Ricky Ross: A shooting star who flamed out way too soon

This article was published in Jayhawk Illustrated.

By David Garfield

It was one of the happiest days of my life.  

Flash back to April 1979 when high school phenom Ricky Ross from Wichita South signed with Kansas. He chose the Jayhawks over North Carolina, Arkansas and Wichita State.

Ross, who verbally committed to KU twice before “wavering” and ultimately signing with the Jayhawks, told the Lawrence Journal-World at the time “that there was very big pressure” to choose KU, with his high school coach Bill Himebaugh, his mother, and KU backers in Wichita all favoring Kansas.

But now that his decision was finally made, he was looking forward to starting his collegiate career in Lawrence.

“I’m excited about playing with Darnell (Valentine, KU junior-to-be point guard and All-American candidate),” Ross said. “With all the pro coaches and scouts that will be watching him the next two years, that has to be a plus for me, too.”

Himebaugh was elated his franchise player was going to be a Jayhawk.

“I think he had KU in his mind all along,” Himebaugh said. “He’s the type of player who can turn a program around. And that guard tandem of KU now has to be one of the best around.”

I was 12 years old growing up in Lawrence, and recall going to our preseason baseball meeting at coach Bill Platz’s house that night after learning Ross had signed with Kansas.

As soon as I arrived, my buddy asked me, “Did you see we got Ricky Ross?”

I smiled and said I did.

For someone whose life revolved around KU basketball 365 days a year, the thought of Ross teaming with Valentine in the KU backcourt had me salivating. They would be the best guard tandem in college basketball, I predicted. With Valentine one of the best penetrators in college hoops and Ross a deadly pure shooter, I believed they could revolutionize Kansas basketball.

As I sat happily during our baseball meeting looking forward to my final season with the Merchants, my mind couldn’t help but dance with images of Ross raining jump shots throughout Allen Fieldhouse. The fans would come to their feet and roar. KU would win the Big Eight title. And then the Jayhawks would make a deep run in March and win the national championship. 

I had this all figured out. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

***

With Wichita Heights standout and KU signee Perry Ellis concluding a memorable high school career (he led his team to four consecutive state championships and a 97-3 record while Heights set a state record with 62 straight victories), the 6-8 forward has been compared to some of the greatest players in Wichita City League history.

Including Ricky Ross.

Longtime Wichita Eagle columnist Bob Lutz penned in his February blog that Ross ranks as the greatest player to come out of Wichita that he’s seen since the early-1960s. High praise, indeed, considering Wichita City League hoops has produced the likes of NBA players Valentine, Antoine Carr, and former Jayhawk star Greg Dreiling. 

With Ross in the news, I’ve been thinking of him more often these days, not that he’s ever drifted far from my thoughts since that magical day in 1979 when I read he was going to be a Jayhawk, the next superstar to don the crimson and blue.

He was a ballyhooed McDonald’s All-American and part of arguably the greatest high school senior class of all time, which also included Ralph Sampson, Dominique Wilkins, Isiah Thomas, James Worthy and Jon Paxson. Ross led Wichita South to consecutive state championships and broke Valentine’s City League career scoring record while averaging 32.1 points his senior season.

He once scored 47 points in a game (before the three-point shot), a City League record which stood for 32 years before Jayhawk-to-be and Wichita North standout Conner Frankamp broke it with 52 points in December 2010.

Ross, along with fellow McDonald’s All-Americans Valentine and Tony Guy, was a key reason why KU still had high hopes for the 1979-80 season despite losing starters Paul Mokeski and Wilmore Fowler (he transferred to Georgia after his sophomore season) from the 1978-1979 team, which went 18-11 and won the Big Eight Holiday Tournament.

The Jayhawks, though, stumbled out of the gate, losing five of their first nine games. After next winning three straight, KU finished the season losing nine of its final 17 games to finish just 15-14.

The parts just never fit, and Ross never found his way, despite finishing second on the team with 11.7 points per game. He pouted when he was on the bench and pouted when he didn’t get the ball.

What was supposed to be a dream season and a dream backcourt never materialized. My thoughts of winning the national championship dashed early in the season, although I still looked forward to watching Ross play in the Phog. He had one of the most beautiful shots I had ever seen, picture-perfect form with a feathery touch that he released so effortlessly, the kind of jumper that former superscout Howard Garfinkel might describe as “soft as drifting fog.”

And he had all the confidence in the world. My dad, who was a professor of social welfare at KU for 34 years (his most famous student was KU legend Bud Stallworth), once spoke to Ross on campus. He said Ricky told him that he believed all his shots would hit nothing but net.

He ended up shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 73.3 percent at the free-throw line, while chipping in 1.7 assists, 1.0 steals, and 2.5 rebounds per game. Along with his 11.7 point average, these certainly weren’t All-American stats. And he and Valentine certainly didn’t revolutionize Kansas basketball as I had hoped.

Still, I was hopeful he would blossom at Kansas the next three seasons. But then word came out prior to his sophomore season that Ross had decided to transfer after being caught with two other KU teammates using an assistant coach’s credit card for long-distance phone calls. I was stunned and saddened that Ross would leave. While I didn’t think Ricky seemed too happy at KU, I saw Kansas basketball through rose-colored classes and believed everything would work out.

So I decided to write a petition imploring Ricky to stay at KU. I would get all my friends and classmates to sign it, deliver it to Ricky, and surely he would see how much he was still loved by Jayhawk fans and decide to stay.

That was my plan at age 13, when I still believed in miracles, I still believed in the unlimited possibilities of the mind, and I still believed everything was possible after watching my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series a year before after trailing Baltimore three games to one.

My hero Willie Stargell was the Pirates’ savior who rallied his team and hit the game-winning home run in Game 7 to lift Pittsburgh to the sweetest victory of my life. Now, as events and circumstances suggested otherwise, I held on to faint hope that Ricky was still KU’s savior who could find happiness in Lawrence.

One day in Spanish class at South Junior High, I was working on my petition (instead of paying attention to the teacher) when my classmate Amy Lienhard, who sat next to me, asked me what I was doing. I told her my mission and asked if she would sign my petition and help keep Ricky in Kansas.

“Oh no,” she said. “We don’t want him.”

Amy, the daughter of Bill Lienhard, a starter on the 1952 KU national championship team, was one of the nicest and most popular people in school. I respected her opinion, and I believed if she wouldn’t sign my petition, who else would? Maybe Amy was right, I thought. Maybe Ricky wasn’t a good fit for KU.

Just like that, I dropped my petition. Later, I heard stories of how assistant coach Lafayette Norwood used to walk Ricky to class, and he’d typically walk out the back door. I also heard whispers he didn’t get along with Valentine.

Guy relayed an anecdote to me several years ago about Ross’ selfishness. The story goes that Ross scored over 20 points one night, but KU lost. Afterwards, all the Jayhawks were feeling down in the locker room, except Ross. He was upbeat since he had a good game and wondered why his teammates were so depressed.

Looking back, it was indeed best that Ricky left KU. Kansas basketball moved on without him, bouncing back from that disastrous 15-14 year and advancing to the Sweet 16 the following season in 1980-81. Guy emerged as a star and the team’s leading scorer after being moved back to his natural position at shooting guard, where Ross had played the previous season. Valentine and Guy became one of the best backcourts in college hoops, and there was great team chemistry, unlike in Ross’ freshman season, where dissension and egos ruled KU hoops.

