Cedric Hunter was one of the most underrated and best point guards in KU history

In this three-part series on former KU standout point guard Cedric Hunter, I reflect on his high school, college and pro career and his life after professional basketball.

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Cedric Hunter was a high school star out of Omaha South who led the state in scoring his junior and senior years, including 27.3 points per game as a senior. He was named all-metro and all-state, while honored as a Converse All-American. However, he played center in high school and was lightly recruited due to his small stature at just 6-foot.

Despite manning the center position in high school, Hunter’s prep coach Bob Whitehouse had no doubts Hunter could become a great point guard in college.

“There won’t be any trouble with him making the transition to point guard,” Whitehouse said in the KU Media Guide before Hunter’s freshman season in 1983-84.

In one of the smartest decisions of then-KU coach Larry Brown’s coaching career, he offered Ced a scholarship after a track and field meet in Omaha, without ever seeing him play basketball in person. Brown was impressed with Hunter’s supreme athleticism, and thought he could impact the KU program. Hunter was part of Brown's first recruiting class, along with Mark Turgeon and Chris Piper.

Boy, was Brown right about Hunter! All he did in four years at KU (1983-87) was become the school’s all-time and Big Eight assist leader with 684 dimes, a record that stood for 10 years until KU’s Jacque Vaughn broke it in 1997.

Hunter averaged 5.8 assists per game for his career with an impressive 2.14 assist-to-turnover ratio. He also averaged 1.3 steals and 8.5 points per game (career-high 11.6 ppg his senior year in 1986-87) and recorded 1,022 career points in 118 games while averaging 30.2 minutes per contest.

For many people who said he couldn’t shoot, including KU coach Bill Self, who was a graduate assistant during Hunter’s sophomore year, Ced shot a scorching 53.5 field goal percentage for his career, including an eye-popping career-best 56.2 field goal percentage his sophomore season in 1985-86, where the unsung hero helped lead KU to the Final Four and most wins at the time in school history (35-4). That team remains one of the best in KU annals with Hunter at point guard, Ron Kellogg and Calvin Thompson at the wings, Danny Manning at power forward, and Greg Dreiling at center. The team went eight deep with Archie Marshall, Mark Turgeon and Chris Piper serving as instrumental reserves.

Self told the Kansas City Star in January 2019 that Hunter “couldn’t shoot a lick.” No offense to Self and many other detractors who felt the same way, but just look at the stats. No, Cedric didn’t have very good range (1-7 from three-point range his senior year), but he could simply knock down the wide-open 15-to-17 foot jumper. Opponents dared him to shoot, and Ced made them pay. Time and time again. I saw virtually all of Ced’s home games in Allen Fieldhouse in person and watched whenever KU was on TV, and he could shoot it from medium distance. So Self and others were completely wrong.

Hunter actually set a Big Eight record in 1986 by shooting an incredible 73.1 percent from the field in league games and was 8-of-8 from the field against Oklahoma that year, when he scored a season-high 19 points. He also shot 7-of-7 from the field versus Missouri in 1985. Beginning with his senior year, Hunter remarkably shot better than 70 percent from the field in 20 different games during his career.

His only weakness, besides his lack of perimeter range, was his free throw shooting. Hunter shot just 52.1 percent for his career, a very poor percentage, especially for a point guard. Brown said that Hunter looked at the ball while he shot, a no-no for a shooter. However, Brown believed in Hunter so much that he often had him shoot technicals to boost his confidence. More often than not, as I recall, Hunter made his free throws then. What a joy it must have been for Hunter to play for a coach who believed in him to shoot technicals, despite his poor free throw shooting.

Despite Self’s remarks about Ced’s shooting, he had tremendous respect for Hunter’s game. Hunter guarded Self during the KU coach’s career at Oklahoma State.

“I loved Cedric,” Self told the Kansas City Star on Dec. 23, 2019. “Coach (Larry) Brown did as well. He could guard anybody, had unbelievable length (39-inch arms), was explosive. He was not a great shooter, but maybe as good a point guard this place has seen, as good a point guard who doesn’t score the ball. Talk about a pure defender and setup guy, he was as good as anybody. You did not want him guarding you. You’d rather have anybody guard you than Cedric. He could lock you up.”

