By Wendell Barnhouse | wendell@big12sports.com
Big12Sports.com CorrespondentOKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Your Humble Correspondent asks forgiveness for starting another basketball story with an example from cinema.
Sean Connery, aka James Bond, won his only Academy Award playing a street-wise Chicago cop in “The Untouchables.” At one point in the movie, Connery gives advice to a young Elliott Ness who is on a crusade to “get” gangster Al Capone. He ends his sermon by saying in his Irish brogue, “That’s ... the
Shi-kag-o way.”
Chicago has a way with wind, Blues Brothers and lovable losers in baseball. In basketball, The City Of Broad Shoulders is known for producing point guards. You might have heard of guys like Isaiah Thomas, Doc Rivers, Derek Rose and Sherron Collins, just to name four.
Kansas State junior Jacob Pullen is from Proviso East High School, a hoops power house in Maywood, a Chicago suburb. He can talk forever about Chi-town point guards.
“Uh oh, here comes the list,” Wildcats junior forward Curtis Kelly joked when hearing a reporter ask Pullen about his home boys. “He talks a lot about Chicago guards. He likes to represent.”
Pullen will represent his hometown and his team when No. 2 seed Kansas State opens play in the NCAA Championship West Regional Thursday against No. 15 seed North Texas. The Wildcats just happen to be in the same bracket pod with their nemesis, top-seeded Kansas. The Jayhawks start their March Madness journey against No. 16 Lehigh in a Midwest Regional first-round game Thursday.
Kansas is led by senior guard Sherron Collins who was a three-sport star at Crane Tech in Chicago. Collins has a lot of what Pullen wants.
“Yep, he has everything,” Pullen said. “He’s been to the Final Four, won the national championship, won Big 12 championships. When you’re at the playground and dream about what you want to do in college, he’s done it. I’ve got respect for him. I understand how hard he worked for it. Now it’s about me going out and getting it for myself.”
The winning edge that Collins and Pullen bring to their teams has been forged by years of defending playground courts around Chicago. High school and college players gather in the summer and the pick up team that wins plays. The losers?
“You lose, it’s ‘next’ and you sit for an hour waitin’ to get back out there,” Pullen said. “If you don’t win, you might as well go home and come back the next day. That’s what makes us so competitive.”
Collins has won more games (129) than any player in Kansas history. For the 5-11 point guard, it’s simple. “I love to compete,” he said.
Kansas junior center Cole Aldrich has been Collins’ teammates for three seasons.
“He’s the most competitive guy I’ve ever played with,” Aldrich said. It doesn’t matter if it’s a game of p-i-g or a Big Monday game or the national championship, he wants to win. It’s just something that’s in his veins.”
Kelly credits Pullen’s leadership with the Wildcats’ success.
“Jake’s a great score but he does other things that get us going,” said Kelly, who transferred to Kansas State from Connecticut. “He’ll get me or Jamar Samuels the ball. And if we don’t want the ball, he’ll tell us he’s gonna give us the ball. He’s just a great leader.”
CBS Sports college basketball analyst Dan Bonner, who will work the games in Oklahoma City, says that Pullen is a typical “big city” guard.
“There’s a way you expect those guys to play,” Bonner said. “They’ve got a swagger, a confidence. Most big-city guys have that attitude. Pullen is one of those guys who plays with a fire, who tries to do anything he can to help his team win. He’s not worried about his numbers, he just wants to win. He’s a really, really tough guy.
Bonner says that Pullen and Kansas State junior Denis Clemente are two combo guards. Both can score, both handle the ball, both play defense. Their ability and experience give the Wildcats an edge.
“This time of year, it’s the team that can exert its will on the other that’s gonna win,” Pullen said. “Good guards win games in March.”