***

But whatever happened to my hero Ricky Ross? Did he ever live up to the hype? Did he ever find stardom in college and the NBA?

After finishing his lone season at KU, Ross was a lost soul trying to find himself. He made brief stops at Wichita State (left school after failing to qualify academically) and Santa Ana (Calif.) College (he never actually enrolled) before landing at the College of Marin in California, where he averaged a nation-leading 30.5 points while achieving — get this — a 3.0 GPA.

Ross finally realized if he wanted to play hoops, he had to crack the books. In a 1982 interview with Sports Illustrated , Ross credited College of Marin head coach John Johnson for getting his life back on track. 

“Coach Johnson was a big influence in turning me around," Ross told SI. "I needed somebody like that, and fortunately I ran into a great guy."

Ross ran into another “great guy” and strong authority figure in head coach Nolan Richardson, when he next transferred to Tulsa. He found great success there in two seasons (1982-84), averaging 17.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while becoming the player everybody expected out of high school.

I ran into Richardson in November 2008 after his press conference leading up to his induction into the College Basketball Hall of Fame that night in Kansas City. Richardson smiled when I mentioned Ross’ name.

“Ricky Ross, my man,” Richardson said. “Let me tell you what, Ricky played for me for two years. That kid could shoot the basketball. He was a player. I always thought he could have been a very, very, very super point guard because he was 6-7, he was rangy. The thing that Ricky didn’t play when he got there, is he wouldn’t play (any) defense because he was such an offensive threat. But in his senior year, he became a very good defensive player in our style.”

I thought surely Ross would make the NBA after his experience at Tulsa and follow the lead of his fellow high school class members of 1979 who excelled in the pros like Sampson, Wilkins and Thomas.

I was puzzled that he didn’t get selected until the third round (53rd pick overall) in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets, and even more confused when I didn’t see Ross on the opening day NBA roster.

And he wasn’t on a roster the next year. Or the next. Or the next.

You see, Ricky Ross — this once can’t miss superstar — never made the NBA, and to my knowledge, never found basketball success outside the NBA like in Europe or the minor leagues. I asked Richardson that November day in Kansas City what happened.

“I’ve had several players (play in the NBA), but Ricky to me should have been one of those guys that spent 10 or 12 years in the NBA,” Richardson said. “I think sometimes he listened to the wrong people, and the wrong people kept (telling) him the wrong things. It’s a combination of many things, but Ricky had so many other people in his life telling him what to do. Sometimes, those people were more concerned about themselves than about Ricky Ross.”

I always had a curiosity and affinity for Richardson’s “man.” That’s what drove me to pick up the phone and call then-KU coach Larry Brown 20 years earlier on his Hawk Talk radio show during the 1987-88 season and ask his thoughts on why Ross never found his way to the NBA.

“Ricky Ross’ problem was with his head more than his ability,” Brown said. “He didn’t like school, he wasn’t the hardest worker, and I think he got himself into a rut. He had a great year at Tulsa his senior year. I just don’t think he gave himself enough chance to be prepared for four years, and that’s why he didn’t make it.”

That fact saddens Brian Martin, the former Jayhawk forward who played against Ross in high school at Wichita Northwest. Martin said Ross was the bomb in high school.

“I just thought he was one of the most pure shooters I ever saw,” Martin told me. “He would dribble across the court, one dribble, look at his high school coach, his high school coach would give him the nod, he’d pull up and shoot. Nothing but net. He did that to us twice in one game in high school. He was amazing. Unfortunately, he had some of the greatest talent I think any guard had, too bad it was a waste. He was a phenomenal shooter.”

Richardson, too, thought Ross was all the rage at Wichita South.

“Out of high school, whew, Ricky was high, high profile,” Richardson gushed. “He was so high we didn’t even try (to recruit him) because we knew he’d probably end up going to Kansas. And then when he went off to junior college and when things changed, we started recruiting him.”

While Martin said he wasn’t around Ross when he traveled on his basketball odyssey after high school, he had his doubts that Ricky possessed the mental makeup to be an NBA player or have success playing in other professional leagues.

“I just don’t think he was disciplined enough to be able to handle the structure and life because in pro ball, it’s tough,” said Martin, who played briefly in the NBA and several years in the minor leagues and overseas. “Your lifestyle outside the game, nobody cares what you do as long as you show up for the games. I saw a lot guys when I was playing that couldn’t hack the responsibilities. Great talents, but couldn’t make it because they were on their own.”

Martin added that Ross was very close to his mom.

“I think he had a hard time being that far away from family,” Martin said.

***

Far away — both literally and figuratively — from the bright lights of the NBA — I watched Ricky Ross play an AAU game in Topeka in the early-to-mid 1990s. When I first heard he’d be in Topeka, despite knowing Ross was past his prime and in his mid-30s, I was overjoyed and thrilled to get another glimpse at the player I once worshipped.

So I sat in Lee Arena on the Washburn campus with about 100 other fans and watched Ross play a virtually meaningless basketball game. Armed with a notebook and pen, I wanted to write down everything I saw, every move Ross made, every shot that swished through the net. I wanted to rediscover the great talent who moved me so much that day I read he had signed with Kansas, the one who had initially inspired me to write a petition asking Ricky to stay at Kansas.

I was soon disappointed in what I saw. I was no longer an impressionable 13-year-old boy, but a young man trying to find my way who was about to turn 30. Maybe that was part of the reason I was not awed by Ricky’s jump shot this night. But with my wiser eyes, the older and aging Ricky didn’t move as well, didn’t shoot as well, didn’t have that same magic that I once remembered.

He didn’t stand out during the game, and he certainly wasn’t the Second Coming headed to the League. Ricky, who had surely given up that dream years ago, was just a former shooting star who had flamed out way too soon, now trying to seemingly feed his hoops fix and maybe hold on to part of his past when he was the baddest baller ever out of Wichita. 

From an outsider’s perspective, he seemed inexpressive, maybe even solemn that day, and I truly wondered if he ever found peace or if life was just filled with memories and yesterday’s hoop dreams.

Memories when he lit up Tulsa basketball for two years, memories of when he was the bringing crowds to their feet in Wichita, memories that were surely brought to life if he read Lutz’s words about him in February when he ranked him the No. 1 all-time City League player in Wichita. (Ross, a mystery man who’s kept out of the public eye all these years and been extremely difficult for media to track down, is reportedly still living and working in Wichita.)

“Go down the list of basketball attributes, and Ross gets an ‘A’ in all,” Lutz wrote in his blog. “He was a prolific scorer, but his mentality was the pass first, shoot second. He didn’t shy away from rebounding, despite a spindly frame on a 6-6 body. And Ross played defense because his coach, Bill Himebaugh, wouldn’t allow him not to.”

For a moment, Ricky Ross was a young, McDonald’s All-American again, back on top where he belonged. But after reading Lutz’s remarks, I soon became saddened.

I just couldn’t help wonder and ask myself: What might have been?

