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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | MONDAY, APRIL 17,2017
How barber Isaiah Bell's work made it on ESPN
▶ SEAN COLLINS
@seanzie_UDK
Isaiah Bell, from Lawrence, Kansas, works as a barber for Legacy Barber Shop. Bell also cuts hair for student athletes at the McCarthy Hall Barber Shop.
Miranda Anaua/KANSAN
back in the NCAA tournament, one Kansas player took the sports world by storm with a single fast break.
Sophomore guard Lagerald Vick read Purdue like a book as he stole the ball and raced down the floor with no defenders in sight. He could have gone straight to the basket, but that would be too easy. Never taking his eye off the rim, he took an elongated path to the bucket. As thousands watched, Vick jumped with a 360 rotation, throwing down a momentum-shifting dunk.
"You know, I cut Lagerald before he did that 360." Isaiah Bell said proudly. "I try to look up for my work... That is my work of art getting on national TV, I'm trying to make sure I get it right."
Bell will tell you all about his cuts. Seeing them on TV, when the camera is still, that's his favorite.
Vick's 360 dunk was displayed on ESPN time after time during March Madness. Bell has seen it many times more.
"I like to think my haircuts have a little bit of something in them," Bell said. "I like to think my haircut had a little bit to do with it."
Vick is not the first Jayhawk to flash Bell's work on national television, and won't be the last.
Late on a Tuesday night on the second floor of McCarthy Hall, two pool balls smack, sending a swift cracking sound through the exclusive basketball dorms. The team is playing pool as indiscernible rap music blares in the background. It's primetime for the Instagram stories of players to go live, collecting thousands of views in mere minutes.
Senior guard Frank Mason III is appalled at the potato tacos freshman forward Mitch Lightfoot scarfs down. The hundreds of viewers holding their phones watching Mason's story would notice this detail. To many, this is pure entertainment. To the players, it's waiting in line.
It's a late night in Lawrence and the Jayhawks have less than 24 hours before they take the court in Allen Fieldhouse. It's that funny time of night when goofing around becomes a must to release the stress of a seemingly endless day.
But before the Jayhawks even think about putting on the crimson and blue, one thing has to be done: get a fresh haircut.
Haircuts are serious business for the Kansas athletes. As sophomore guard Malik Newman sits in the chair of the personal barbershop the athletes have at their disposal in McCarthy Hall, he is greeted once again by Bell.
Of all the barbershops in Lawrence and of all the barbers he could have called, there is nobody else Newman wants with the clippers.
I like to think my haircut had a little bit to do with it."
Isaiah Bell, on Lagerald Vick's 360 dunk
"Yeah, Bell is the only one," Newman said.
Loyal customers like Newman are plentiful for Bell, and McCarthy Hall is only a small part. Just 30 minutes prior, Bell packed his clippers and made the
six-minute drive he always makes when Newman calls him earlier in the day. Newman wants his cut a certain way, and Bell has mastered it.
The barber chair at McCarthy Hall is where Bell may be late at night, but it isn't his. His chair is 1.6 miles away.
Right where he left it
It's 7:15 p.m. Just off 25th and Iowa, Legacy Barber Shop has been closed for over an hour, but Bell isn't turning anyone away. The buzzing of his clippers and the sound of an Oklahoma City Thunder game on the TV fills the silence between Bell's laughter and conversation with four customers, patiently waiting for Bell's chair.
The bell rings as the front door opens.
Nobody is shy at Legacy. Bell will keep them talking. He likes the conversation.
"Aye man. It's good to see you, take a seat," Bell said.
His cordial attitude has been his identity since he was 13 years old, when he began cutting hair. Nine years later, he likes his story to be told his way.
Born and raised in Lawrence, Bell said he has been around barbers and their customers his whole life. Many children with busy parents during daytime hours, he said, are left at the Boys and Girls Club or daycare. Bell's story is different. His daycare was the barbershop.
