Kansas City, Mo ? Luke Axtell’s senior season is officially over.
Axtell, Kansas University’s 6-foot-10 shooting guard, who saw limited action in two of KU’s last five games, will not play in any postseason contests because of excruciating back pain.
Axtell has two degenerative disks and a bulging disk in his back, rendering him all but helpless the past month.
“This is a big loss for us as a team, but an even bigger blow to Luke,” KU coach Roy Williams said of Axtell, who also missed six games earlier this year because of a severe ankle sprain.
“He has tried very hard to play, but his year has just been one problem after another. Luke had a great preseason and then was slowed with an ankle injury. He came back and there was another ankle injury.
“He recovered and struggled with the back problem, which is the worst of all. Luke just can’t practice or play without tremendous pain and it is not going away.”
Axtell averaged 5.3 points and 2.6 boards in 19 games. For his career at Kansas, Axtell averaged 7.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 39 games.
“Luke has MRI proven degenerative disk disease in his lower back,” KU team doctor Ken Wertzberger said. “This was there in the original MRI in 1998, and this season has progressed both symptomatically and on the repeat MRI two months ago.
“Multiple different methods of conservative treatment have been attempted (including a shot in the back). Nothing relieved his symptoms enough to allow him to participate.”
Axtell has been told the severity of his bulging disk is a “5.” A “10” would be a herniated disk.
“We hope there will be basketball in Luke’s future, but this back problem has to be resolved,” Williams said. “Luke and I felt it was best for him to stop at this time and he will look into other medical solutions to solve his back problems.”
Axtell plans on seeing a specialist who could recommend surgery.
“I guess with the bulging disk the cartilage is coming out from between the disk. They might have to saw it off,” said Axtell.
He will be with his teammates in Kansas City for the Big 12 tournament. There’s a strong possibility he won’t accompany the Jayhawks to the NCAAs, however, because his back tightens on flights.
His back is to the stage it feels OK after a couple days of rest.
But after a practice or game, he’s in pain again for another day or two until the rest cycle kicks in. That won’t cut it in the postseason when KU will play games in rapid succession.”
“I didn’t think it would get to this degree but it has,” Axtell said. He’s had back problems in the past, but none this year until his back tightened after the Oklahoma game in mid-January. “The way it’s progressed, I couldn’t have predicted it. I struggled with it every year. It happens about the midway of each season. This is the worst it’s been.”
His theory is his left leg is longer than the right, which is where he feels pain each season.
Axtell pinpointed the best and worst moments of his KU career:
“Iowa State is the worst, definitely. The shot at the end,” said Axtell. His long three-pointer misfired at the buzzer in KU’s 79-77 loss to the Cyclones on Feb. 5 Allen Fieldhouse.
“The best? That tournament in Alaska was a lot of fun. I really felt that if I could have spread that out over two years, I’d be really satisfied,” he said of last year’s Great Alaska Shootout in which he earned all-tourney honors after scoring 35 points off the bench in three victories.
Axtell will not graduate in May. “No. Some hours did not transfer from Texas,” he said, noting he would be marketing his CD “The River Runs Dry” following this season while working on a new CD with his brother Cliff, also a KU student.
He says he has “no clue” whether basketball is in his future.
“Off the court I’m doing great,” Axtell said. “It’s been well-publicized the changes that have happened in my life (being re-born last summer).”
Bob Knight headed to Tech?
Baylor coach Dave Bliss, who was an assistant to Bob Knight for four years at Indiana University (1972-75), has no idea if Knight will be the next coach at Texas Tech.
He does have positive things to say about Knight, the man his 20-year-old son, Robert, was named after.
“Coach Knight called me after we beat Kansas,” Bliss said.
The Bears, who built a 25-point halftime lead, held on to beat KU, 85-77, on Feb. 12, in Waco, Texas. “He said he liked our defense in the first half better than the second half. He also told me how to break the Kansas trap press.
“I told him, ‘That’s what we were trying to do, but didn’t execute it.’ All kidding aside, he is a terrific coach and has been given a higher level of fame than anybody out there. I think he appreciates his job more after being out a year.”
KU coach Roy Williams is a major Knight supporter. “I’d say 90 to 95 percent of the things I do I’ve stolen from coach (Dean) Smith. I’ve stolen from other people, including a great percentage from coach Knight.
“In coach Knight, you’re talking about a friend of mine. He and I have talked. He has told me, ‘Roy, you don’t do things exactly like I do.’ He is a great coach. I could play for him. I would like to play for him. It’s hard for me to be critical of both a friend and guy I have respect for as a coach.
“He’s a great teacher of the game and great teacher of other coaches. Some problems he’s had I don’t know enough to comment on.”
KU signee Michael Lee, a 6-2 shooting guard from Portland, Ore., scored 20 points, including a vicious reverse slam dunk off a feed from fellow KU signee Aaron Miles, in Jefferson High’s 84-49 first-round Oregon Class 4A state playoff victory.
“I really didn’t think I could jump that high,” Lee said. “It just happened.”