Lewis still 'thrilled' 40 years later

For Part 2 of my tribute to Delvy Lewis, I am posting my Where Are They Now? story I wrote on him back in the March 20, 2003 issue of Jayhawk Insider. A few weeks later that year, KU marched to the national championship game before losing to Syracuse. Nine years later, I’m just sad Delvy passed too soon (last month on March 5) and wasn’t able to see Bill Self’s Jayhawks make their magical run to the national title game on April 2. Lewis, who always bled crimson and blue, would have been proud.


Jayhawk Insider March 20, 2003

Where Are They Now?

By David Garfield

Delvy Lewis can close his eyes and still feel the chills and excitement of those cold, winter nights as a wonder-eyed 9-year-old growing up in Topeka and listening with his dad to the Kansas basketball games on the radio. Clyde Lewis was an avid KU fan who always dreamed of his son playing for KU one day.

They’d cheer mightily for B.H. Born, and oh sure, Clyde would kick the radio when a call went against his beloved Jayhawks. This was their time together, their own sanctuary. For Lewis, it was a chance to grow closer with his father and fantasize about wearing the crimson and blue.

As a high school senior, Lewis was beginning to think his dream would never become reality. Playing in the shadow of superstar teammate Ron Paradis at Washburn Rural, Lewis was just recruited by K-State and a handful of other major colleges. He was actually planning on signing with the Wildcats until the semifinal game against Wyandotte in the state tournament, when Lewis busted loose for 28 points and finally caught the eye of  the Kansas program.

“Of course, when I got the  opportunity, there was no question,” Lewis said recently from his home in Topeka. “They offered me a full scholarship, and I said, ‘Lets go.’ We just are a KU family. My dad was such a fan, and it just kind of rubbed off on me. That was where my heart was.” 

Signing Lewis turned out to be one of the best decisions Kansas head coach Dick Harp ever made. After a brilliant freshman campaign, Lewis started his sophomore season at point guard for the the first part of the season. Then, Harp experimented with different lineups until academic casualties at semester break forced him to insert Lewis back in as a starter.

And Lewis never looked back.

“That’s really I think when I started being better as a player, because I knew that I was going to play,” he said. “I know that it was a fun thing. It was real challenging.”

Lewis averaged 4.5 points per game in 1963-64, while Kansas struggled with a 13-12 record.  After Harp resigned, assistant coach Ted Owens took over the job and improved Kansas to 17-8 the following season. Owens relied heavily on Lewis (9.8 ppg) and other members of the stellar junior class like Walt Wesley, Riney Lochmann, and Fred Chana.

“I think it was our group that kind of laid the foundation to getting the program back on its feet,” Lewis said. 

A great leader, crafty playmaker, and tenacious defender, Lewis was the consummate coach on the floor. He got the team in its multiple defenses, and on offense, his first, second and third priority was getting the ball to 6-11 center Wesley, who averaged a whopping 23.5 points per game.

“Walt would always yell out, ‘Ball,’ in  his deep old voice,” Lewis said. “I was kidding him about it at the reunion (105 year KU reunion held in February). I kept kidding him about yelling out, ‘Ball, Ball,’ because that’s all he did. He wanted that ball, and the coaches wanted him to have the ball. We got him the ball.”

Kansas was, indeed, enjoying themselves and having a ball during Lewis’ senior season in 1965-66. The Jayhawks, who started the season at 15-3, became a dominant team when Jo Jo White became eligible at semester break. KU won its next eight games before getting beat by Texas Western in the Midwest Regional finals.

Despite the heartbreaking double overtime defeat, Lewis was comforted that Texas Western went on to win the national title.

“I’m very happy they won the whole thing, because the coach from Texas Western (Don Haskins) said that was their toughest game when they beat us,” Lewis said. 

Lewis, 59, truly came into his own his senior year, upping his scoring average (10.9 ppg) and leading the team in assists and free throw percentage. He capped a stellar career by being named All-Big Eight. A co-captain along with Lochmann, Lewis endeared himself to Owens and the Jayhawk faithful with his scrappy play and overall work ethic.       

“I think Riney and I were his (Owens’) favorites on that team, because he just appreciated the ‘roll up your sleeves and work,’ and that’s pretty much what Riney and I did,” Lewis said. “I hustled and gave it all I had every game. Everybody did. We had a group that pretty much got after it. We were pretty no nonsense. “ 

Above all, Lewis loved playing for Owens.

“I just have nothing but great words to say about Ted Owens as a coach,” Lewis said. “He was a gentleman. I just feel badly, because I think he’s kind of gotten a bad rap, as far as perception.  He still has a tremendous winning record. .... I just hope he gets some credit for what he did, because I think he did a lot more than people realize. To this day, I have the greatest respect for him. He’s just a neat, neat man.”

After his KU career ended, Lewis spent the next seven years in the insurance business. In 1972, he joined Xerox for eight years before working the next 10 years in upper management for two other copier companies (Savin Corporation and Modern Business Systems). In 1988, Lewis bought his own copier business, which he owned until 1998. He then opened a consulting company, where he does performance and hiring assessments for CEO’s and executives. Lewis continues this business today, along with working 40 hours per week as account manager of outside sales for Office Depot.

It’s been a rich and rewarding business life for Lewis, who is at peace with himself living back in native Topeka. He returned home in 1968.

“I’ve had more success than I probably deserve,” Lewis said. “I think that’s one of the big pluses of going to a school like KU. The recognition — that’s helped big-time, just the exposure that you get has been a real plus.”

In addition to his work, Lewis coaches a touring high school boys select team from Kansas in the summer. Lewis is so passionate about coaching that he hopes to enter the profession full time in the next year.

“I just enjoy the game,” he said. “I enjoy the competitiveness. I just like to compete, and I enjoy working with kids. I always have.” 

When he’s not working or coaching, Lewis loves watching his daughter Mindi play basketball for MidAmerican Nazarene. And when he’s in the stands or out in other public venues, successful people from all walks of life come up to Lewis and tell him he was their childhood hero. Lewis calls that one of the best compliments he could ever receive.

“I‘ve had a number of people tell me that they used to play outside in their own goal, and would pretend they were in my shoes playing at KU,” Lewis said. “That’s kind of a neat honor for people to think enough of you to emulate you in that regard.” 

Indeed, it is. For Lewis, this only makes his decision to turn down K-State and become a Jayhawk 41 years ago that much sweeter.

“It was just a great honor to play at KU,” Lewis said. “It’s a great tradition. To say that you played there and to have some success, is just a thrill.”

A Closer Look at Delvy Lewis:

Years at KU: 1962-66

Career Notables: All-Big Eight and team co-captain in 1965-66...Led team in assists and free throw percentage in ‘65-66 (82.5 percent)...MVP of Big  8 Holiday Tournament in 1964.

Family: Wife, Karen, and children — Kristi, 29, Kerri, 24, and Mindi, 21.

Education: Majored in Education.

Since Leaving KU: Lewis worked seven years in the insurance business before changing directions and entering the copier industry, where he worked for three companies (Xerox, Savin Corporation and Modern Business Systems) for 17 years until 1988. Lewis then bought his own copier business, which he owned until 1998. Next, Lewis opened a consulting company, where he does assessments for CEO’s and executives.

Currently: Lewis owns his consulting business (Corporate Development Services) in Topeka and works for Office Depot as account manager of outside sales.

Hobbies:  Golf, coaching.

