Kansas’ Axtell still mum on ailment

By Gary Bedore     Apr 18, 2001

Journal-World File Photo
Luke Axtell still is nursing a bad back and won't play on the Jayhawks' barnstorming tour.

Luke Axtell will talk freely about his bad back, his country compact disc, his faith in God, his NBA hoop dreams and Kansas’ basketball barnstorming tour, which starts with a game tonight at Osage City.

He still will not, however, discuss the undisclosed medical condition that caused him to miss the last half of his junior season.

It appears that subject will remain taboo forever or until the day KU’s 6-foot-10, 220-pound senior from Austin, Texas, writes his memoirs.

“It’s not something that will benefit me in any way,” Axtell said. “Whatever people think, they are going to think anyway. The reason I said I was thinking about talking about it after the season was solely for the fans who stood by me.

“Some dude on the Internet said I had AIDS or a drug addiction and was getting on me. A lady stood up for me and said, ‘When he comes out and tells (the exact condition), you’ll be sorry.’

“I was going to do it so the people who put up for me could feel better about it. I think they are pretty confident now it was nothing like that.

“If I say what it was there’d be a trillion more questions about different stuff having to do with it. I don’t want to deal with that. If it just stayed here, that would be fine, but it won’t. It just so happens I have been a controversial national sports figure. I did an interview with somebody in L.A. and he asked me about my music. He said, ‘I figured it’d be heavy metal the way you are.’ It’s the image I have. Luke is like this I just don’t care.”

It has been speculated Axtell suffered from “mental exhaustion” in February of 2000 and that’s why he elected to leave KU’s team.

Axtell was asked if reporters could use that term to accurately describe his ailment.

“If you’d like yep,” he said. “I’m not gonna talk about it. If that’s what eases people’s curiosity then that’s fine. I don’t care. I mean that’s not it.”

Axtell’s current problem, of course, is two bulging disks and a degenerative disk in the back that forced him to miss the Big 12 tournament and NCAAs.

Axtell has left school to undergo treatment.

“If I didn’t (withdraw from KU) I’d have all Fs because my rehab is in Dallas,” Axtell said. “I’m not doing much stretching, mostly body weight exercises. This is not the kind of thing that just goes away, but if my back is strong enough, you can support the spinal column and it won’t be a factor. The reason is happened is my back was not strong enough.”

Axtell plans to head to Orlando, Fla., to work with Magic guard Grant Hill’s personal shooting coach (Chip Englund) once he gets the green light from doctors.

Axtell said he wanted to try out for an NBA team as a free agent if he isn’t taken in the June Draft.

“I was high on some peoples’ (draft) lists before my back got hurt,” said Axtell, who averaged 5.3 points on 34.6 percent three-point shooting in 19 games for the 26-7 Jayhawks. “With the new rules, they (NBA teams) are looking for shooters. A headline in the Austin paper said the league will be profitable for ‘sharpshooters and so-so defenders.”’

Axtell said he wanted to play pro ball. It’d been speculated he might be fed up with basketball and just want to work on a ranch somewhere in Texas.

“When you are getting thrown in the real world it sounds more and more appealing to play professional basketball,” Axtell said. “I think the program fits me more, the way I play.

“Do I have the desire to do it? Absolutely. That’s why I’m still doing it. If it’s all about the money geez, no way. I can’t do that. I’m a bad faker.”

As far as KU’s barnstorming tour KU seniors Kenny Gregory and Eric Chenowith, plus former Jayhawks Terry Nooner, Nick Bradford and Jerod Haase will play a team of KU students at 3 p.m. Sunday at Allen Fieldhouse Axtell will possibly shoot some half court shots, but he won’t play.

He will sell his CD, “The River Runs Dry,” at each of the seven barnstorming venues.

“I’ve got 2,000 of them with me,” Axtell said. “If those sell, we’ll make some more and put them in stores.”

Actually some of his CDs were on sale this past school year at stores in Austin, Texas.

“The NCAA first told us we could sell ’em so we put them in two stores. Then they said we couldn’t sell them until after the season. But they said whatever was already in the stores could stay there,” Axtell said.

“I’m handing out testimonials with the CDs because I wrote those songs in a five-year span when I was living in sin.”

He said his sister, Brooke, who has her own rock CD, has hired a manager, formed a band and will make music her career.

“I think I’ll do another one with my brother (Cliff) in the future,” Axtell said.

Barnstorming Schedule

Tonight Osage City, 6 p.m. autographs, 7:30 p.m. game.

Friday – Grinnell, 6:45 p.m. autographs, 8 p.m. game.

Saturday – Garden City, 11 a.m. autographs, 12:30 p.m. game.

Sunday – Allen Fieldhouse, 1:30 p.m. autographs, 3 p.m. game.

April 25 – Humbolt, 6 p.m. autographs, 7:30 p.m. game.

April 28 – Eureka, 1 p.m. autographs, 2:30 p.m. game; Wichita (Bishop Carroll High School), 7 p.m. autographs, 8:30 p.m. game.

April 29 – Hillsboro, 1:30 p.m. autographs, 3 p.m. game.

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