Self then further gushed about Hunter to the Omaha World Herald:

"Cedric probably was the best non-shooting player I've ever been around."

Self added to the Star on Jan. 28, 2019:

“Gosh was he great. Long arms, best on the ball defender, guys loved playing with him.”

Indeed, Hunter’s teammates deeply “loved playing with him.” 

Just ask Piper.

“Cedric Hunter was probably one of the most underrated point guards, I think, that KU has ever had. He was phenomenal and could really break everything down,” Piper told Mark Stallard in his 2005 book, Tales from the Jayhawks Hardwood.

Hunter drew great respect and admiration from his coaches, teammates and opponents alike. Brown talked on his Hawk Talk radio show during the 1985-86 season about Hunter’s defense against Duke All-American guard Johnny Dawkins in the preseason Big Apple NIT on Dec. 1, 1985.

“He got 20 I believe against us,” Brown said. “He came up to me after the game and said Cedric did the best job as any guard he’s played against since he’s been at Duke, and I thought that was a heck of a testimony. He got a lot on the break against us, and he’s just a tremendous athlete.”

Hunter improved each year, averaging 4.2 points his freshman season (he was declared academically ineligible after semester break), 6.7 points his sophomore year, 9.1 points as a junior, then 11.6 points his senior season. He also averaged a career-high 5.1 rebounds per game as a senior, pretty good numbers for a 6-foot point guard.

The KU Basketball Media Guide wrote in 1985-86 that “Brown feels Hunter is one of the most improved players he has ever coached.”

Hunter, who had a career-high 16 assists versus Oklahoma in the Big Eight postseason tournament in 1986, was the consummate point guard who ran the break as well as any guard in the country. My dad, who played hockey growing up in Toronto, was a huge fan of Ced’s, and said he reminded him of a hockey player on skates with the way he ran and orchestrated the break. Hunter always got the ball in the scorers’ best shooting position, and made the game so much easier for all his teammates.

Indeed, Piper was right. I’ve always thought “Electric” Cedric Hunter was one of the most underrated and best point guards KU has ever seen. He deserves all credit that is due for his remarkable career playing under the shadows of such stars as Manning, Kellogg, Dreiling and Thompson.

Jayhawk Hoops Players Childhood Heroes

Part of this blog originally appeared in Jayhawk Illustrated.

Bernard Malamud wrote in “The Natural” that “without heroes, we are all plain people, and don’t know how far we can go.”

Heroes show us the way, the unlimited possibilities we find in our heart, mind and soul. I certainly had heroes growing up in Lawrence, including those KU basketball players whom loomed larger than life for me as a bright-eyed kid whose life revolved around Jayhawk hoops 365 days per year.

I can vividly remember those magical fall afternoons at Park Hill Park on the asphalt court practicing basketball with my friend Lance in eighth grade and learning how to transform from a set shooter into a jump shooter as I’d sling my 10-foot jumper to the goal in front of the free throw line while pretending to be John Douglas. “The Franchise,” who once scored 46 points against Iowa State, had the perfect shot, a release so effortlessly and so smooth. After a while of practice, I finally got the strength to find the net.

I was so thrilled to see my shot tickle the twine and hoped my hero would be proud.

I also idolized Darnell Valentine and emulated him in every way. I wore my socks high like D.V., I shot free throws using his distinctive style, and tried to play relentless basketball just like him while competing against my taller friend Phillip in one-on-one battles. As Valentine entered the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers, I bought my beloved dog Snoopy Trail Blazer dog food and used to jog in place at home while looking at Valentine’s framed picture of leading a fast break. I jogged a little faster, raised my legs a little higher, my heart raced a little faster, as I drew inspiration and inner strength from my hero.

I put Douglas and Valentine on a pedestal. To me, they could do no wrong.

But what about the Kansas basketball players over the years like D.V. and “The Franchise.” Who were their heroes growing up? Who did they pretend to be while honing their game? I've always enjoyed asking former Jayhawks who they idolized in their childhood wonder years, who they pretended to be while hooping on the playground.

In this two-part series, we'll look at nine former Jayhawk standouts as they talk about their childhood heroes.