Favorite Memories: Playing and beating K-State on television during frosh year in 1962-63.  “That was unheard of back in those days to have  game (freshman) on TV. There were a lot of people interested in it. Everybody was kind of hyped. It was a big deal.”...Shocking Cincinnati, 51-47, on Dec. 7, 1963 and breaking its 80-plus game home winning streak. “They just had some great players. No one expected us to win that game. I think that was a highlight of that year.”...Hitting the game-winning shot at the buzzer against Colorado on March 2, 1964. “The play was supposed to go to Harry Gibson. I think they figured out what we were going to do. ... That wasn’t there so I just took it to the basket and fortunately made the shot. That was a good feeling.”

On the Jayhawks today: “I think he’s (Roy Williams) a great coach. I think he does it the right way. He’s obviously got that tradition where it’s supposed to be.”

A Tribute to Delvy Lewis

The Kansas Athletics family and Jayhawk Nation suffered a huge blow this past season with the passing of Aubrey Nash (starting point guard on the 1971 Final Four team), Charlie Hoag (four-sport standout who was a member of the 1952 NCAA championship basketball team), Al Correll (first African-American basketball captain and holder of school's single-season free-throw mark with 90 percent in 1964) and Delvy Lewis, a three-year starter and first-team All-Big Eight performer on the 1966 basketball team, one of the best KU squads of all time.

The news that Lewis died last month on March 5 at age 68 at about 4:30 p.m. after a courageous nine-year battle with cancer hit me the hardest. You see, one evening in March 2003, I called up Delvy to interview him for a Where Are They Now? story for Jayhawk Insider. We spent about the next 90 minutes having a wonderful conversation, as Delvy entertained me with his crystal sharp memory of his recruitment to KU, specific Jayhawk games, his unwavering support of his wife, Karen, and daughters — Kristi, Kerri, and Mindi — and what he’d been up to since leaving KU in 1966. It was a special interview, and one I’ve always remembered with great fondness.

Unfortunately, Lewis must have been diagnosed with cancer shortly thereafter, the beginning of a rough nine years for this very spiritual and religious man. He told me during our interview that he hoped to get into coaching full time in the next year, but cancer has a cruel and painful way of changing our life’s plans, our life’s work.

He called me once and left a message on my cell phone thanking me for sending him the article I wrote on him. Delvy said he hoped to see me at a KU game. And then, as he always said at the end of our conversations, he finished the message with these two words: “God bless.”

I believe I ran into him at a KU game in Allen Fieldhouse two times since then, the last on Dec.  3, 2011 when Lewis and the 1966 team were honored at halftime during the South Florida game. I went up to him afterwards and said hello. He said he was still battling his disease and I told him I was pulling and thinking of him.

“Thank you,” this humble man said quietly. “God bless.”

Then he slowly walked away heading north across one of the famed hallways of Allen Fieldhouse.

Three months later, I learned he had passed away. While I didn’t know him well, I felt a loss of someone who patiently took his time with me on that night in 2003 to recall his KU experiences and just what KU basketball meant to him, and also remember so well how gracious Delvy was the few times we met. I think it was Roy Williams who once said that your “time” is the greatest “gift” you can ever bestow an individual, and Delvy always had time for me ... and everyone he came in contact with.

I am not a very religious person, but I truly admired Delvy’s unwavering faith, which no doubt helped him through his battle with bone marrow cancer (multiple myeloma). During our interview in 2003, he told me times were tough and the economy was slow, but he and his wife continued to persevere.

“My wife and I are both Christians, and we know the Lord has a plan for our lives,” Delvy said. “I’m very thankful for all I’ve been blessed with. We’re just trying to do the best we can with what we’ve got.”

I was so happy he was able to attend the 1966 reunion last December before he died, and also thrilled he was inducted into the Topeka Shawnee County Sports Council Hall of Fame in June 2010.

"It's nice to get this while you're alive," Lewis told the Topeka Capital-Journal at the time of his induction. "They gave me three to five years to live and that was seven years ago, so I'm two years on the good side. I've had two bone marrow transplants and my numbers are continually rising, but hey, I still play golf."

The Capital-Journal reported that “with the health battles that both Delvy and his wife, Karen (she is a cancer survivor) have fought, Lewis said he's increasingly appreciative of all the good things that have come his way, including Wednesday's honor.”

"This is really for God's glory because I wouldn't be here," Lewis said. "We're all on borrowed time, we just don't know it.”

Delvy certainly made the most of his time on earth. While I never saw him play at KU (I did see him play an exhibition game in the early 1990s), I’m a Jayhawk sports history buff and know what a great contributor he was to those teams under Dick Harp and Ted Owens from 1963-66.

Delvy, a former standout at Washburn Rural High School whose team won the state championship in 1960 with his dear friend and the late shooting star Ron Paradis, was maybe the unsung hero of the 1966 KU team, which went 23-4 and advanced to the Midwest Regional Finals before losing to eventual NCAA champs Texas Western.

Playing alongside stars like Walt Wesley and Jo Jo White, Lewis was the team’s co-captain, playmaker and leader who got the Jayhawks into their offensive and defensive sets. He was the tenacious defender who never backed down. And he was a terrific free-throw shooter with an 82.5 percentage as a senior. Delvy, quite simply, endeared himself to his teammates, coaches, and Jayhawk Nation.

"Delvy was a great leader and a great competitor,” Owens said in a statement after Lewis’ death. “By sheer force of hard work he made himself an all-league player. His courage and his faith are what I'll remember about him. I'm so glad he was able to come to our (1965-66 team) reunion at Allen Fieldhouse in December.”

Delvy Lewis, who played with boundless courage, faith and heart, died with boundless courage, faith and heart on March 5.

Delvy, “God bless” and R.I.P.

Calipari's Roots at KU

Love him or hate him, Kentucky coach John Calipari was once a Jayhawk. He got his coaching start at KU as a volunteer assistant in 1982 under head coach Ted Owens. He then served as a part-time assistant the next two years under Larry Brown before leaving KU and eventually making his coaching mark, culminating in winning his first national championship recently on April 2. This is a piece I wrote on Calipari on April 7, 2008, the day of the national title game before his Memphis Tigers battled KU. The Jayhawks, of course, won that game with Mario Chalmers hitting the biggest shot in Kansas basketball history. In this article, Calipari reflects on his KU days back in the 80s, calling them the “best time of my life.”

By David Garfield

Phog.net Senior Writer

Posted Apr 7, 2008

SAN ANTONIO — John Calipari remains forever grateful that his coaching career began at the University of Kansas.

Of course, the Memphis head coach would love to beat KU in the national championship game tonight. However, win or lose, he won’t ever forget his three seasons as a KU assistant (1982-85) under Ted Owens and Larry Brown.

On the day before his first national championship game, John Calipari fondly recalled how it all started.

“Bob Hill (then-KU assistant coach) and I were working at Camp Five Star,” Calipari said. “(He) said, ‘Why don’t you come out and work our camp?’ I said, ‘Okay.’ I worked his camp. Ted Owens watched me do a station. He said, ‘Why don’t you stay here. I can’t pay you. If you want to help out and be in the office and stuff envelopes, and learn about college basketball, I’d love to have you here.’”

After just receiving a business marketing degree from Clarion State College in Pennsylvania, the bright-eyed Calipari jumped at the opportunity.

