KU Morningstar

Mr. Laz · 01-12-2009, 11:28 AM

KU’s Morningstar quietly proving his doubters wrong

By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH

The Kansas City Star

KU’s Brady Morningstar (left) is proving
his doubters wrong and showing he is more
than just the son of a former Jayhawk star.

LAWRENCE | Brady Morningstar has a gift. Anyone who has seen him play this season for Kansas knows it is not size, hops, speed or any other quality that normally endears college basketball players to fans.

Morningstar’s dad, Roger, doesn’t understand the gift. But he’s accepted that Brady is just wired differently than Roger was when he played ball for Kansas in the 1970s.

“Emotionally,” Roger says, “he’s really even-keel. You could see me coming a mile away and read me. You could tell exactly what I was thinking just by watching me. With Brady, you have to walk around him about 10 times.”

Nobody knows what Brady is thinking, and that’s his greatest advantage in any interaction, basketball or life. It’s been almost 23 years, and Roger and Linda Morningstar are still guessing.

After a good game, they ask Brady how he feels.
“Good,” he’ll say. “Everything’s good.”

After a bad game, they ask Brady why he missed his three-pointers.

“They felt good,” he’ll say.

Brady has always been that way. As Roger says, “That’s his makeup.” When Brady lived at home, he’d spend hours in his room with the door closed. These days, he lives with headphones attached to his ears, which makes perfect sense. Only Brady controls what makes it into his head. Not much is coming out.

“I’ve always just kind of kept a lot of stuff to myself,” Brady says. “I can sit in a room and just listen to music and relax. I don’t think that’s boring at all. I can be thinking about whatever in my head. I don’t know … I just must be different.”

Morningstar is having a dream season for the Jayhawks as a sophomore. He is playing 28 minutes per game, scoring 7.5 points and doing a little bit of everything. Entering this season, nobody expected him to do anything. Halfway through, he is unquestionably KU’s most pleasant surprise.

“Let’s just call it like it is,” KU coach Bill Self says. “When we recruited him, a lot of people said, ‘Can he help you guys?’ And here he is — where would we be without him?”
Roger doesn’t think his son listens to the doubters. Of course, it’s Brady, so who really knows? Turns out, behind the blank and expressionless face, Brady is thinking about all those people.

“Oh, he’s from Lawrence, his dad played at KU, that’s why he’s on the team,” Brady says, quoting his detractors. “I know there’s a lot of people out there that said I couldn’t do it, said I wasn’t good enough. All the critics, I don’t know who they are. Just people. When people say you can’t do this, going out and proving them wrong, that’s one of the funnest things to do.”

• • •

Brady Morningstar is having too much fun right now.

“Best time of my life,” he says.

Tucked away in a room in Allen Fieldhouse late last week, he talked about his next obstacle: guarding Michigan State’s 6-foot-8 small forward, Raymar Morgan. Brady is 6-3, but that hasn’t kept him from becoming KU’s best perimeter defender, according to Self. Brady, a sophomore who redshirted last season, has held some of the top guards in the country below their scoring average.

“If I’m guarding a guy that’s 6-9, 250, that’s a big mismatch,” Brady says. “But if I’m guarding a guy who’s 6-8, 215, I think I can hold my own. It’s more heart and toughness and playing hard than physicality.”

That’s a lesson Brady learned early on. As a kid, he looked about four years younger than he was, and he struggled to put weight on. Roger knew his rail-thin boy was going to have to win with intangibles, so each year, he’d teach Brady and his friends a lesson in resourcefulness.

Roger, who coached Brady from fourth to seventh grade, took his team on a yearly trip to inner-city Chicago to take on kids who were more mature, more gifted athletically and a few years older.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Brady says.

Roger’s teams would compete and inevitably get run off the floor. That was fine with him. Those years were about fundamentals. Straight-up, in-your-face, man-to-man defense was all Brady knew.

“The worst thing you can do when you coach a kids’ team is play zone,” Roger says. “I want to barf when I see it. If you’re a youth coach and you even know your record, then you shouldn’t be coaching.”

Brady became one of the best players in his age group. He began to fashion a goal in his head to play for KU. Brady kept that to himself, like most things.

“I just figured I didn’t know how I was gonna grow,” Morningstar says. “I didn’t know if I was going to be good enough to play here.”

Roger knew about Brady’s goal to follow in his footsteps. That was about the only insight he got into Brady’s world, though.

