater. He is going to stay in Lawrence for a long time with a 10-year, $3 million-per-year contract.
Chalmers and Arthur really had no business declaring for the draft as they nearly missed not being guaranteed a dime.
But that wouldn't be the two's only questionable decision.
Nine players - including the starting lineup from the national title game - either graduated or declared for the NBA draft.
Y STEPHEN MONTEMAYOR
smontemavor@kansan.com
Kansas went from the highest of highs with the deepest team in the nation to the greenest. On a team with five freshmen and four sophomores, Collins, a junior, was assumed to be the leader of the 2008-09 team. Little went right for Collins after April 7.
along with Sasha Kaun, but Kaur onto play pro ball in Russia.
Suddenly they were gone.
While at the August NBA rookie symposium where first year pro hoops players are advised what NOT to do, Chalmers and Arthur were booted out of the program and fined $20,000 after they were caught with two women and a strong odor of marijuana in their hotel room.
In June, a Douglas County judge ruled in favor of a former Jayhawk Towers employee that had filed a civil suit against Collins alleging that he exposed and rubbed himself against her in a Jayhawk Towers elevator in May 2007 despite being told repeatedly to stop. The judge ruled in July that there was insufficient evidence to charge Collins in a criminal case, and Collins' civil lawsuit was conveniently set for trial on April 15 at 9 a.m. – well after the final shot of the 2008-09 season.
With the 13th pick in the NBA draft...
Three of Kansas' early entrants into the June 26 draft — junior Brandon Rush, sophomore Darrrell Arthur and junior Mario Chalimers — were banking on their championship win to equate to lottery pick money. None were selected higher than Rusb's selection at 13.
I'm not going to further demonize them but won't mince words either in including this incident for some perspective of this wild offseason.
An interesting footnote to this occurred about a month ago. Michael Beasley, formerly of Kansas State, was fined $50,000 — more than the combined fine of Chalmers and Arthur — for his role in that same incident. You try and tell me that none of those three could have used another year or two of college before landing large sums of money.
Either way, vindication came for the embattled Jayhawks when they returned to Lawrence last month to receive their championship rings and the adoration of the fans whose lives they left a mark on. A celebration and reminder of a time just five months removed but oh so far away.
Chalmers and Arthur slid in the draft and switched teams several times before landing with the Heat and the Grizzlies. Darnell Jackson landed in Cleveland,
So ends this ride that started with an ascent up the Alamodome court by Collins. So begins the next. Only this ride has no clear direction, no way to anticipate the sharp turns and corners and ups and downs. But it's that unpredictability that all great rides are known for.
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