“I went, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Calipari said. “So I went out there with two pair of shoes, three pairs of slacks, a blue blazer, three shirts, and two ties, happy as hell.”

Calipari was a volunteer his first year under Owens, and then a part-time assistant for two years under new head coach Larry Brown.

Calipari had a ball, even though he was financially challenged.

“To eat, I worked at the training meal,” he said. “The Sinclairs ran the training table. I would serve peas or corn. (I’d ask people), ‘What would you like, peas or corn?’ I (said), ‘I’ll be there early for practice if you want to do some extra shooting.’

“I remember the first time in Allen Fieldhouse, the old locker room, I went in and it was old. I’m thinking Phog Allen showered (here). I said, ‘This has been her since the building, right?’ They said, ‘Yeah.’ The storied history of Kansas. The environment to live, to raise a family. It was tough for a 25-year-old because you’re not going to hang around the students. You didn't’ have any money to go to the country club. But what it made me do, I just got into basketball. I was in the office all the time doing stuff. It was a great time, and I met my wife in Kansas. She was poor, I was poor.”

Calipari certainly isn’t poor anymore. He’s become one of the best coaches in college basketball and led both UMass (1996) and Memphis to the Final Four. After leaving Kansas, Calipari served as an assistant at Pittsburgh for three years before taking the UMass head coaching job in 1988. He coached there until 1996, taking the Minutemen to five straight NCAA tournaments (1992-96).

He left UMass in June of 1996 to become executive vice president of basketball operations and head coach of the New Jersey Nets. After leading the Nets to a second-place finish in the Atlantic Division and the playoffs in 1998, Calipari was eventually fired the following year.

That’s when he got a call from Brown, the Philadelphia 76ers head coach, asking if Calipari would like to rejoin him as an assistant.

“I’m so appreciative of Larry Brown as a mentor and friend,” Calipari said. “I walked with him this morning on the Riverwalk. None of the things that have happened for me or my family would have happened (if it wasn’t for him).  ... He didn’t have to (hire me as an assistant). He didn’t need me. The guy is a Hall of Famer.”

“I had three calls when I got fired,” Calipari added. “Larry Brown, my father, and Howard Garfinkel (who Calipari knew when he worked Garfinkel’s Five-Star Camp). That’s why Larry Brown reaching out and saying, ‘Come on down here and join me,’ what it did for me, one, it starts to bring you back. Men, their livelihood, how they make a living, is how they think they are. That’s their life. So you kind of die. And so he helps there (and) also confirmed how I felt about the game and how to teach it because I was with him.”

After a year with Philly, Calipari was hired as the University of Memphis’ 16th head basketball coach on March 11, 2000. He has since left an indelible mark with the program. In fact, his 104 victories since 2005-06 tie Memphis for the No. 1 spot on the all-time NCAA Division I  list for most wins (104) in three years.

KU coach Bill Self has great respect for Calipari. Self actually became a graduate assistant at KU in 1985 three weeks after Calipari left KU for Pittsburgh.

“I’ve known Cal forever,” Self said. “Going to UMass and then coming to Memphis and getting both places to the Final Four is a remarkable, remarkable accomplishment.”

Calipari gives Self props as well.

“Through that connection (with Brown), we’ve been friends,” Calipari said. “I am so happy for him and what he’s been able to do in his career. He’s a good man. He’s a great coach. We probably recruit the same type of kids and the same players. (We) recruit more against Kansas than I recruit against anybody else.

“We’re two competitive coaches. It’s easier for me when I like somebody than it is if I really want to beat somebody, because that gets me off point. I tell (my players), ‘You get inspired when you’re mad.’ I can’t do it. I’d rather have a guy that I really respect and like. Let me go coach against that guy, have fun doing it.”

Calipari hopes to have a lot of fun Monday night coaching against Self in the national championship game. But even if he wins it all, that moment can never replace the three years he spent at Kansas.

"It was the best time of my life," Calipari said.

http://kansas.scout.com/2/744264.html 

College basketball blue bloods Kansas and Kentucky collide tonight in national championship game

I wrote this piece before the national championship game between KU and UK on April 2.


By David Garfield

As Kansas marches into the national championship game tonight against Kentucky — the two winningest teams in college basketball history (UK is No. 1 and KU No. 2) — my mind races back to a recurring dream I had as a teenager growing up in Lawrence and attending South Junior High.

The picture and dream is indelibly etched in my mind. It’s the NCAA championship — Kansas vs. Kentucky. KU is down by one point with 20 seconds left in the game. Darnell Valentine, the Jayhawk point guard sensation with the tree-trunk thighs, dribbles the ball upcourt as KU fans around the country watch with bated breath. With seven seconds remaining, Valentine deftly penetrates the lane and then dishes the ball to Tony Guy. Guy takes one dribble and lets fly a 20-foot jumper at the buzzer that all KU faithful pray hits nothing but net.

Swish. KU wins the national championship.

I’d get mad chills thinking about that perfect scenario. Unfortunately, that dream never became reality as Guy and Valentine’s national title hopes fell short in 1981 with a loss to Wichita State in the Sweet 16.

But now, 31 years later, KU (32-6) — those tough, gritty, comeback kids — will go toe to toe with the Kentucky Wildcats (37-2) at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans in what could be a classic championship game.

It seems so fitting that two of the most tradition-rich and storied schools should finally meet for the first time in the national title game. These programs are intrinsically tied together with Adolph Rupp, the late, legendary Kentucky coach, actually playing for Phog Allen at KU and winning the Helms Foundation National Championship (retroactively) in 1922 and 1923.

Allen, the Father of Basketball Coaching, retired in 1956 as the winningest coach in college basketball history with 746 victories to just 264 losses in his 50-year coaching career. Eleven years later on Feb. 18, 1967, Rupp — the “Baron of Basketball” — broke his mentor’s record with a 103-74 win over Mississippi State. Rupp, who retired in 1972, amassed 876 career wins in his 42-year coaching tenure in Lexington, currently the fourth winningest mark just behind KU graduate Dean Smith.

The rich storyline between the two schools is even more intriguing considering that on Dec. 10, 1977, Rupp died at age 76 on the night Kentucky beat Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse during a game billed as “Adolph Rupp Night.”

I’m a history buff and always lived for those Kentucky and KU games during my wonder years growing up just five minutes from Allen Fieldhouse and watching most of the home contests live as the teams embarked on a 15-year series from 1971 to 1985. While KU won just twice during that span (in 1973 and 1985 — both in the fieldhouse), those games were full of intense excitement and energy in the Phog, giving me goosebumps each time.

The chills were never greater than on Dec. 12, 1981 at Allen Fieldhouse when my hero Guy swished a shot from the top of the key in overtime against Kentucky. I immediately jumped out of my seat (Section 2, Row 4, Seat 3) and hugged my dad out of sheer delight, wanting to hold on to that moment forever. Despite KU losing the game, the resounding cheers from the crowd after Guy hit that thrilling shot still echo in my mind three decades later.

While KU and UK met again after 1985 in a two-year series in 1989-90 (and in 1998 for a made-for-TV Great Eight Game and a 1999 NCAA tournament game), and then another home-and-home series from 2005-06, the series was again discontinued.