“It’s kind of weird,” Brady says. “I’m the youngest child, and I never used to go home and talk to my (two) sisters about what was happening to me at school, if I had a bad day or if there was something with a girl. I never went home and talked to my mom like that because I felt awkward. I’ve just never been the type to open myself up that much to my family.”

But Roger Morningstar did have that one golden nugget. This kid wanted to be a Jayhawk. He knew that for sure during Brady’s senior year, when he was being recruited by another school. The school’s coach had been working on Brady for a year. But the coach sat with Brady and Roger one day and said, “We just can’t pull the trigger. We feel like we need somebody a little bigger.” Roger watched Brady closely. He didn’t show any emotion.
Roger, trying to get something out of him, asked Brady whether he would have signed a letter of intent that night had the school offered him.

“Nope,” Brady said.

“Well, why?” Roger asked.

“Because I want to go to KU,” Brady said.

• • •

At first, when Bill Self started showing up at Brady’s AAU games with the KC Pump ‘N Run, Roger figured that Self was watching other players. But Self saw enough of Brady to give him a scholarship offer.

The moment Brady committed, though, Roger felt as if Brady was taking a gamble.

“It takes guts to come to Kansas,” Roger says. “And I don’t say that because he did that. I say that because, when you come here, they don’t stop recruiting when they get you. They certainly don’t stop recruiting when they get Brady Morningstar. They sign you, and they try to replace you the next week. There are no guarantees for anybody, especially some hometown kid.”

Before Lawrence Free State’s own Brady Morningstar could play at KU, he had to follow through on a commitment to play a year of prep-school ball at New Hampton (N.H.) Prep. It was the first time Brady had ever lived outside Lawrence. He improved his game, but the time in the Northeast was about maturing off the court.

To reach J. Brady McCollough, e-mail jmccollough@kcstar.com

CoMoChief · 01-12-2009, 11:30 AM

He still sucks........sorry.

Braincase · 01-12-2009, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

He still sucks........sorry.

Yes... you are sorry.

hawkchief · 01-12-2009, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

He still sucks........sorry.

Brady would be one of the Tigger's stars, and you know it. Too bad he likes to hustle and play for a winner, or you maybe could have gotten him.

**doomy3** · 01-12-2009, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hawkchief

Brady would be one of the Tigger's stars, and you know it. Too bad he likes to hustle and play for a winner, or you maybe could have gotten him.

You must have forgotten. GheyMoChief is a KU Basketball fan and MU Football fan.

Bambi · 01-12-2009, 12:40 PM

Pride of Free State High.

Demonpenz · 01-12-2009, 12:44 PM

Brady learned some posts moves
KU shot to number #3

*music notes* Don't you know that you are a morningstar..... /bad company

Reerun_KC · 01-12-2009, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

He still sucks........sorry.

CoMo, just stop... Please?

ArrowheadHawk · 01-12-2009, 01:21 PM

Who on this team besides Collins and Taylor are a better guard than him? Nobody.

CoMoChief · 01-12-2009, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hawkchief

Brady would be one of the Tigger's stars, and you know it. Too bad he likes to hustle and play for a winner, or you maybe could have gotten him.

I'm sure he would be a starter at MU.

Problem is I don't like MU bball. Never have never will.

I dont even necessarily like MU football. Just people thought I was nuts for saying MU fball is better than KU which it is......regardless of what took place this season.

Silock · 01-12-2009, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArrowheadHawk

Who on this team besides Collins and Taylor are a better guard than him? Nobody.

That's the problem with this team -- they're not good enough. Morningstar has so far been an average guard. He has moments of brilliance, and then he has moments where he airballs a finger roll layup. He's not been terribly consistent.

We need better guards. We won't win a NC with Morningstar as a starting guard. He'd be fine coming off the bench.

Spicy McHaggis · 01-12-2009, 03:53 PM

Morningstar wouldn't even have a scholarship if there weren't so many potential black athletes in jail.

KC_Connection · 01-12-2009, 04:32 PM

Morningstar has played well for the most part, but he got horribly outplayed agaisnt superior competition on Saturday. It wasn't surprising.

Silock · 01-12-2009, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Morningstar has played well for the most part, but he got horribly outplayed agaisnt superior competition on Saturday. It wasn't surprising.