On a busy day for his father, Bell was dropped off at Marty's Barber Shop on Ninth Street. Bell's father didn't come back for hours.
That didn't bother him.
"Most kids in a barber
shop get antsy,but me,I took an interest in it," Bell said.
A haircut wasn't enough for Bell. He wanted clippers of his own, and a person that would let him give a cut. Sure enough, Marty Watson, the shop's owner, heard the message from Bell, loud and clear.
"C'mon give me some clippers," Bell would whine. "I want to cut!"
Recalling the memory, Bell smiled.
It wasn't long before Bell acquired Watson's phone number, which he would clutter with texts and calls.
"Finally, he gave me some clippers," Bell said with a chuckle. "Just to shut me up."
At 13, Bell used other barbers and his four brothers as his guinea pigs. As
SEE BARBER PAGE 7
Lee brings highlight-reel tackles in spring game
AMIE JUST
@Amie_Just
Sophomore safety Mike Lee wasn't drafted first. Nor was he drafted second, third, fourth or fifth.
In Kansas football's spring game draft, Team KU's coach Kenny Perry selected the All-Big 12 safety with the sixth pick.
"He texted me while the draft was going on and was like, 'Coach, you didn't pick me. You're going to pay for it,'" Hull said. "And every day he he's been giving me a hard time, telling me I was going to pay for it."
Lee, a New Orleans native, immediately texted Team Jayhawks' coach Tony Hull, a fellow New Orleans-native, after he was drafted.
Lee held up his end of the bargain. He did his best to make Hull and Team Jayhawks pay.
Even though Hull's Team Jayhawks walked away victorious, Lee made sure his presence was
known and had six tackles on the day. That mark led both squads.
But Lee didn't just make tackles -he crushed his fellow teammates. Although it was the spring game, he went full speed.
Of his six recorded tackles on the day, Lee lit up junior wide receiver Ryan Schadler twice.
On one play, Schadler had his hands on the ball, ready to make a catch. But by the time Lee came charging in, the ball flew out of Schadler's hands and Schadler dropped to the ground so hard there was an audible thud.
"Boy, he's sure fun to watch out there," coach David Beaty said. "Unless you're the guy getting hit."
The intensity of Lee's tackles resonated around the team.
"Those two hits were rough," Schadler said. "He comes down hard. He's one of the fastest guys I've ever seen fill a hole."
"Every time I came to
the sideline and walked off the field, I said to myself in my head, 'I always have to know where Mike Lee's at because I'm not trying to get killed," sophomore wide receiver Daylon Charlot said.
With all the impressive pad-smacking hits come a few missed opportunities for the young leader as well.
"One of the things that I did tell him is that, 'I want you to lead the conference in tackles, but I don't want you to lead the conference in missed tackles, as well,'" Beaty said. "I mean, he throws everything he's got, that 175-pound body at people, but we do have to learn to use more technique because I think it's going to culminate into a lot more tackles for him... He can be even better than he is, and he gets it. He understands it."
On Team Jayhawks' first drive of the second quarter, junior quarterback Peyton Bender aired out an 11-yard pass to junior wide receiver
"I know he wishes he would have had it back because that gave them a touchdown there, and it was because he just went in out of control instead of using technique," Beaty said.
Lee acknowledged he went into that specific play too hot as well.
"I don't like missing tackles," Lee said of that play. "I was coming on too fast. He's a good wide receiver. He makes great cuts."
Lee made one blatant error in the spring game, but his positive, highlight-reel tackles outshined the negatives.
After today, does Hull regret not drafting his fellow Louisiana product? He wouldn't say for sure.
Steven Sims Jr.
Lee missed a tackle on that play, allowing Sims into the end zone.
"Well," Hull said, "he did some good things today."
Edited by Paola Alor
Andrew Rosenthal/KANSAN Sophomore safety Mike Lee celebrates a big hit in the first half of the annual spring scrimmage. Team Jayhawks defeated Team KU, 14-7.
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