I’ve always felt KU and Kentucky should play on a regular basis. And so do fans of the two schools, including former Jayhawk standout and huge KU booster Tom Kivisto. Just before the Jayhawks and Wildcats tipped off in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Chicago in 2007, Kivisto told me he was working at the time to promote and renew a regular-season series between the two schools.

“You look at the history of these two teams, it’s unbelievable,” Kivisto said. “What’s great about that story is that a lot of modern day people who just get caught up on the road to the Final Four the last 20 years wouldn’t know that richness. So it’s a great new story that’s an old story to bring out as new. It would be a fabulous revival, one that would probably rival the Duke-North Carolina (series) that gets a lot of publicity. This one’s got a lot richer (history).

“They need to play every year, and we’re not far from each other. It ought to happen.”

While KU and UK haven’t played a home-and-home series since I talked to Kivisto in 2007, they now meet on the grandest stage of college basketball on Monday night in New Orleans, a rematch of their earlier battle this season on Nov. 15 in Madison Square Garden in New York, which Kentucky won, 75-65.

For basketball purists, this was meant to be since James Naismith — KU’s first basketball coach — invented the game and hung up the the first peach basket in 1891 at Springfield College in Massachusetts.

KU vs. Kentucky for college basketball biggest prize. It doesn’t get much better with both teams so steeped in hoops history.

After all, Kentucky has been to 15 Final Fours (tied for No. 3 all time); KU has earned 14 Final Four berths (No. 5 all time). UK has 52 NCAA tournament appearances (No. 1 all time); KU has been to the Big Dance 41 times (No. 4). The Wildcats have won seven NCAA championships (No. 2 all time); KU has won three NCAA titles (tied for No. 6 all time). And KU has boasted 28 consensus first-team All-Americans (No. 1 all time) to Kentucky's 24 (tied for No. 4).

While UK will be the overwhelming favorite to win the game, just like Oklahoma was in 1988 against KU in the national title game (KU upset the Sooners, 83-79), Kansas knows it can top the talent-laden Wildcats, especially if they “muddy” up the game and not let UK get in rhythm.

“I truly believe in my heart we can beat anybody,” KU coach Bill Self said. “We may not be favored in a series if we're playing four out of seven, but in my heart I believe we can beat anybody.”

KU showed its toughness against Kentucky early in its second game this season on Nov. 15 with the Jayhawks up by seven points twice in the first half before the Wildcats pulled away after halftime with a 75-65 victory.

Over four months later, the two best players in college basketball will battle again in Kentucky's Anthony Davis and KU’s Thomas Robinson. And two of the best coaches in college hoops will match wits in Kentucky’s John Calipari and KU's Self — two men who were on opposite sidelines in the 2008 national title game when Self’s Jayhawks beat Calipari’s Memphis Tigers. Calipari, as many know, once sat on the KU bench as an assistant to Ted Owens and Larry Brown in the 1980s.

While former Jayhawks Darnell Valentine and Tony Guy never had the opportunity to meet and beat Kentucky for the national championship, the dream lives on. Now, Tyshawn Taylor is the silver quick point guard who could be penetrating the lane tonight with seven seconds left with KU down one point to Kentucky and dishing to Elijah Johnson for the biggest 20-foot jumper of his life.

I can close my eyes and see Johnson — Mr. Big Shot — with his feet set and confidence high, effortlessly releasing the ball, the orange leather spinning upwards towards the goal.

Nothing but net at the buzzer.

KU wins the national championship ... and my childhood dream finally becomes reality.

Teahan gunning to win a (second) national championship

I wrote this story on Conner Teahan before the Final Four. Teahan would have become the only player in KU history to win two national titles had KU defeated Kentucky.

By David Garfield

Conner Teahan was about 14 years old when he first remembers watching the Final Four at his home in Leawood, Kan., in April 2003.

He cheered wildly as his beloved Jayhawks crushed Marquette in the national semifinals, and then he felt the heartbreak when KU lost to Syracuse in the national championship game.

Teahan dreamed that one day he would be a Jayhawk and play in the Final Four like those KU standouts at that time like Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison.

He got his wish in 2008 as a seldom-used KU reserve and helped his team cut down the national championship nets at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Now, four years later, the 6-6 senior guard is headed back to the Final Four this Saturday in New Orleans as KU’s sixth man when his Jayhawks take on Ohio State.

Like in 2008, there is unfinished business for this Jayhawk team.

“It’s awesome,” Teahan said about making the Final Four. “It’s a lot of fun, but I don’t think we’re just happy to be here. We’re obviously happy with where we’ve gotten this far this season, but we’re not satisfied yet. We’re going to try to obviously get in the championship game and see if we can win it.”

As the only Jayhawk left from that 2008 national title team, Teahan (5.7 ppg) has tried to impart his wisdom of the madness KU will be facing in New Orleans.

“I did tell them it’s going to be crazy and just listen to coach (Bill) Self and limit distractions, because that’s a huge part of this week,” Teahan said. “As long as we can do that, I think we’ll be very successful.”

Teahan hopes to break out of his shooting slump in New Orleans after making just three of 19 three-pointers in his last six games this postseason. But he’s not too worried about his shot. He knows KU must continue to play great defense if the ‘Hawks have any hopes of being the last team standing on April 2 after the national title game.

KU ranks No. 4 in the country in field goal percentage defense, holding foes to just 38 percent from the field. Kansas is also limiting opponents to 33.7 percent from beyond the arc and allowing 61.6 points per game.

Those numbers compare well to the 2008 team. That squad, led by such defensive stalwarts as Brandon Rush, Russell Robinson, Mario Chalmers and Sasha Kaun, held opponents to 37.9 percent field goal shooting and 32.8 percent from three, while allowing just 61.5 points per game.

Teahan sees some defensive similarities with the 2008 and 2012 teams.

“We probably compare to how hard we try on the defensive end,” he said. “I don’t know if we’re as good defensively just because of the athletes they had, but I think we pay a lot of attention to that.”

The senior said the great team unity of this squad also compares favorably to 2008, but added KU’s teams have always been pretty close since he’s been here.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a year where we’ve had a locker room divided at all,” he said. “For the most part, everybody’s very close (on this team). I think this might be one of those tighter teams we’ve had.”

And everybody knows their role in Self’s system.

“We just have people who really understand what it is to be part of a team and doing their job,” Teahan said. “I think that deserves the credit for us getting as far as we have.”

Now Teahan is looking forward to playing the No. 2 seeded and No. 7-ranked Buckeyes (31-7; OSU has won eight of its last nine games), the team KU defeated back in Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 10, 78-67, in the Jayhawks’ ninth game this season. Teahan had five points in 18 minutes, while teammate Thomas Robinson led four players in double figures with 21 points. OSU, playing without injured star and now first-team All-American Jared Sullinger (17.6 ppg, 9.1 rpg), was led by William Buford’s 21 points. Deshaun Thomas added 19 while point guard Aaron Craft had 11 points and six assists. 

KU shot a sizzling 58.3 percent for the game, including 52.9 percent from beyond the arc (9-17), while holding the Buckeyes to just 38.7 percent shooting and 29.4 percent from three (5-17).

Teahan admits he’s a bit foggy about that game played so long ago.

“I don’t remember a ton about it,” he said. “It seems like forever when we played in December. We were definitely a different team then and they were a different team. They obviously didn’t have Sullinger, so that was a huge thing for them. They’re a really good team. I know it was a challenge the first time to be able to play them in the fieldhouse; it was obviously an advantage for us. But I’m looking forward to Saturday.”

