Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The hardest day of boot camp had just gotten under way. Lungs were burning, legs were aching and the players weren’t finishing their sprints quickly enough.
Then, the group rallied.
“Some of the guys brought everyone together,” freshman center Cole Aldrich said, “and said we have to suck this up and do this all together.”
The speakers of that motivational speech? The seniors, of course.
Jeremy Case, Rodrick Stewart, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun and Russell Robinson form the largest senior class since Michael Lee, Aaron Miles, Wayne Simien and Keith Langford graduated in 2005. The Jayhawks hope the experience, leadership and desire of the seniors will help the team reach goals of the Big 12 championship and Final Four.
nutgraf
NCAA champions haven’t always relied mainly on seniors, but they’ve always been on the team. Here are the NCAA champions since 2003 and the number of seniors they had on the team.
Florida 2007
Three: Chris Richard, Lee Humphrey, Brett Swanson
Florida 2006
One: Adrian Moss
North Carolina 2005
Three: Jawad Williams, Charlie Everett, Melvin Scott
Connecticut 2004
Two: Shamon Tooles, Taliek Brown
Syracuse 2003
Three: Kueth Duany, Ronneil Herron, Tyrone Albright
No one would have given that boot camp speech last year. No, sir, that team had no seniors. J.R. Giddens, David Padgett, Omar Wilkes and Case were originally slated to be standing underneath a shower of roses on Senior Night, but something happened on the way to heaven.
Giddens ran afoul of the law, and Kansas coach Bill Self kicked him off the team. Padgett and Wilkes transferred. Case redshirted for a year.
Kansas went 33-5 last year without a senior, but it came one game short of the Final Four.
“I feel like the urgency wasn’t there,” Case said. “I feel like people were like, ‘OK, we got next year,’ and this year we don’t have that. I think that urgency we needed last year will be here this year.”
The leadership problems started at the beginning of the year. Kansas lost to Oral Roberts and had trouble closing out opponents such as Ball State. Self asked for a leader to step up. Sophomore Julian Wright called a team meeting before the Florida game, but no concrete leader ever emerged.
Now none of that is in limbo. Five seniors can lead, and judging by how they handled boot camp, they’re ready to do it. Case said so far they had been leading by working hard in practices in hopes that the younger players would follow them. Jackson said every senior could also be a vocal leader.
“Sasha, he’ll say something,” Jackson said. “Jeremy, he’ll say something. I’ll say something. We all talk to each other. Everybody steps up to the stage and speaks. Nobody holds their tongue for anything. If somebody is slacking, Russ will get on them. If I did something wrong, Sasha will tell me I did something wrong. We all help each other out.”
And when the seniors speak, the underclassmen would be smart to listen. This group of seniors has won three straight Big 12 regular season titles and two straight Big 12 Tournaments.
Each one of them can teach underclassmen valuable stories too. They’ve all been through their fair share of difficulties. Robinson didn’t play for a long stretch of games his freshman year and is now one of the team’s most reliable players. Jackson has gone through family tragedies and an NCAA suspension. Kaun had to adjust to college life after only a few years in the United States. Stewart dealt with a transfer. Case is still trying to showcase his outside stroke more consistently in games.
They’re an accomplished group with only one year left to improve and build on earlier achievements.
“They know at Kansas, we’re measured at a high level, and they want to go out as being recognized as one of the winningest classes,” Self said. “It’s hard to do that if you win Big 12 titles and don’t go to a Final Four. I’m not saying that it’s Final Four or bust, but in their minds, that’s what we’re striving for.”
— Edited by Kaitlyn Syring
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