I absolutely loved the Legends of the Phog. Even the most casual of KU Basketball fans has to agree with me. Sure, it was a glorified all-star game. It’s clear these guys’ agents said not to play defense or run or get hurt. It didn’t matter. It was still a blast. [Sidenote: Cole was the exception. He came to play some defense. He drew the ire of Selby multiple times for breaking up Selby's alley-oop attempts. It was kind of funny...]
By now you have all seen the replays of Pierce’s big 3 over Brandon Rush and Chalmers’ even bigger 3 to tie the game, so I won’t get into that. It was a wonderfully scripted ending to a fun afternoon. Hopefully the excitement of the ending will ensure that there will be more of these kinds of exhibitions in the future.
I do hope that in the future we can schedule it to make sure Roy comes back. Though Self is probably close to passing him by now when it comes to impact on the program, Roy was absolutely the man when he was here. He had his shortcomings and the way the marriage ended was nothing short of ugly. But he’s still one of ours.
Some other guys missing that I would have liked to see include: Rex Walters, Jerod Haase, Jacque Vaughn, Jeff Boschee, and Matt Doherty. These guys have coaching gigs and this time of year is tough for them to get away. Also missed Drew Gooden, Kirk Hinrich, Raef LaFrentz, Russell Robinson, Keith Langford, Aaron Miles, and Adonis Jordan.
I hope we see more of these exhibitions. The guys loved it. Fans loved it. Recruits love it. Lawrence gets a nice bump economically, and KU looks great for making it a charity event. It’s a no-brainer.