Danielle McCray sat in Chicago O&rsquo;Hare International Airport on Thursday evening, waiting for her flight to Belgrade, Serbia, to take off. Back in Olathe, her mother couldn&rsquo;t shake one thought: I wish I could go with her.</p><p>Ellareese Tillman, who provided for McCray all those years as a single mother, who saw the twinkle in her little girl&rsquo;s eye anytime she palmed a basketball, who fielded frustrated phone calls during her daughter&rsquo;s first year at Kansas, has never left the country. So when McCray was selected to the USA Basketball World University Games team earlier this week, Tillman didn&rsquo;t have a passport. </p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the only thing holding me back right now,&rdquo; Tillman said. &ldquo;I want to jump on a plane today. Unfortunately, I&rsquo;m missing a lifetime achievement for my baby for the first time.&rdquo;</p><p>The U.S. Department of State doesn&rsquo;t expedite the issuance of passports, not even for proud mothers. Tillman will have to settle for e-mail updates from McCray, one of 12 members of a U.S. team that appears to be loaded for a run at gold. </p><p>McCray, The Star&rsquo;s 2006 All-Metro player of the year out of Olathe East and a senior-to-be at KU, will join an exclusive list of college basketball players that includes Connecticut stars Maya Moore and Tina Charles and Stanford&rsquo;s Kayla Pedersen. McCray is one of three players on the roster who are new to USA Basketball competition.</p><p>&ldquo;This is a dream come true,&rdquo; McCray said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always wanted to do something like that. I&rsquo;d ask people, &lsquo;How do you do that?&rsquo; How cool is it to walk up on a podium and win a gold medal?&rdquo;</p><p>For McCray, it&rsquo;s the culmination of a career that began in a recreation center in West Palm Beach, Fla., where Tillman would allow her to go play once she had finished her homework. McCray would come home after hours of ball and often end up lying on Mom&rsquo;s bed, shooting the ball into an imaginary basket as they talked. </p><p>Tillman&rsquo;s job in customer service at B/E Aerospace brought her to Olathe when McCray was in middle school. She would dominate the high school scene in Kansas City and choose KU over Duke, joining Bonnie Henrickson&rsquo;s fledgling program. </p><p>McCray&rsquo;s first two seasons as a Jayhawk tested her. She struggled with keeping her weight down &mdash; Tillman thinks it had something to do with being away from Mom&rsquo;s cooking &mdash; and struggled against Big 12 opponents. Plus, the Jayhawks weren&rsquo;t very good. </p><p>Last offseason, McCray decided enough was enough. She spent more time in the gym, adding moves to her offensive repertoire. Tillman and her husband, Dennis, paid out of their own pockets for McCray to attend a point-guard camp in Dallas. McCray doesn&rsquo;t even play the point, but she wanted to become a better leader. </p><p>&ldquo;She never quits,&rdquo; Tillman said. </p><p>During her junior season, McCray scored 21.6 points per game in leading the Jayhawks to the WNIT championship game &mdash; a narrow defeat witnessed by a Big 12 record 16,000-plus fans at Allen Fieldhouse. McCray was chosen first-team All-Big 12. </p><p>Now, after making the national team and boarding that flight to Serbia, McCray&rsquo;s potential appears boundless. </p><p>&ldquo;It feels like it&rsquo;s all worth it,&rdquo; McCray said. &ldquo;From freshman year of college, just going through all those bad days and workouts, things like that. It&rsquo;s all coming together and making sense. There are great opportunities if you just stick to something.&rdquo;</p><p>First, there&rsquo;s the chance to wear a gold medal around her neck. Then, come next season, a chance to take KU back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000. </p><p>Since it&rsquo;s McCray&rsquo;s senior season, Tillman is planning to attend every game &mdash; even the Junkanoo Jam tournament in the Bahamas during Thanksgiving week. </p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m applying for a passport,&rdquo; Tillman said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have one by November. I&rsquo;m not going to miss this.&rdquo;