From Terry Nooner to Matt Kleinmann, the Kansas University men’s basketball team has had several walk-ons who have appealed to the fan base.
Another group of KU students went through walk-on tryouts Sunday night in Allen Fieldhouse with hopes of suiting up for the Jayhawks.
“We just respect the heck out of guys that come out here and bust their tail and try to keep a dream alive,” KU assistant coach Tim Jankovich said following the tryouts, which 16 players attended.
Although the current KU players got plenty of laughs while watching the tryouts, they may be playing with one of those walk-ons this year.
“There is a chance someone could be asked to come out from this group to the team. We’ll discuss that,” Jankovich said. “Some years may be a little more apt, given your numbers or whatever your situation is. This is a year where someone could make the team, and so we’ll have to see.”
Brad Witherspoon said he hoped this was his chance. The junior from Humboldt participated in his third year of tryouts for the Jayhawks.
“It would be great and give hope to everybody else that’s out here,” Witherspoon said. “Thirty other kids didn’t make it, and you know, you can come back next year. You never know when they might pick somebody and when they might not, so it just encourages people to keep working hard.”
If the possibility of making the roster weren’t enough to push the walk-ons, they continually received encouragement – and pointers – from staff member Danny Manning, who helped run the tryouts.
“We’re looking for role-players. We’ve already got stars,” Manning yelled out at one point during a four-on-four drill.
The weathered Witherspoon said the coaches pushed the hopefuls harder than in years past.
“My freshman year was tough, but it wasn’t that hard, and last year was a lot harder than the first year I did it,” Witherspoon said. “This year, the thing we did at the end was insane. I couldn’t feel my legs – it was just tough. I was just trying to block it out of my head and get through it. … They did a good job of getting us tired.”
Jankovich said they made it a point to run the walk-ons to exhaustion.
“We intentionally try to make it difficult because, if somebody is good enough to make it, we also want to make sure he’s prepared for it, he’s in great condition and all those things,” he said. “It’s impressive to see guys that have obviously put a lot of time and energy into just preparing for one night – a chance at maybe making the team.”
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Withey to choose soon: Jeff Withey, a 7-foot junior from San Diego who attended Late Night in the Phog, told Rivals.com he likely would choose a school in the next couple of weeks. KU and Louisville lead Georgetown, Texas, Syracuse and Washington.
“Right now, Kansas and Louisville are pretty much even,” he told Rivals.com. “I’m going to go with my gut feeling. … After watching the game between Chicago and Seattle, I know that KU fans love their former players,” he added.
