Former Kansas University guard Carl Henry, who played in 30 games in Allen Fieldhouse in 1983 and ’84, on Friday will find out what it’s like to coach an elite 17-and-under AAU game in the tradition-rich basketball palace.
“I’m glad to be coming back,” said Henry, the 42nd-leading scorer in KU history with 1,044 points.
His Oklahoma City Athletes First team figures to contend for the title at the eighth-annual Jayhawk Invitational this Friday through Sunday in Allen Fieldhouse.
“We’re playing the top team in Kansas in the first game, so that will be a great thing right there,” Henry added of a 9 p.m. Friday matchup against Kansas City Pump N Run.
“Other than that ... I’m always amazed at how big Lawrence has grown. It’s huge.”
Henry, who averaged 17.4 points a game for Ted Owens’ Jayhawks during the ’82-83 season and 16.8 for Larry Brown’s initial KU squad in ’83-84, has a major college recruit in the family. He’s Xavier Henry, Athletes First’s 6-foot-6 sophomore sensation out of Putnam City High who is considering KU, North Carolina, Memphis, Texas and Ohio State.
“He is a good shooter, can put the ball on the floor, can jump. He can do it all, and he’s still learning,” Carl said of left-handed-shooting Xavier, who averaged 23.9 points and 8.0 rebounds his sophomore season at Putnam City.
Daniel Orton, a 6-9 sophomore forward from Oklahoma City McGuinness, who also has KU on his college list, and future Oklahoma University player Kyle Hardrick, a 6-8 soph from Norman High, join Henry in the Athletes First starting lineup.
“To me, it’s just another tournament,” said Carl Henry, who will take his team all over the country this summer, “but you tell me we’re playing one of the top Adidas teams (Pump N Run), it’s a different story. I like to see who comes out and competes.”
Pump N Run is led by Travis Releford, a 6-3 junior from Roeland Park Miege, who is considering KU, North Carolina and others, as well as KU target Steve Moore, a 6-9 junior from Truman High in Independence, Mo.
“I’m sure we’ll have somebody,” Carl Henry said, not naming names when asked who will guard Releford.
It could be Xavier, who has been on college coaches’ radar since eighth grade.
“It’s just part of your life. I deal with coaches all the time,” Carl Henry said of recruiting. “Coaches can talk to me whenever they want. But where he goes ... it’s all up to him.”
Former Kansas university basketball player carl henry (13) goes up for a dunk. Henry will coach Oklahoma City Athletes First in this weekend’s Jayhawk Invitational.