San Antonio — Then just a walk-on junior reserve who played 21 minutes in 12 games the
entire season, former Kansas guard Brennan Bechard had the exact same view as Final Four star Mario Chalmers when the Jayhawks arrived at The Alamodome back in 2008.
Today, with Bechard in his fifth season as the Jayhawks director of basketball operations, the amazing memories of that run to the national championship 10 years ago have been at the forefront of his mind this week.
It started with the Jayhawks pulling into the tunnel leading to the arena for the first time on Thursday — same spot, same surroundings, different time — and continued to grow throughout Bechard’s time in The Alamodome. Heck, even the Jayhawks’ first team meal on Wednesday night, which followed a brief walk around the Riverwalk, brought back fond memories of that championship run.
“All those memories, and how much it takes to get here, really makes it pretty sweet,” Bechard said Thursday.
Other than the arrival and the logistics of everything, which, admittedly, is much more important to Bechard this time around, seeing how the organizational aspect of the Final Four is now a key part of his job, Bechard recalled vividly what could unfold if the Jayhawks are able to win two games this weekend.
Although he has share some of those memories with the Jayhawks throughout the past couple of years, mostly in informal settings and during KU’s down time, Bechard said neither he nor 2008 teammate Jeremy Case have spent much time talking to the current group about that this week in San Antonio.
“Coach has,” Bechard explained. “Leading up to here, not really since we’ve made it, just saying, ‘Hey, however good you think everything else is, the Final Four far exceeds that.’ So he’s let them know how cool this is.”
So how cool is it? Bechard said he has thought about the 2008 title in some way, shape or form on just about every day that has passed since.
“Yeah. Guys will say, ‘You were on the ’08 team? How cool was that?’ Hey, you’ll never forget it and you think about it pretty much every day,” he said of his response to such inquiries. “Something reminds you of something that happened during that Final Four run, especially walking around our office.”
Like KU coach Bill Self, who earlier this week was asked for his most profound memory of the 2008 title run in San Antonio, Bechard said watching — and feeling the immediate aftermath of — Mario Chalmers’ game-tying shot against Memphis was the first thing that comes to mind.
“I would say the shot and then just everything that came to follow, the celebration, and, I mean, the gathering we had back at the hotel with all the families and stuff, how fun the plane ride was back,” Bechard said. “We’ll have a ton of time in the meeting room coming up, so I’m sure there’ll be more reflection and that kind of thing. It’s just kind of been a whirlwind since Sunday.”
As for whether KU’s approach has to change now that it has broken through and is playing on such an enormous stage and for such high stakes, Bechard said nothing about the basketball has to be any different. Sure, there are little details like travel plans and room assignments and tickets for family members and those sorts of things that were different. But most of those are behind them now.
All that’s left between the Jayhawks and a shot at completing what Bechard’s crew did exactly 10 years ago in this same building is one more day of practice, one more game day shoot-around and one more 40-minute battle with one of the best teams in the country.
“I don’t think (the focus has to change much), to be honest,” Bechard said. “Just because we know how hard it is to get here and we’ve come up short so many times. To actually get here requires that every game, I think. And you just kind of take those (recent) experiences and hope you can really focus on what went well and what went right and try to take those to these games.”