DARNELL VALENTINE (1977-81)

A four-time first-team All-Conference selection (only Jayhawk to accomplish that feat), a three-time Academic All-American and a 1981 All-American, Valentine was a legendary point guard who led KU to the Sweet 16 his senior year in ‘81. “The Penetrator” ranks first all time at Kansas in career steals and free throws made. He was arguably the best defensive guard to ever play for Kansas.

Valentine, who grew up in Wichita, idolized star NBA guards like Jo Jo White and spent many hours watching professional games on the tube with Goose Doughty, a mentor for many kids in the city.

“To this day, I can remember sitting in his house, watching NBA games on television,” Valentine told Jeff Bollig and Doug Vance in their 2008 book, “What it Means to be a Jayhawk.”

“He would always comment on the play, pointing out mistakes and bad coaching decisions. His favorite comment was, ‘That was a rookie move.’ He’d be all fired up, and we would just sit and laugh. ... I liked watching the NBA to see how the best players did it. I go back to the days of Hal Greer, Archie Clark, Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, Nate Archibald, and Jo Jo White.”

White, the former KU star and Boston Celtics Hall of Famer, was Valentine’s favorite.

“I loved Jo Jo’s game,” Valentine said. “He was so smooth. He would come back to KU in the summer and play with us. He was amazing. Here he was, a person who had been in the league for 10 years, and he was coming back and playing with us every day. He kept in such good shape. He looks like he could play today. He was a person I emulated. What I appreciated is he was so committed to helping us develop as players and people. I never got a chance to play against him because he retired just as I was entering the league.”

MARK TURGEON (1983-87)

This confident 5-10 point guard with braces from Hayden High School in Topeka, Kan., convinced KU coach Larry Brown to offer him a scholarship after a standout prep career, where he guided Hayden to a 41-1 record his junior and senior seasons, including a 25-0 record during his senior year.

Turgeon, who was an all-league, all-city and all-state selection at Hayden, was named MVP of the Kansas Basketball Classic and Pizza Hut Classic.

Entering his freshman season, the KU basketball media guide wrote that he was “considered by Brown to have all the tools to become a great point guard.”

Turgeon was co-captain his junior and senior seasons and part of the rebirth of Kansas basketball under Brown, helping the Jayhawks drive to the 1986 Final Four. Turgeon, now the head coach at Maryland who led the team in assists his freshman season with 138 (No. 3 on single-season freshman list), currently ranks No. 12 at Kansas in career helpers with 437 while tied with several players for most games played in a season (39 in 1986).

John Hendel, in his 1991 book, “Kansas Jayhawks: History-Making Basketball,” wrote that Turgeon “used to play mock games pitting Kansas against Notre Dame and took time to imitate the Jayhawks of the time such as Paul Mokeski, Ken Koenigs, and Clint Johnson. He idolized Darnell Valentine."

“I used to be Darnell,” Turgeon said. “I used to try to shoot free throws like Darnell and do everything like Darnell. We had a puppy and we named it D.V.”

TERRY BROWN (1989-91)

Brown could light up the nets in a hurry as very few Jayahwks ever have. A phenomenal three-point shooter and high school All-American from Clyde, N.Y., the 6-2 guard exploded for a career-high 42 points against North Carolina State on Jan. 5, 1991, when he made the most three-pointers (11) ever in a game by a Jayhawk. Brown’s 111 threes in 1990-91 was also a school record for a single season, which stood for 27 years before Svi Mykhailiuk broke the mark with 115 threes in 2017-18. Former KU coach Roy Williams once said Brown, who played on the 1991 Final Four team, was one of the best shooters he’d ever coached.

Brown idolized his older brother growing up.

“My brother played. He was like the big basketball star up in the New York area,” Brown said in a 2003 interview. “That’s kind of what got me into playing basketball because I wanted to be a big star like him playing. Sonny Barnes was his name. He was four years older than me.

“Up in New York, I used to practice on my own for like six or seven hours (a day) sometime. I was probably in seventh grade. I used to practice in the rain, in the snow, and after football practice. I told myself I wanted to develop a shot that’s hard to block. I started shooting like that (behind my head) every day, just shooting around until I got it to the perfect shooting form. That’s pretty much where I came up with that shot because it’s hard to block. The only way you can block it is from behind, probably like 80 percent of the time you block it from behind, they’re going to call a foul. 

“That’s pretty much all I shot when I practiced, like three-point shots or far from the basket. I’d run home and get my ball and go out there and practice until the sun went down. There was a playground near my home.”

