BRENNAN BECHARD
BECHARD, BRENNAN
Hometown: Lawrence, KS (Lawrence HS)
| CATEGORY | TOTAL | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
| YEAR | So. | Jr. | Sr. | ||
| POSITION | G | G | G | ||
| HEIGHT | 6'0 | ||||
| WEIGHT | 180 | ||||
| JERSEY | 11 | 11 | 11 | ||
| Games Played/Started | 35/1 | 12/0 | 12/0 | 11/1 | |
| Minutes | 63 | 26 | 21 | 16 | |
| Per Game | 1.8 | 2.2 | 1.8 | 1.5 | |
| Points | 18 | 3 | 14 | 1 | |
| Per Game | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.1 | |
| Rebounds | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | |
| Per Game | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0. | 0.1 | |
| Offensive | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Defensive | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |
| Blocks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Assists | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Steals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Turnovers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| (Assists+Steals)/TO | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| FG: Attempts | 18 | 3 | 9 | 6 | |
| Made | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | |
| Percent | 33.3 | 33.3 | 55.6 | 0.0 | |
| 3FG: Attempts | 12 | 3 | 5 | 4 | |
| Made | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| Percent | 25.0 | 33.3 | 40.0 | 0.0 | |
| FT: Attempts | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | |
| Made | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| Percent | 37.5 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 50.0 | |
| Production Points/Game | 0.17 | 1.08 | -0.27 | ||
| Production Points/Minute | .077 | .619 | -.188 |
Volleyball coach’s son to join hoops squad
Kansas University’s men’s basketball team will have both a Free State High and Lawrence High graduate on the squad next season. Scholarship player Brady Morningstar, a former Firebird guard who signed with the Jayhawks in November, will be joined by Brennan Bechard, a 6-foot, 180-pound sophomore-to-be out of LHS and Barton County Community College.
Bechard, who averaged 2.6 points a game last year for 18-12 Barton County, has accepted an invited walk-on position on Bill Self’s Jayhawk team. “I’ve grown up my whole life being a huge KU fan. It’s a dream come true for me,” said Bechard, the son of KU volleyball coach Ray Bechard who moved to Lawrence in fifth grade, immediately becoming friends with former Southwest Junior High teammate Morningstar.
Bechard, who logged 8.9 minutes a game off the bench last season at Barton, had 25 assists against 20 turnovers and hit 23 of 57 shots overall (40.4 percent), 18 of 44 threes (40.9 percent) and 11 of 14 free throws. “I know my role as a walk-on is to help the team however I can,” noted Bechard, who replaces graduated walk-on Stephen Vinson, another former LHS product. “I will practice hard, do well in the classroom, represent the team on and off the court. It’s what a good walk-on should do.”
“He has as pure a shot as any kid I’ve coached. He can catch and shoot it. He’s a great three-point shooter,” Lawrence High coach Chris Davis said. “Brennan is a good kid — a coach’s son. One thing I’ll always remember is he got sick right before his junior year — mononucleosis. It was really bad. His neck was swollen way outside his head. He had to work really hard to get back. He did that, working out every day with his dad. I was really impressed.”
Bechard almost walked on to KU’s team a year earlier, right after graduation from LHS. “Coach Self talked to me a little bit at the end of my senior year of high school. He said if I went away a year, to juco, after Stephen left there could be a chance of me walking on,” Bechard said. “I talked to him during the middle of my junior-college season and coach gave me the opportunity. Obviously, I took it.”
Bechard until recently hadn’t told anybody about his impending status as a Jayhawk. “I’ve known awhile, since the last month of the season,” Bechard said. “It’s been tough not telling anybody. They know now. I’m excited about starting summer school and getting to work out with the players in a week or so.”
Bechard has played pick-up with the Jayhawks in the past. “My talent level is not near what theirs is,” he said of KU’s scholarship players. “I think if I play hard I can hold my own.”
His high school coach agrees. “If they are looking for perimeter play … if teams are playing zone, it would give him a chance to play,” Davis said. “Much like Stephen (Vinson), he’ll have to earn his time and do all the right things. He’s the type of person and player who will do that.”
As far as comparing Vinson (another former Davis player) to Bechard, Davis said: “Stephen was much more at the point and taking charge of things and directing. Brennan is more a catch-and-shoot scorer who can find openings.”
Bechard will have three years of eligibility at KU. As a walk-on, he will not count against the scholarship limit of 13. He is not opposed to the possibility of red-shirting and playing at KU four seasons. “I will do whatever coach thinks is best. If coach threw that out there definitely I would think about it,” Bechard said.
Brennan Bechard says he has something to prove. Already. “A little bit, yeah,” Bechard said. “Show some people wrong.”
He really shouldn’t have to. The kid has been on the Kansas University campus a week, is just getting settled into his Intro to Jazz class, and is paying his own way to do so. Still, he’s already heard the whispers from fans that he didn’t earn his way on the Jayhawk basketball team. He’s taking it as motivation. And also with a grain of salt. “You can’t really listen to what everyone thinks,” Bechard said. “Not everyone’s going to like you or agree with what you’re doing. But you can’t listen to that. You just keep moving on.”
The 6-foot sophomore guard became the latest addition to the KU basketball team over the summer. After spending a year at Barton County Community College, where he averaged 8.9 minutes and 2.6 points per game, he received an invitation from Kansas coach Bill Self to walk on to this year’s KU basketball squad. “It’s definitely crazy,” Bechard said. “I never really thought any of this would really ever happen.”
Bechard doesn’t have to look hard — or far — to find a player to model his game after. That would be graduated walk-on Steven Vinson, who not only looks similar to Bechard but also graduated from Lawrence High like him. Vinson, who was nicknamed “The Standard” for his work ethic, played significant minutes for the Jayhawks last season, including a career-high 25 minutes in a 69-56 victory over Cal. “I think Stephen was very good for KU,” Bechard said. “He did all the right things, played hard, helped them out in practice and last year played quite a few minutes for them. If I could be like him, I think my career would be successful.”
He admits it will be a change from what he’s used to. Known as a sharpshooter — he made 41 percent of his three-point attempts at Barton last season — Bechard knows the walk-on position will ask the most of him outside the actual games. “It’s definitely a role I know I can accept,” Bechard said. “I’m going to go hard in practice against these guys.” It’s that kind of selfless mindset that drew Self to Bechard. “The biggest reason I wanted Brennan here is because he gets it,” Self said. “He’ll help these other young guys develop and mature. I think he’ll be the equal of a Stephen Vinson or Brett Olson or Christian Moody as far as bringing a lot of positive intangibles to our program.”
After talking with Self some after his senior season of high school, Bechard decided a year at Barton County would serve him best. Not only was he born in Great Bend, but he also grew up shooting in that same gym. With a talented roster of sophomore guards, however, Bechard saw limited time on the floor. “I would have liked to play a little more, but I think it definitely helped me a lot,” Bechard said. “In our league — the Jayhawk League — there’s a lot of D-I players who didn’t have grades. There’s a lot of good talent there.”
Becoming a Jayhawk also allows Bechard to reunite with a middle-school teammate: freshman Brady Morningstar. The two played together at Lawrence’s Southwest Junior High. Bechard also has deep ties to KU within his own family. His father, Ray, is the volleyball coach, and his sister, Ashley, was a four-year member of the squad. Brennan himself attended the Jayhawk basketball camps from fifth through 11th grades.
“When you talk about Kansas, it’s definitely one of the elite schools in the country,” Bechard said. “Just growing up here and being around Kansas basketball, I’m definitely excited.”