Seen and heard at KU: On Gardner's 2003 memories, UA band members' trip

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Jason Gardner sat on the end of Arizona’s bench to watch pregame warmups Saturday, relaxed and quiet as usual, as the atmosphere was building inside Kansas’ legendary Allen Fieldhouse.

He was hardly intimidated.

“Nah,” Gardner said, smiling. “I hit a few shots here.”

Now Arizona’s player relations director, Gardner was the Wildcats’ standout senior point guard in 2002-03, when he helped No. 1-ranked UA beat No. 6 Kansas 91-74 in Allen Fieldhouse. The only thing that surprised him, looking back, was that Arizona trailed Kansas by 20 points earlier in the game and somehow pulled out a 17-point win.

“That’s a 37-point swing,” Gardner said, shaking his head.

He was part of the reason why. While playing all 40 minutes, Gardner scored 23 points in part by getting to the line 12 times and hitting 10 free throws while Salim Stoudamire scored 32 points and hit 6 of 9 3s.

Gardner wasn’t the only Arizona staffer who was on hand for that game. Assistant coach Steve Robinson was actually on the other bench as an assistant to then-KU coach Roy Williams, while UA athletic trainer Justin Kokoskie was on hand in the same role he has today.

But it was long

ago

During a conversation before Saturday’s game with Neal Weitman, the father of UA reserve guard Grant Weitman, Kokoskie said he asked Neal if he attended that memorable 2003 game.

“I couldn’t,” Neal said, according to Kokoskie. “Grant was due in a month.”

Then it set in for Kokoskie: None of the current UA players were even born when that 2002-03 game was played.

Manning’s homecoming

While UA basketball operations director Evan Manning wasn’t yet around for that game, he moved to Lawrence the following season when his dad joined Bill Self’s first Kansas staff in 2003-04.

His dad, Danny, also happens to be prominently featured in Kansas’ Legends Concourse as the star of KU’s 1998 NCAA championship team.

Evan Manning was actually born in Manhattan Beach, Calif., when Danny was playing for the Clippers but counts Lawrence as his hometown. Evan Manning was also a walk-on player for the Jayhawks.

As a result, it was no surprise that Manning spent part of his time during warmups exchanging greetings on the side of the court where Kansas was warming up.

“Welcome home, baby!” ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla told him.

Seat upgrade

Before sitting down behind the Wildcats’ bench, Arizona AD Desireé Reed-Francois recalled when she once visited Allen Fieldhouse as the athletic director at rival Missouri.

She pointed back and high up toward the back of the arena.

“We made sure we did the same to them,” she said.

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This time, Reed-Francois had a friendly chat with Kansas AD Travis Goff and several UA fans, including one who also happens to be the coach of the Wildcats’ football team.

Reed-Francois even backed up at one point to take a photo of Brent Brennan as he posed with three UA fans.

It was a pretty efficient week for Reed-Francois, who took in the UA women’s basketball team’s Big 12 Tournament loss to Colorado on Thursday, then shuttled over to Lawrence to meet the men’s team on Friday, and attended Saturday’s game.

Reed-Francois said she planned to return with the Wildcats after Saturday’s game and again accompany them on a Tuesday afternoon trip back to Kansas City before the Big 12 Tournament.

Frequent Fran

The Wildcats’ move to the Big 12 was one reason ESPN analyst Fraschilla has called many of their highest-profile conference games this season. In addition to calling UA’s Dec. 14 game against UCLA in Phoenix, Fraschilla called Arizona’s road games at Cincinnati, Iowa State and Baylor, as well as home games against Iowa State and Houston.

“McKale has been a treat,” Fraschilla said.

Extended road trip

Arizona seniors Andrew Meyers, A.J. Makkyla and Ralph Brant opted to spend their entire spring break in the area, to watch Saturday’s game and play in UA band during the Big 12 Tournament.

For Makkyla, who grew up in the Kansas City area and enrolled at Arizona, it was a surreal experience.

“It’s a full-circle moment,” Makkyla said. “I never thought Kansas would play Arizona.”

Salty beach

Because Kansas chancellor Clark Wescoe once had the cement patio areas in front of KU’s Wescoe Hall covered with sand so students could play beach volleyball, a tradition that still continues, the nickname “Wescoe Beach” popped up.

But before Saturday’s game, the area was empty and nothing was on the cement except salt that had been put down to melt winter ice.

They remember

Saturday’s game was a reunion of sorts between players in the 2021-22 NCAA championship game.

The hero of North Carolina’s semifinal win over Duke, Caleb Love, had 13 points for the Tar Heels in the title game but shot just 1 of 8 from 3-point range. He then spent another season at North Carolina before transferring to Arizona during the 2023 offseason, and is now a fifth-year senior.

Dajuan Harris was the Jayhawks’ starting point guard that day, as he was Saturday, while power forward KJ Adams was a little-used freshman at the time who played only three minutes in that game.

“I didn’t really play against him,” Adams said. “I was kind of on the side of that, but it’s going to be different. I really didn’t think I was going to be able to play him again, especially my senior year. So that is weird in that aspect with the transfer portal and extra (COVID) years.”

Harris goes back even further. He played against Love in the 2019 Missouri 5A state championship game, leading Columbia Rock Bridge over Love’s Christian Brothers team out of St. Louis. Harris said Rock Bridge earlier had lost to Christian Brothers in a shootout tournament.

“They beat us (at the shootout), and then we ended up beating them in the championship,” Harris said. “So we have some history.”