East Graduate Walks On To Play Basketball For KU

On Oct. 25, the Kansas Jayhawks’ men’s basketball team held walk-on tryouts at Allen Fieldhouse. Their roster already had 13 players, and the coaching staff was hopeful that they could add one more player to give them a little more depth. Seventeen players ranging from 5-foot-5 to 6-foot-7 attended the tryouts, but only one made it through: 2010 Shawnee Mission East graduate Anthony West.

West is a sophomore who spent the first three years of his high school career at Shawnee Mission South before transferring to East his senior year. At 6-foot-6, he started at center for the Lancers. Before his freshman year, he attended KU basketball camp where he tried to reconstruct his shot and become a more efficient shooter. Current East senior Adam Simmons also attended the camp, and his father Dennis took to watching West’s play. West worked with Simmons and his father on his shot for the rest of summer, and continued after school started. During this time, he also kept a strict workout routine. At least four days a week, West would wake up at 5 a.m. to begin his workout.

When tryouts came around in late October of his freshman year, West was in great shape and felt ready to give it his all. Unfortunately, West was not what the coaches were looking for. A few days passed after the tryout, and he still had not gotten a call back, it began to set in that he had not made the team.

“It was the first time I experienced what depression was like, but surprisingly, it only lasted a few days,” West said. “I was sitting in my room, and I thought to myself, ‘You didn’t make it, but that’s okay. This train has to keep it moving.’”

After a week, West started up with his workouts again, not going quite as hard, but still enough to challenge himself. At the end of November he received an email for an opportunity to practice with the KU women’s team, and he did this for the remainder of their season. But West was not satisfied with the progress he had made as a player. He knew if he was going to stand out the next year he had to improve his ball-handling skills. Over the summer, West balanced an internship and improving whatever skills he felt needed work just about every day. When school began in August he went back to his routine of waking up at 5 a.m. to work out, going to class at 8 a.m., and going back in the gym by 1 p.m.

When October rolled around, West got the idea to try out for the track team as well as the basketball team. He began track tryouts on Oct. 12 and they continued to Oct. 25; the day of basketball tryouts. The day of the 25th was just like any other day, West awoke at 5 a.m. and went to the gym for a 45 minute ball-handling workout, then to class at 8 a.m. After class, he gave everything he had at the final day of track tryouts, and returned to the gym afterwards for another ball-handling workout. By 7 p.m., he was at Allen Fieldhouse and ready, years of hard work were riding on this.

“By the end of the night, my body [was] cramping in places I didn’t know possible,” West said.

Around noon on Oct. 26, West received a phone call from one of the basketball team managers to meet with the coaches. All of the off-season training had finally paid off; he was officially a member of the KU Men’s basketball team. By the end of the night he was practicing. He never even found out if he had made the track team.

West describes his first day of practice as “a huge reality check.”

“I will never forget how sore my entire body was and how painful it was to have Thomas Robinson land on my foot the first day of practicing with them,” West said.

According to West, this is his greatest basketball accomplishment, and he would love the opportunity to finish his career at KU. He believes what set him apart was doing what he had to do, without caring what other people thought. Song lyrics from Aaliyah stuck with West throughout his journey:

“And if at first you don’t succeed, then dust yourself off and try again. You can dust it off and try again, try again.”