It’ll be a Kansas basketball festival for the ages this weekend, when the 2nd-ranked KU men’s basketball team plays host to No. 14 Iowa State, with a 125-year celebration serving as an exciting complement to the main event.
Dozens of former players, coaches, managers and more are expected to be back in Lawrence this weekend for a series of reunion events to honor the rich history of the KU program.
Expected to be included among them are the four most recent KU basketball coaches who have overseen the program for the past six decades — current coach Bill Self and former Kansas head coaches Roy Williams, Larry Brown and Ted Owens. All four were together back in 2014 for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Allen Fieldhouse.
“I don’t know positively, (but) we are believing coach Williams will be back,” Self said on his weekly “Hawk Talk” radio show on Monday night. “We are believing coach Brown will be back. We reached out and are hopeful that coach Owens will for sure be back. You’ll have all the coaches who coached at Kansas (in the past 60 years) hopefully in the same room. That is pretty cool.”
The build-up to Saturday’s celebration has been ongoing for months, with the program planning events and extending invitations and even creating a logo for the milestone, that has appeared on uniforms, posters, schedules and more throughout the season.
New lock screen alert ???????? #WallpaperWednesday pic.twitter.com/HOI5vQfKGA
— Kansas Jayhawks (@KUAthletics) January 11, 2023
For the past few decades, KU has tried to host some type of reunion at least once every five years. And Self has demonstrated during his 20 years in charge of the program that events like these mean a great deal to him, both with his words and his actions.
Self has emphasized throughout his time at Kansas that no one player, coach or person is bigger than the KU program and that the current coaches and players are merely caretakers who are tasked with the responsibility of honoring, growing and preserving the rich tradition that is Kansas basketball.
Some of these events have attracted more guests than others, but this year’s celebration figures to be one of the bigger ones in recent memory.
Some of the biggest names in Kansas basketball history are expected to be a part of the weekend, which has not happened on quite this scale since the program celebrated its 100-year anniversary 25 years ago.
More than 200 players, coaches, managers, trainers are more are expected to return this weekend.
While names like Drew Gooden and Nick Collison, along with Darrell Arthur, Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins, as well as a few members of last year’s national title team, including Mitch Lightfoot and Jalen Coleman-Lands, will be in Lawrence, Self noted that many of the biggest names of the recent past won’t be able to attend because of their NBA schedules.
“The guys that get jerseys hung, a lot can’t come because they are playing at the next level,” Self said of players like Joel Embiid, Andrew Wiggins, the Morris twins and rookies Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun. “When you finish playing, that’s when you have a few more Saturdays open. For example, it’s easier for Mario Chalmers to come back now than five years ago because he’s not playing anymore.”
Chalmers has been around the program a lot in recent years, and while Chalmers played for and won a national title with Self, the current Kansas coach has opened the door and welcomed any and all former players to remain a part of the program, regardless of the head coach for which they played.
Williams did the same thing during his days in charge of the program, and Williams, who recently retired after finishing his 33-year, Hall of Fame career at North Carolina, attended the KU-Iowa State game last season in what was his first game at Allen Fieldhouse since leaving KU in 2003.
“It’s always good to see everybody,” Self said on “Hawk Talk.” “One thing that’s harder to do than what people think is make sure everybody is included, with all the different eras and coaches and generations. This is a fabulous way to do that. You can get a lot of people (together) and you can touch a lot of people in a 3- to 4-hour period. It’s going to be good.”
Saturday’s game is slated for a 3 p.m. tipoff on ESPN+, and while the on-court recognition of all the Jayhawks from the past will be one of the highlights of the day, Self’s 2nd-ranked squad will have its hands full with the Cyclones, as well.
Iowa State enters this one on the heels of an 84-50 beatdown of Texas Tech on Tuesday night and the Cyclones come to town riding a six-game winning streak and with the nation’s fifth-ranked defense according to KenPom.com’s defensive efficiency ratings.
At 13-2 overall and 4-0 in Big 12 play, ISU is in a three-way tie at the top of the Big 12 standings with fellow-unbeatens Kansas and Kansas State.