Yup. KU needs to BE the superior competition. That's the problem this year. Oh well. A NC certainly eases the disappointment of this season. I feel bad for Collins and Aldrich this year, though. A couple more pieces and we could really be something special.

KC_Connection · 01-12-2009, 07:45 PM

I'm really not all that disappointed. I didn't expect that much from this group of players. In fact, some of them are actually doing better than I thought they would (Aldrich).

Anyway, the real season hasn't even started yet, and I'm pretty confident they can play with Oklahoma and Texas (they haven't impressed me much at all). Don't write anybody off yet.

01-12-2009, 11:28 AM
Mr. Laz Don't Tease Me Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: KS Casino cash: $11047037	Morningstar KU’s Morningstar quietly proving his doubters wrong By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH The Kansas City Star KU’s Brady Morningstar (left) is proving his doubters wrong and showing he is more than just the son of a former Jayhawk star. LAWRENCE \| Brady Morningstar has a gift. Anyone who has seen him play this season for Kansas knows it is not size, hops, speed or any other quality that normally endears college basketball players to fans. Morningstar’s dad, Roger, doesn’t understand the gift. But he’s accepted that Brady is just wired differently than Roger was when he played ball for Kansas in the 1970s. “Emotionally,” Roger says, “he’s really even-keel. You could see me coming a mile away and read me. You could tell exactly what I was thinking just by watching me. With Brady, you have to walk around him about 10 times.” Nobody knows what Brady is thinking, and that’s his greatest advantage in any interaction, basketball or life. It’s been almost 23 years, and Roger and Linda Morningstar are still guessing. After a good game, they ask Brady how he feels. “Good,” he’ll say. “Everything’s good.” After a bad game, they ask Brady why he missed his three-pointers. “They felt good,” he’ll say. Brady has always been that way. As Roger says, “That’s his makeup.” When Brady lived at home, he’d spend hours in his room with the door closed. These days, he lives with headphones attached to his ears, which makes perfect sense. Only Brady controls what makes it into his head. Not much is coming out. “I’ve always just kind of kept a lot of stuff to myself,” Brady says. “I can sit in a room and just listen to music and relax. I don’t think that’s boring at all. I can be thinking about whatever in my head. I don’t know … I just must be different.” Morningstar is having a dream season for the Jayhawks as a sophomore. He is playing 28 minutes per game, scoring 7.5 points and doing a little bit of everything. Entering this season, nobody expected him to do anything. Halfway through, he is unquestionably KU’s most pleasant surprise. “Let’s just call it like it is,” KU coach Bill Self says. “When we recruited him, a lot of people said, ‘Can he help you guys?’ And here he is — where would we be without him?” Roger doesn’t think his son listens to the doubters. Of course, it’s Brady, so who really knows? Turns out, behind the blank and expressionless face, Brady is thinking about all those people. “Oh, he’s from Lawrence, his dad played at KU, that’s why he’s on the team,” Brady says, quoting his detractors. “I know there’s a lot of people out there that said I couldn’t do it, said I wasn’t good enough. All the critics, I don’t know who they are. Just people. When people say you can’t do this, going out and proving them wrong, that’s one of the funnest things to do.” • • • Brady Morningstar is having too much fun right now. “Best time of my life,” he says. Tucked away in a room in Allen Fieldhouse late last week, he talked about his next obstacle: guarding Michigan State’s 6-foot-8 small forward, Raymar Morgan. Brady is 6-3, but that hasn’t kept him from becoming KU’s best perimeter defender, according to Self. Brady, a sophomore who redshirted last season, has held some of the top guards in the country below their scoring average. “If I’m guarding a guy that’s 6-9, 250, that’s a big mismatch,” Brady says. “But if I’m guarding a guy who’s 6-8, 215, I think I can hold my own. It’s more heart and toughness and playing hard than physicality.” That’s a lesson Brady learned early on. As a kid, he looked about four years younger than he was, and he struggled to put weight on. Roger knew his rail-thin boy was going to have to win with intangibles, so each year, he’d teach Brady and his friends a lesson in resourcefulness. Roger, who coached Brady from fourth to seventh grade, took his team on a yearly trip to inner-city Chicago to take on kids who were more mature, more gifted athletically and a few years older. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” Brady says. Roger’s teams would compete and inevitably get run off the floor. That was fine with him. Those years were about fundamentals. Straight-up, in-your-face, man-to-man defense was all Brady knew. “The worst thing you can do when you coach a kids’ team is play zone,” Roger says. “I want to barf when I see it. If you’re a youth coach and you even know your record, then you shouldn’t be coaching.” Brady became one of the best players in his age group. He began to fashion a goal in his head to play for KU. Brady kept that to himself, like most things. “I just figured I didn’t know how I was gonna grow,” Morningstar says. “I didn’t know if I was going to be good enough to play here.” Roger knew about Brady’s goal to follow in his footsteps. That was about the only insight he got into Brady’s world, though. “It’s kind of weird,” Brady says. “I’m the youngest child, and I never used to go home and talk to my (two) sisters about what was happening to me at school, if I had a bad day or if there was something with a girl. I never went home and talked to my mom like that because I felt awkward. I’ve just never been the type to open myself up that much to my family.” But Roger Morningstar did have that one golden nugget. This kid wanted to be a Jayhawk. He knew that for sure during Brady’s senior year, when he was being recruited by another school. The school’s coach had been working on Brady for a year. But the coach sat with Brady and Roger one day and said, “We just can’t pull the trigger. We feel like we need somebody a little bigger.” Roger watched Brady closely. He didn’t show any emotion. Roger, trying to get something out of him, asked Brady whether he would have signed a letter of intent that night had the school offered him. “Nope,” Brady said. “Well, why?” Roger asked. “Because I want to go to KU,” Brady said. • • • At first, when Bill Self started showing up at Brady’s AAU games with the KC Pump ‘N Run, Roger figured that Self was watching other players. But Self saw enough of Brady to give him a scholarship offer. The moment Brady committed, though, Roger felt as if Brady was taking a gamble. “It takes guts to come to Kansas,” Roger says. “And I don’t say that because he did that. I say that because, when you come here, they don’t stop recruiting when they get you. They certainly don’t stop recruiting when they get Brady Morningstar. They sign you, and they try to replace you the next week. There are no guarantees for anybody, especially some hometown kid.” Before Lawrence Free State’s own Brady Morningstar could play at KU, he had to follow through on a commitment to play a year of prep-school ball at New Hampton (N.H.) Prep. It was the first time Brady had ever lived outside Lawrence. He improved his game, but the time in the Northeast was about maturing off the court. To reach J. Brady McCollough, e-mail jmccollough@kcstar.com
Posts: 95,626

