Memphis has been very, very good to Kansas basketball in recent years. And Kansas basketball has been very, very good to Memphis natives.
Tarik Black left his hometown to play one year as a graduate transfer for Kansas. He played just 13.5 minutes per game because phenom Joel Embiid improved so rapidly and beat him out.
We’ll never know if playing against Embiid every day, playing alongside so much talent and dealing so maturely with reduced minutes prepared Black in a way that made him improve just enough to catch on as an undrafted free agent. But he’s really smart and those conditions made for fertile soil to grow his game, so my guess is it just might have made the difference between making it and barely missing out.
We do know that by the time he reaches the end of his current guaranteed two-year, $12.85 deal with the Los Angeles Lakers that runs through the 2017-18 season he will have earned $14.2 million in four seasons as an NBA player.
Not only that, Paul Buskirk, associate athletic director for academic support, shared that Black has fulfilled requirements for a master’s degree from Kansas in African and African American studies that will be conferred later this month.
Black maximized his opportunities in one year at Kansas and is doing the same in the NBA.
He appeared in 25 games for the Houston Rockets and played in his 100th for the Lakers Tuesday night when he produced 15 points and five rebounds and made all five field-goal attempts in a Lakers victory vs. Sacramento.
Choosing KU hasn’t worked out too shabbily for another Memphian, either. Lagerald Vick played 91 minutes as a freshman. He didn’t pout. He watched and learned, had a big summer and is having an even bigger sophomore season.
A starter in KU’s four-guard lineup since the third game of the season, Vick is averaging 9.8 points and 4.2 rebounds. He’s shooting .565 from the field, .440 from three and .778 from the line.
“The thing about Lagerald, you knew he was a great athlete,” Kansas coach Bill Self said recently. “You knew he had great instincts, and you knew he had great size for a guard. But I will tell you this: He’s improved at such an accelerated rate, I don’t think I could have anticipated this when he first got here.”
The home of the blues long has been a hotbed for high school basketball talent, so it would seem the success of Black and Vick could start a pipeline for KU.
Unsure if it really works that way anymore, I asked Self for his opinion.
“There’s two right there that you would think maybe allows us to get back in there,” Self said of Black and Vick. “Memphis isn’t an easy nut to crack, though, recruiting-wise. I’ve spent a lot of time down there and come up empty quite a bit. But we did get pretty fortunate with those two. I mean, to see what Tarik has done and how this place has impacted him and his future and to see how Lagerald has kind of exploded on the scene, I would hope that would open some doors.”
I opened several doors in Memphis, specifically on Beale Street, the night before KU’s football game there in September and had a blast in every establishment I entered. Unlike many of the patrons, I didn’t dance through the doors and all the way to my seat but sure enjoyed watching others do that. Real good time.
**Great question, Pius**
Commenting under Wednesday’s Lunch Break, which reported which nine players already on the roster count toward the 2017 recruiting class, hence limiting KU to 16 new scholarship players,
Pius Waldman wondered, “Wouldn’t it be possible to sign more than 16 and make them (count) toward next year? Looks like what they did last year. Remember, we will still be short of 85.”
They can only sign 16 more, but you’re right, by counting some of them as being part of the Class of 2018, they can put more than 16 new players on scholarship. Among the 14 already verbally committed, it’s possible some already have agreed that they won’t sign a letter intent but will be put on scholarship once they enroll in June for summer-school classes and conditioning workouts. So, if 4 of 14 made just such an arrangement, which they likely would keep to themselves, then KU could recruit six more players, instead of just two.
Thanks for asking, Pius, so that I could clarify that point.