Will this year’s celebrated freshman basketball crop at Kansas University have to serve the same three-season apprenticeship as another heralded yearling crew did five years ago? To reach the NCAA Final Four, I mean.
The difference is that there were only three freshmen headed for superstardom on that 1999-2000 KU squad, while there are five promising first-year men now. For all their apparent potency, the ’99-’00 returnees didn’t pan out as well as Roy Williams and countless fans had hoped.
So the current outlook is brighter.
About this time in 1999, we were reading how Iowa schoolboy whizzes Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison and California nifty Drew Gooden would help jump-start the 1999-2000 Jayhawks to great things. Recruiting experts were lauding all of them highly after they had committed to KU.
Due back at Kansas were touted Texas transfer Luke Axtell, shooting star Jeff Boschee, athletic Kenny Gregory, dependable Nick Bradford and towering Eric Chenowith, who was expected to be a tremendous inside force. Throw newcomers with the promise of Collison, Hinrich and Gooden into that mix, and the sky is the limit. Not.
The erratic Chenowith wasn’t as good as he was as a sophomore. Gregory, Gooden, Collison, Boschee and Axtell headed the scoring chart. Hinrich was coming along, but hadn’t blossomed. The Jayhawks won the Great Alaska Shootout, earned no conference trophies, then beat DePaul and fell to Duke in the NCAA meet.
The 2000-01 season saw the Triplets Terrific combine with Gregory and Boschee to run up a 26-7 record, capture the Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic but fall short of a conference regular-season or tournament title. In NCAA play, that crew defeated Cal State-Northridge and Syracuse but lost, 80-64, to Illinois.
Hot dog! Hinrich, Collison and Gooden were back for 2001-02 and four glitzy freshmen were coming, Aaron Miles, Wayne Simien, Keith Langford and Michael Lee. You can argue all night whether the freshmen quartet sparked the way to a 33-4 record or whether the Hinrich-Collison-Gooden combo dragged the rookies along. But these Jayhawks won the Big 12 Conference regular-season tournament before falling to Oklahoma in the postseason showdown. Then they annexed Holy Cross, Stanford, Illinois and Oregon before Maryland beat them, 97-88, in the national semifinal game.
Consider, too, the emotion of that bid for the crown, with Hinrich overcoming a horrendous ankle injury and bouncing back to help blast touted Stanford. Boschee and Simien were the scoring backups for the Big Three.
For all their ability, work habits, determination and coaching, Drew, Nick and Kirk had learned that you don’t just show up and make the NCAA Final Four — the way they helped the current senior group get there so fast. But again, they weren’t blessed from the outset by a senior quartet of Simien, Langford, Miles and Lee the way this year’s frosh are.
That’s what could make this year’s team so special. Four guys who reached the Final Four as freshmen and sophomores, and darn near helped bag a title in that 2003 finale with Syracuse, could spark the current crop to new Jayhawk glory and set the stage for more title hopes. The current seniors had to settle for Elite Eight status last year. They ought to be far hungrier for this last dance.
If coach Bill Self can get newcomers Sasha Kaun, Russell Robinson, C.J. Giles, Alex Galindo and Darnell Jackson in peak physical and mental shape in the next couple of weeks, and keep his veterans focused and healthy, Kansas could boast one of the biggest groups of freshmen ever to ascend the NCAA title stand.
It’s always interesting to note experience levels of Kansas NCAA championship finalists. The 1952 kings featured seniors Clyde Lovellette, Bill Lienhard, Bill Hougland and Bob Kenney. They worked four years for that trophy.
The lone starting senior for the 1940s finalists was Dick Harp. Bob Allen, Ralph Miller, Howard Engleman and John Kline were underclassmen. In 1953 when Kansas finished by a point behind Indiana, Dean Kelley and Gil Reich were seniors, B.H. Born, Hal Patterson and Al Kelley juniors. Came the 1957 triple-overtime heartbreaker with North Carolina, and KU started sophomores Wilt Chamberlain and Ron Loneski and seniors Gene Elstun, John Parker and Maurice King.
Danny Manning and Chris Piper were the senior mainstays of the 1988 title team with juniors Scooter Barry and Milt Newton and sophs Jeff Gueldner and Kevin Pritchard their alter-egos. Mark Randall, Terry Brown and Mike Maddox were the 1991 runner-up seniors; junior Alonzo Jamison and soph Adonis Jordan completed the chart.
Now and then, along comes a freshman like Syracuse’s Carmelo Anthony to alter the scene, but generally a solid veteran/rookie blend provides the best chance for conquest.
Kansas has a wonderful concoction this year — four battle-tested seniors, five freshmen with marvelous credentials; augmentation by sophomore J.R. Giddens and juniors Christian Moody and Moulaye Niang.
The best quite clearly is yet to come.
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