01-12-2009, 11:30 AM	#2
CoMoChief Mahomes Dynasty Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Parts Unknown Casino cash: $7712254	He still sucks........sorry. __________________
Posts: 39,242

01-12-2009, 12:40 PM	#6
Bambi Banned Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: New York City Casino cash: $10036993	Pride of Free State High.
Posts: 17,810

01-12-2009, 12:44 PM	#7
Demonpenz Woman should only make babies Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Apartment "G UNIT!" Casino cash: $-203864	Brady learned some posts moves KU shot to number #3 music notes Don't you know that you are a morningstar..... /bad company __________________
Posts: 54,942

01-12-2009, 01:21 PM	#9
ArrowheadHawk Rock Chalk! Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Topeka, KS Casino cash: $7744961	Who on this team besides Collins and Taylor are a better guard than him? Nobody.
Posts: 15,676

01-12-2009, 03:53 PM	#12
Spicy McHaggis Keep 'er Movin' Join Date: Sep 2004 Casino cash: $9905359	Morningstar wouldn't even have a scholarship if there weren't so many potential black athletes in jail. __________________ “We want players who are big, strong, smart, fast, tough and disciplined,” Pioli said, finally bringing an end to the era of Chiefs executives who searched desperately for players who are small, weak, stupid, slow, fragile and unruly.
Posts: 4,963

01-12-2009, 04:32 PM	#13
KC_Connection Perpetual Mediocrity Join Date: Jan 2006 Casino cash: $1742783	Morningstar has played well for the most part, but he got horribly outplayed agaisnt superior competition on Saturday. It wasn't surprising.
Posts: 57,632

01-12-2009, 07:45 PM	#15
KC_Connection Perpetual Mediocrity Join Date: Jan 2006 Casino cash: $1742783	I'm really not all that disappointed. I didn't expect that much from this group of players. In fact, some of them are actually doing better than I thought they would (Aldrich). Anyway, the real season hasn't even started yet, and I'm pretty confident they can play with Oklahoma and Texas (they haven't impressed me much at all). Don't write anybody off yet.
Posts: 57,632