If the Jayhawks are fortunate to get past the Buckeyes on Saturday, KU will march to the national title game on Monday.

And Teahan’s family and Jayhawk Nation will be watching with bated breath.

Teahan, of course, dreams of winning it all. If KU does indeed cut down the nets at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on April 2, Teahan will have the distinct honor of becoming the first player in Jayhawk history to win two national championships.

“It would mean a lot to me personally, but I think just being able to win a national championship would mean so much to this community and this team and coach Self and all the coaches,” he said. “I think it’s just more than me personally being able to win it. I think whenever you win a national championship is awesome, and obviously I would like to have a legacy like that (winning two national titles), but at the same time, I think just winning this national championship is important.”

2002 KU team returned to the Final Four 10 years ago for first time since 1993

By David Garfield

After Roy Williams and his Jayhawks came so close to winning the national championship in 1991 and 1993, his hunger burned even stronger to be the last team standing at the end of the season.

Coach Williams’ ‘91 team lost to Duke in the national title game, while his ‘93 squad fell to North Carolina in the national semifinals. After that painful loss to UNC, Williams was already looking for redemption.

“We’ve been knocking on the door and we’re going to keep knocking until we knock it down,” Williams said at the time.

Entering the 2001-02 season, it had been just over eight long years since Williams and KU had reached the Final Four. Williams kept winning games, fans and conference titles, but the coach had come under fire by some critics for failing to make the Final Four and win it all with such great players like Paul Pierce, Jacque Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz and Scot Pollard from the 1997 team, the best squad in college hoops that season which was stunned in the Sweet 16 by Arizona.

Williams had other powerful teams, but for whatever reason (tightness, etc.) they always came up short in March. However, Williams now believed he had his best chance since 1998 to make a run for the national championship. 

After all, he had four returning starters in Nick Collison, Drew Gooden, Kirk Hinrich and Jeff Boschee, mixed with one of the best recruiting classes in the nation featuring Keith Langford and McDonald’s All-Americans Wayne Simien and Aaron Miles.

On page 10 of the 2001-02 KU Media Guide featured this headline:

“Impressive Mix Of Youth And Experience Has Jayhawks Poised For 2002 National Title Chase.”

Still, Williams knew there were question marks for a squad which hadn’t won the Big 12 title since 1998 and lost Eric Chenowith (team’s second-leading rebounder), Kenny Gregory (No. 2 leading scorer) and Luke Axtell from last season’s 26-7 team, which advanced to the Sweet 16 for just the first time since 1997.

How would KU fare with a smaller, three-guard lineup of Boschee, Hinrich and Miles? How would the four freshmen (Michael Lee was also beginning his KU career) adjust to major college basketball? And how would KU’s thin frontline depth fare if KU’s starters faced foul trouble?

While most prognosticators still viewed KU as one of the nation’s top 10 teams, one preseason magazine picked the Jayhawks to finish just third in the Big 12.

“The pressure to win, here in America’s Heartland, has subsided,” ESPN.com’s Andy Katz wrote on Oct. 16, 2001. “If that’s possible when it comes to Kansas basketball. But these Jayhawks seem looser, at least more relaxed, which means a Final Four run is a lot more realistic this season.”

One fact seemed certain: KU was going to enjoy the journey.

“This team will have a feeling of let’s have some fun while we play our tails off,” Williams told Katz that October day. “(Last season’s seniors) Eric and Kenny did what they were supposed to do for us, but in the back of their minds they were thinking about the NBA last season. Luke was so unsettled (because of injuries). All three did a great job for us, but I think we’ll have a more normal situation.”

KU’s road to a possible Final Four and national championship a decade ago had a bumpy start with a season-opening loss (93-91) to Ball State in the EA Sports Maui Invitational. That was KU’s first season-opening defeat since 1990 and snapped its 36-game win streak in the month of November.

But Kansas would rebound and win its next 13 games while eclipsing 100 points four times, including a 105-97 victory at No. 4 Arizona to open December, KU’s first win over a top five team since 1997.

After suffering an 87-77 loss at No. 11 UCLA, Kansas dominated the rest of the regular season, winning 14 straight games en route to a 16-0 record in Big 12 play. The Jayhawks made history by becoming the first Big 12 team to go undefeated in conference play.

KU was winning games with an exciting, uptempo attack featuring that splendid three-guard lineup who pushed the ball after every opponent’s missed or made shot. Miles had stepped into his starting role at point guard and ran the offense with aplomb; Boschee was one of the nation’s most feared three-point shooters; and Hinrich was a complete guard who could shoot, pass, and defend the other team’s best wing player.

Up front, Gooden had come into his own as one of America’s best and become a double-double machine. Collison was a powerful force inside as well (“That was an unbelievable frontcourt,” Pollard said) and Simien was a rising star off the bench. And then there was another key reserve in Langford, who could provide instant offense.

The high-octane and high-flying Jayhawks were winning fans, former players, and opposing coaches over with their play.

After KU whipped Bob Knight’s Texas Tech team, 108-81, in February in Allen Fieldhouse, the normally reserved Knight gushed over the Jayhawks.

“I think we just got beat by a much better team,” Knight said. “We knew coming in how good they were. What they have in this team is that they are relentless. They just keep playing, and playing, and playing. I don’t think that other teams understand this. They are really fun to watch. They come at you full throttle. There is just a relentless quality to this team.”

The “R” word was used often describing this impressive 2001-02 Final Four team, which was honored this season with its 10-year anniversary during the Iowa State game at Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 14.

“I can finally say now that we are relentless. We’re not going to give up. We’re not going to give in,” Gooden said in February 2002. “We have something this year, it’s heart. In past years, we never had heart and we gave in. ... We’re sticking together. I think we’re a championship team.”

KU’s march to the national championship began in postseason play at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo., for the Big 12 Tournament. The No. 1 Jayhawks were riding high after sweeping the Big 12 and beating Missouri in Columbia, 95-92, in the regular-season finale.

And they drove their motor into a higher gear in their first two games in Kansas City.

Kansas first blitzed Colorado, 102-73 (KU’s 102 points set a Big 12 Tournament record), and then Texas Tech, 90-50.

However, KU’s 16-game winning streak ended in the tournament championship against Oklahoma, 64-55. Kansas shot just 33.3 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from three-point range as Hinrich missed all 10 shots, including six three-pointers.

For KU and its star Gooden, it was time to refocus heading into the Big Dance.

“I got my eyes on the prize,” Gooden said with his trademark smile.

At 29-3, KU was awarded a prized No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional and opened the first two rounds in nearby St. Louis.

First up was Holy Cross.

While a No. 16 seed had never beaten a No. 1 seed, Holy Cross was actually ahead of KU at halftime, 37-35, before KU rebounded and grinded out a 70-59 victory.

KU’s win set up a second-round matchup with No. 24 Stanford. The big question surrounding the game was the availability of Hinrich, who sprained his ankle late in the first half against Holy Cross.