BOOTY NEAL (1977-81)

A great long-range bomber from Oxon Hill, Md., Neal got the attention of the Kansas coaching staff 

after an impressive showing in the preliminary game of the Capital Classic his senior year of high school. The 6-5 guard became a huge fan favorite in Allen Fieldhouse with his deep shot.

Neal’s heroes growing up were sharpshooters Rick Mount and Pete Maravich.

“(They) were sort of the two guys I’d sit at home and watch when I was in junior high school,” Neal said in a 2001 interview. “I used to love watching them. They shot the jump shot.”

Neal admits he “had the deep shot in boys club” at age 12.

“You just keep putting it up,” Neal said. “I don’t know how many shots a day, it was just constantly in practice. You just do the same things. You take the same shot. You take your favorite shot. My favorite shot was shooting from outside. l loved the wings, but when I was in boys club, I was able to kind of shoot from anywhere — top of the key, off the side, deep corner. Then when I got to junior high school (and emulated Mount and Maravich), it got ridiculous.

“Then when I got to high school, it got totally ridiculous. I had 50 points in one game, I had 30 at halftime. The freedom to know you’re going to play and you’re that team leader, that puts a lot on your shoulders. Michael Sweetney (former Georgetown star) graduated from my high school. He came along and broke a lot of my scoring records.

“In the neighborhood, they still talk about who was the best player. They tend to get my name out sometimes.”

Former KU standout Mark Turgeon bleeds crimson and blue

Head coach Mark Turgeon has led Maryland back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2003.

And now, Turgeon faces arguably the biggest game of his life when his Terrapins battle his alma mater Kansas tonight at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky, at approximately 8:40.

The winner advances to the Elite Eight. The loser goes home.

While Turgeon is only focused on this game, as a KU basketball reporter for the past 18 years who's been following Jayhawk hoops since 1973, I can daydream. And I hope “Turg” becomes the successor to Kansas coach Bill Self whenever Self retires from coaching or if he should ever leave for the NBA.

Turgeon has been a winner on almost every level (he went 25-29 as Jacksonville State coach in two seasons during his only losing tenure as head man) beginning with his storied career at Hayden High in Topeka, where the fearless point guard led his team to a 41-1 record his junior and senior years and to a 25-0 mark during his senior campaign, when he averaged 11.5 points and 6.8 assists per game and was named MVP of the Kansas Basketball Classic and Pizza Hut Classic.

At Kansas, Turgeon helped spark the turnaround of KU basketball by becoming the first Jayhawk to appear in four straight NCAA Tournaments. He helped lead Kansas to one regular-season title (1986) and two Big Eight Tournament championships (1984 and 1986) while being a part of the ‘86 Final Four team, when Self served as a graduate assistant.

Turgeon, who served as co-captain during his junior and senior seasons, finished his career third all time at KU in assists (now No. 12 with 437) and also set a freshman record for most assists (138). At just 5-10, 140 pounds, Turgeon served as a true leader for the Jayhawks that 1983-84 season, helping KU to its first NCAA Tournament in three years.

When he wasn’t hooping at Allen Fieldhouse, he brought his act to the JRP basketball courts with teammate Chris Piper and played in some heated and competitive pick-up games. I lived in JRP Hall for four years in college, and Turgeon was a legend at the courts. While the games were intense, he kept it fun and even showed his leadership and future coaching skills by orchestrating the show and inserting players into the games.

After concluding his KU career, Turgeon has embarked on a very successful coaching career with first serving as an assistant at Kansas under Larry Brown and Roy Williams for five years until 1992. He’s held head-coaching stops at Jacksonville State, Wichita State (he guided the Shockers to the Sweet 16 in 1997), Texas A&M and now Maryland.

Turgeon’s winning percentage of .600 was the best mark by a Maryland coach in his first two seasons. Turgeon, who is 114-58 in his fifth season at Maryland and 364-217 in 17 seasons overall, led the Terrapins to a school-record 26 wins during the regular season in 2014-15 (28 total wins that year). He’s kept it going this season, guiding Maryland to a 22-3 record before losing five of eight games entering the NCAA Tournament.

