First Installment of "Beyond the Phog"

Check out that sweet Gatorade Logo!

It's been a little while since I've done a book report.  I figured it might be fun to write a couple thoughts on each chapter of "Beyond the Phog" as I read through it.  Instead of doing them all at once I'm going to do them in installments of five.  I'm also going to endeavor to include photos of the players that I personally took to add my own little nostalgic value. If I don't have the players, I will post pictures I took of games they played in.

The first five chapters were: Roy Williams, Luke Axtell, Eric Chenowith, Brett Ballard, and Jeff Boschee. They all had their nuggets, but I enjoyed Axtell and Chenowith's the most for some reason.  Anyway, here's a few thoughts:

Roy Williams:

This was about what you would expect.  He spoke glowingly about all of the guys you would expect him to…Nick, Kirk, Boschee.  My favorite parts were his thoughts on Eric Chenowith’s summer before his junior year (chasing Dave Matthews Band around the country), his discussion about Al Bohl and how much of a disconnect there was there, and “Sticker-Gate” in the 2008 championship game. He truly does have a love for KU. It's time for him to get back to KU one of these days.

Luke Axtell:

I was actually really excited for this section.  The two things that jumped out to me about Axtell before reading this was his crazy ass hair and the mental/anxiety issues that he reportedly had.  Other than that, I did not know a whole lot about him.  Though he was a little reserved, I really liked his story about how mad Roy got at him a couple times (one time even throwing a trash can in the locker room).  Sad that his career was cut short by injuries, because who doesn't love a 6'10'' shooting guard. Also enjoyed hearing what he’s been up to since quitting hoops.

Vitale meeting with the student campers

Eric Chenowith:

Fascinating section.  It was awesome hearing about his recruitment. From what it sounds like, he was the number one target for Roy and the team. Intriguing hearing that Roy did everything in his power to get him to KU and then once he was on campus, Roy immediately put him in his place.  I was also really interested in Eric’s contention that Roy changed the style of offense between his sophomore and junior years, which in his mind played a factor in his demise.

Brett Ballard:

This is about what you’d expect.  Loved KU. Was super excited to be a part of the program.  Perhaps my favorite part was his story about how he and Chris Zerbe made it as walk-ons. Mostly because I totally forgot about Chris Zerbe (my favorite 6-4 post player of all time!).  I liked hearing about Nick Collison’s wood-paneled minivan he drove around campus as well.  I vaguely remember that.

Jeff Boschee:

I enjoyed that Boschee acknowledged his “boy band” persona that was given to him while at KU.  He said that his teammates joked with him a lot about it.  Also intriguing was the way he talked about Hinrich.  They were so butter together on the court, but apparently Boschee resented Hinrich coming in and taking some minutes from him. Another fun Zerbe story also made an appearance. It involved Zerbe taking Roy’s “monkey off the back” stuffed monkey and throwing it in some lasagna. Awesome.