Kansas coach Roy Williams’ basketball camp annually attracts hundreds of males ages 8-19 from locales all over the Midwest.
Players from beginners to experts ex-KU standout Ryan Robertson and future Jayhawk Wayne Simien both have attended in the past converge on the camp, starting today and continuing during the next two weeks at Allen Fieldhouse and other venues across town.
A whopping 12 players from the tiny town of Bethalto, Ill., are here for this week’s camp experience.
Bethalto population 10,000 is better known as the hometown of former KU player Dave Taynor, a captain on the Jayhawks’ 1974 Final Four team. The city, located 30 miles north of St. Louis, also is the hometown of Mike Dreith, associate dean of Community Service at Lewis and Clark Community College.
Dreith, it seems, grew up idolizing Taynor and concocted the idea of driving one of two vans transporting the dozen Bethalto youths to Williams’ camp.
“He was a great ballplayer,” Dreith said of Taynor. “He averaged 28 points a game his junior and senior year of high school. I remember sitting in the basement with an old radio trying to get a Kansas City station to listen to him play at KU.
“I was in junior high and Taynor’s family was nice enough to take me to KU to see Dave play on a number of occasions. Allen Fieldhouse became one of my favorite spots on Earth.”
Dreith continued to follow KU basketball even after Taynor graduated. He yearly drives the family van five hours to KU for Late Night With Roy Williams and takes his sons to a pair of KU games per year.
“The love for KU basketball, the traditions, Allen Fieldhouse, the Rock Chalk chant … I guess it all has been something that my kids have picked up from me,” said Dreith, who attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, not KU.
His sons Andy (16), Doug (14) and Alex (11) are three-year veterans of the camp.
“We are making sure these boys understand the significance of KU basketball,” noted Dreith. “They are going to learn about Dr. James Naismith and his connection to Phog Allen, Adolph Rupp, Wilt Chamberlain and Dean Smith. They are going to learn the Rock Chalk chant. Today we had them all pose for a picture in front of Dr. Allen’s statue. Not everybody knew who he was, but I sure did and told them.”
They also examined the Final Four picture of Taynor’s ’74 squad on one of the fieldhouse walls.
“Only one problem,” Dreith said. “They spelled Taynor wrong. It’s spelled ‘Traynor’ under the picture. I’d love it if they corrected that.”
As for Taynor?
“He’s a businessman in our region,” Dreith said. “I don’t think he has a clue of the events he set in motion 30 years ago.”
In addition to Dreith’s three sons, other Bethalto youths here are: Mark Carey, Scott Schroeder, Jared Reynolds, Cory Endicott, Derek Mormino, Michael Hauser, Michael Watson, Michael Eddy and Andy Beck.
Jayhawks in the NBA update: The Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz have discussed a three-way trade involving Tariq Abdul-Wahad, Derek Anderson and either Howard Eisley or ex-Jayhawk Jacque Vaughn, the Denver Post has reported.
All four players are free agents who would be involved in sign-and-trade deals.
The Post says the agreement would send Abdul-Wahad from Denver to the Jazz, Eisley or Vaughn from the Jazz to the Clippers and Anderson from the Clippers to the Nuggets. The Salt Lake Tribune says the Jazz would be more likely to offer Vaughn to the Clippers than Eisley.