Miles, a 6-0 point guard, had nine points.
“I’ve never seen Michael jump that high,” Jefferson coach Marshall Haskins said.
KU signee Wayne Simien of Leavenworth High will play in the Capital Classic All-Star game on April 7 in Washington, D.C. He will play for a U.S. all-star team that will play a team of D.C.-area standouts. Simien, of course, joins Miles in the McDonald’s game on March 28 in Durham, N.C.
Seniors always start on Senior Day at Kansas.
Even seniors with bad backs.
“If he can walk out there, he will start,” KU men’s basketball coach Roy Williams said of senior guard Luke Axtell, who has a bulging disk and two degenerative disks in his aching back.
“If he can’t walk out there, we will still figure a way to do it. He will start. I think that is important. Maybe I’m sentimental but it is important to me,” Williams added.
Starting on Senior Day is also extremely important to Axtell, who says he’ll be on the court for Sunday’s 1:05 p.m. tipoff before a crowd of 16,300 that will include his parents and two sets of grandparents.
“Regardless of how it feels, I’m playing,” Axtell said. “It’s my last home game and that is a big deal to me. No telling how much, but I’ll definitely play.”
The 6-foot-10 native of Austin, Texas, has missed three of KU’s last four games because of excruciating pain in his back.
“Hurting all the time is the biggest thing. It just wears on you,” said Axtell. He receives daily treatment in the training room and sees a physical therapist, but has not been taking double doses of Advil or anything to combat the discomfort.
“The pain is to the level of why take anything?” Axtell said, noting he’s been told the severity of his injury is “about a five. A 10 would be a herniated disk.”
“It’s pointless. I’d probably burn up my stomach (taking pills) before I felt any relief.”
Axtell he may face offseason surgery said inactivity seems to help him the most. The pain gets really bad after a practice or a game.
“If I get rest, usually after two days it’ll feel better,” said Axtell, who did practice on Friday. “After Sunday, we won’t have a game until Friday (at Big 12 Tournament). It’ll be fine then. Where I will run into a problem is with consecutive games.”
Consecutive classes don’t help any, either.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said of trying to put his tall body into a seat in a classroom. “It can ruin my day. Sitting there for an hour and 20 minutes or an hour depending on which day it is … sitting in that position that long kills me.”
Injuries definitely have plagued Axtell during his senior season. He missed four games to open the year because of an ankle sprain and two more games after re-spraining the ankle.
He missed the second half of his junior season because of an undisclosed medical condition.
“A trip,” Axtell said, when asked to describe a college career that feels like it’s lasted “a decade.”
“I mean it’s ridiculous. You could not guess the stuff that’s happened to me. All these weird things, super strange things happening to one person.
“I have definitely learned a lot from it. I have plenty of room to go up in life career wise. Otherwise, I’m doing well. Talking career, it’s been tough.”
He transferred to KU after playing his freshman year at the University of Texas.
“The Kansas experience has been a positive one,” Axtell said. “I’ve run into a lot of stuff, but the program has definitely been positive.”
He said he is not sweating the postgame speech he’ll give after Sunday’s game.
“It’s a lot easier than singing in front of them (fans),” said Axtell, who has performed country songs at two consecutive Late Night With Roy Williams. “I am not too worried about it. Hopefully after three years here, people won’t judge me based on my speech.”
Axtell still is hoping to contribute on the court during the postseason. After that …
“I have no clue. After the season I will work on the CD stuff,” said Axtell, who will promote and sell his first compact disk “The River Runs Dry,” immediately after the season. He’s currently working on CD No. 2 with his brother.
“Right now basketball is such a huge part of my life. It’s hard to separate on the court and off the court. I’m committed to finishing the season with this team and then we’ll see what happens (in future),” Axtell said.
Williams regularly brings doughnuts to students who camp at Allen Fieldhouse the morning of every home game. He’d hoped to bring the students something different for the Missouri game.
“I thought it’d be cool to get ’em a sandwich called ‘The Roy,”‘ Williams said of an Eastern North Carolina barbecue sandwich now on the menu at a downtown restaurant in honor of Williams.
“‘Cool’ lost to superstition. I remembered the only other time I’ve brought the students something other than doughnuts was pizza 12 or 13 years ago before the Kansas State game. We got our butts beat by K-State so the kids are not getting any ‘Roys,”‘ he said.
Williams has taken the student campers on tours of the fieldhouse this year and chats with them regularly. In fact, he had the campers huddle around for a chalk talk after Friday afternoon’s practice.
KU’s Nick Collison, Drew Gooden and Kenny Gregory were named to the 2001 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division I All-District 12 team, NABC officials announced on Friday. Collison was a first-team pick with Jamaal Tinsley (Iowa State), Kareem Rush (Missouri), Reggie Evans (Iowa) and Maurice Baker (Oklahoma State). Gooden and Gregory made second team with Luke Recker (Iowa), Cookie Belcher (Nebraska) and Kantrail Horton (Iowa State).