The Sioux City, Iowa, native answered the call and turned in a gutty and memorable performance. After KU stormed out to a 15-0 lead, Hinrich came off the bench and sparked KU with 15 points, eight assists and five rebounds in 21 minutes as Kansas coasted to an 86-63 victory over the Cardinal. KU shot 52.2 percent from the field and 47.4 percent from downtown, while holding Stanford to a season opponent low 13.6 percent (3 of 22) from three-point range.

But the story of the game was the fearless Hinrich, who never stopped diving for loose balls despite his injury.

“He is as tough a youngster as I’ve ever coached,” Williams said afterwards. “He is one player I have never questioned his ‘want-to.’ With some kids sometimes you do, with Kirk never, and that says a lot.”

So now the Jayhawks were back in the Sweet 16 against Bill Self’s Illinois team, which had eliminated them from the NCAA tournament last year in the same round.

But KU, which was overmatched by Illinois’s toughness a year ago and whipped, 80-64, featured a different team this time. They were more mature, tougher, better, and more hungry to reach the Final Four and win a national championship.

KU eventually prevailed in a tight battle, 73-69, at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisc., with defense and rebounding. KU held Illinois to just 38.1 percent shooting while outrebounding the Fighting Illini, 41-34. With Hinrich (three points in 17 minutes) and Collison (11 points and nine rebounds in 20 minutes) forced to the bench with foul  trouble, the fab three freshmen of Simien, Miles and Langford picked up the slack with 35 combined points.

Self, now the KU head coach, remembers that contest quite well.

“We had a shot, wide open 16-footer to put it into overtime,” Self said. “Kansas really got a bad draw that year being a one seed because they got a four seed (Illinois) in their bracket that was playing as well as a one seed at that time. We were playing so good. We won like 11 in a row. That was a great game.”

The Jayhawks hoped to keep the magic going against the strong No. 11 and two-seeded Oregon Ducks  in the Elite Eight.

And they did.

Kansas broke open a 48-42 game at halftime by winning 104-86, the second-most points scored in an NCAA tournament game by the Jayhawks. Gooden (18 points and 20 rebounds) and Collison (25 points and 15 rebounds) were unstoppable inside as KU dominated the glass, 63-34. Langford was also brilliant off the bench with 20 points in just 22 minutes.

As the KU players and coaches, one by one, cut down the nets in front of their rabid supporters at Kohl Center and the Jayhawk Nation watching on national television, Williams smiled with great pride and soaked in the moment.

“It’s a great feeling,” Williams said then. “To watch these kids celebrate and cut down the net, it’s the greatest moment you can have as a coach.”

But make no mistake, Williams and KU didn’t come this far to cut down just one net in the Big Dance. They wanted to cut down another one on April 1 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta after winning the national championship, the prized net which had eluded this program since Danny and the Miracles won it all in 1988.

But that task wouldn’t be easy facing No. 4 Maryland, a hot and confident team like Kansas which was 30-4 and won 17 of its last 19 games. The Terrapins boasted great talent in forwards Chris Wilcox, Lonny Baxter and Byron Mouton, plus dynamite guards Juan Dixon and Steve Blake.

With a crowd of 53,378 on hand and hyped Jayhawk fans also gathered in Memorial Stadium watching the game on the football video board, KU jumped out to a 13-2 lead. However, Williams wasn’t too happy with KU’s shot selection during that run.

“We started the game by taking several bad shots that all went in,” Williams wrote in his 2009 autobiography, “Hard Work: A Life on and off the Court.” 

“During a timeout, I told my team, ‘Guys, let’s not live by that because we could die by that.’ That’s fool’s gold. Let’s get the shots we want.”

But the Jayhawks continued taking “a few more bad shots” that didn’t hit nylon.

Williams wrote then “we started panicking and never really recovered. Looking back on it, I didn’t know if I did the right thing by questioning those shots, but I thought taking bad shots would eventually cost us the game, and it did.”

Maryland stormed back after its early deficit and went into halftime with a 44-37 lead. The Terrapins, behind Dixon’s game-high 33 points, extended their lead to 20 with 6:10 remaining before the Jayhawks came charging back and cut the lead to just five with 2:10 to play.

However, KU would could come no closer as Maryland won, 97-88. Collison led KU with 21 points and 10 rebounds while Miles also posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists.

“I was about as proud as my team as I’ve ever been in my entire life,” Williams said in the postgame press conference about KU’s valiant rally. “They kept believing that they could still get it done, made a fantastic comeback, got it to five. We had the ball with a minute and 23 to play, I think it was. But we couldn’t quite get over the hump.”

Despite the loss and not playing its best (KU shot just 43.3 percent and committed a season-high 27 fouls), it was a magical season for Williams’ Jayhawks. They left an indelible mark in school history with setting single-season records in points scored (3,365) and steals (357), while ranking second in Jayhawk annals in points per game (90.9), rebounds (1,638), field goals (1,259), free throws (623), three-point field goal percentage (.418), assists (767) and steals per game (9.65).
 
KU (33-4) also led the nation in four categories — points per game (90.9), assists per game (20.7), field goal percentage (50.6) and winning percentage (.892).

Gooden, who left college after that junior season to enter the NBA draft, collected a Big 12 and school-record 25 double-doubles and 423 rebounds (second most at the time behind Wilt Chamberlain in a single season in KU history) while becoming a consensus first-team All-American and just the second player in Jayhawk history to amass at least 1,500 career points, 900 rebounds, 100 block shots and 100 steals. 

Boschee, meanwhile, concluded his career as the all-time three-point field goal shooter in Kansas and Big 12 history.

That team boasted arguably as much talent as any squad in KU history with four players (Hinrich, Collison, Simien and Gooden) ultimately having their jerseys retired and hanging in the Allen Fieldhouse rafters. Then there’s Miles, who currently ranks No. 8 in NCAA history in career assists, while Langford is KU’s seventh all-time leading scorer.

Indeed, it was a team for the ages.

“That was a fabulous basketball team, a great team,” Self said. “I would say that would rival Roy’s teams with Paul and Raef and Jacque and Scot, that group. I think they were right there, real close to those guys.”

Self definitely believes the 2001-02 team was “the best team in the country that year.”

“Whenever you can bring Keith and Wayne off the bench, even though they’re young, that’s pretty good. They had all the pieces,” Self said. “They had a designated shooter (Boschee), they had a designated point (Miles), they had guys on the wing that could make plays and throw it inside to two lottery picks (Collison and Gooden). The two guard (Hinrich) was arguably the best guard in the country.”

These were great players who truly became a TEAM and sacrificed each practice and game while enjoying the road to the Final Four.

“We've had some teams where it's been a battle every day just to get them to practice,” Williams said following the season. “Some teams you have to push a lot harder and pull, this team I didn't. It was fun to be at practice with these kids and they worked pretty doggone hard. When push came to shove during the big moments, they played their tails off. This team is not afraid to step up and make big plays, they didn't shy back, they didn't retreat, they didn't get too cautious. They weren't afraid of what's going to happen, they just went after it.”

While KU didn’t knock down the door and win the national championship, the emotional and tearful Williams was quite proud of how far they came. As far as he was concerned, all his players in the locker room that evening after the Maryland loss were winners.

 “I thought we were going to be pretty good this year. But I didn't think we were going to be as good as we were,” Williams said. “This bunch is a heck of a basketball team, and they took old Roy for a really good ride. I would have liked to have gone a couple more days, but they took me for a great ride.”