But this talented Maryland (27-8) team appears to be on the right track now with two wins in the Big Dance against South Dakota State and Hawaii. While Turgeon hates to play his alma mater in the Sweet 16 (he is 0-6 against KU, all games as Texas A&M head coach), he’s just thrilled to be there and looking forward to the challenge.

The former KU standout doesn’t believe it will be an odd feeling playing the Jayhawks considering he’s faced them six times before as head coach.

“The Kansas thing is not that weird to me anymore or unique,” Turgeon said Wednesday at his press conference. “It was a little bit that way the first time we played. Being at Texas A&M, we played them a lot. You get used to it.

“I'd rather play them in a national championship game than a Sweet 16 game, but here we are so we'll play it. It is what it is. As Bill can tell you when he plays Oklahoma State, which he's done a lot, it's probably not unique or weird to him anymore. He just does it. Kind of the way I feel about this game.”

Turgeon, who was part of Brown's first signing class at KU, then recalled his recruitment to Mount Oread.

“I was down on my knees begging coach Brown to take me,” Turgeon said. “That's what it came down to. Or my dad was doing that. I got very lucky. There was a coaching change (Brown replaced Ted Owens). The coach happened to be 5-11, like me. And thank God they had 15 scholarships back then. Now we only have 13 so I probably wouldn't have been on the team.

“It all worked out, and it was a one-year deal. It's like, ‘hey, you got one shot. If you don't -- doesn't work out, you won't be here next year.’ So it worked out. And I talked to coach Brown this week, and I just -- changed my life, obviously, for the better. So I was very fortunate and played on a lot of great teams, too, so it was a lot of fun.”

Turgeon indeed felt blessed to attend his dream school.

“I recruited KU, went to their camps, go to their games,” he said. “Yeah, I recruited them. So in the end, my high school coach, coach (Ben) Meseke, really helped set up a meeting and I was pretty confident at that age, to say the least, when I met with coach Brown.”

Turgeon, his Hayden teammate, and Meseke went out with Brown for ice cream. That’s when the famous and future Hall of Fame coach asked the “confident” Turgeon with braces why he felt he could play at storied Kansas.

"He said, 'Coach, I'm better than any guard you've got right now,'" Meseke told The Diamondback (Maryland’s student newspaper) recently. "It really made an impression."

Indeed, it did. Brown immediately offered the 18-year-old a scholarship.

And the rest is history.

Not only is Turgeon a proven winner but another big reason I want him to eventually succeed Self as KU head coach is because nobody loves the Jayhawks more than this Topeka native. He grew up idolizing Kansas and dreamed of playing for KU one day, much like former Kansas coach Dick Harp, the only man to play and coach his alma mater in the Final Four.

John Hendel, in his 1991 book, “Kansas Jayhawks: History-Making Basketball,” wrote that Turgeon “used to play mock games pitting Kansas against Notre Dame and took time to imitate the Jayhawks of the time such as Paul Mokeski, Ken Koenigs, and Clint Johnson. He idolized Darnell Valentine."

“I used to be Darnell,” Turgeon said. “I used to try to shoot free throws like Darnell and do everything like Darnell. We had a puppy and we named it D.V.”

It could be several years before the time comes when Self retires or leaves KU, but I can think of nobody more fitting to be the next KU head coach than Mark Turgeon.

Brown feels he’s a coaching gem.

“I love him,” Brown said when Turgeon became the Aggies’ head coach in 2007.

"He's smart enough to figure out what his kids can do, and tailor what he wants to do on their strengths,” Brown added of Turgeon, who was named Big 12 Coach of the year in 2010 and 2011 and is the only coach in Big 12 history with at least 24 wins in each of his four seasons.

“He's worked with Roy, but he's developed his own style. His teams are going to play hard, play unselfish and they are going to guard. I'm a huge fan of Mark Turgeon."

And so is the rest of Jayhawk Nation, although they won’t be pulling for Turgeon tonight against Kansas.

But for Turgeon, he will always bleed crimson and blue.

“I love Kansas,” Turgeon said in January 2009 before he returned to Allen Fieldhouse as head coach for the first time with his Aggies to play KU. “Ever since I was 4 or 5 years old, I’ve loved Allen Fieldhouse. I’ll be fired up. I’m looking forward to it. Kansas fans make me feel better than any fans I’ve ever been around. They’ve been really good to me my whole life.”