Getting to the pros the Henry family plan

Carl found out that Xavier could sign a contract of $1 million for one season, but there was a snag: They would have to sign without knowing where Xavier would play. Carl was not willing to risk Xavier playing somewhere dangerous.

“I’m the one going over there with him,” Carl says. “I’m not going over there where they’re fighting.”

Plus, Carl felt Xavier should take advantage of the exposure he’d receive playing on a national stage at Kansas. That was even more of a factor for C.J., who hasn’t played in an organized basketball game in four years while pursuing a professional baseball career in the Yankees’ organization and sitting out a year as a walk-on at Memphis.

Carl says both of his sons hope to be one-and-done at KU.

“I don’t like stepping on people’s toes,” Carl says, “but I just know what I know. I watch them play, all the Kansas kids. I like all these kids, (Sherron) Collins, (Tyshawn Taylor), they’re good kids, man. But they’re not better than C.J.”

Biased father? Possibly. But Carl Henry is making himself clear: His boys have worked for their opportunity, and they’re going to get it.

“Everybody’s gotta be on board,” Carl says. “The coach has got to be on board.”

More and more, college basketball coaches are jumping on rides like this one. At elite programs such as Kansas, they don’t really have a choice. Neither side is right or wrong. It’s just reality, and it’s not very romantic.

“I would hope they’d want to be here,” Self says. “I’d rather them be here.”

• • •

Carl Henry is shoveling down Chinese food for lunch. As much as he likes to talk, it’s a miracle any food gets eaten.

“For me, they could go where they wanted to go,” Carl explains between bites. “What I did, I prepared both of them where they could go play anywhere in the country. You can go to Duke, you can go to Carolina, and they’re going to want you. When it came down to the final year, guess what? All these teams wanted you.”

Carl’s iPhone rings, interrupting his flow. It’s Bill Self. Carl looks at the phone and considers whether or not to answer. He hits ignore.

Unlike his boys, Carl never received phone calls from big-time Division I coaches when he was in high school in Hollis, Okla. He went to Oklahoma City University, which was just fine by him. Raised by his mother and aunt, he barely knew the game because he didn’t have a father or a coach in his life who could teach him more than the basics.

In 1982, after Carl spent two years at OCU, the school folded its Division I program and fired the coach. Carl knew he had to transfer, and he also knew that a girl he fancied, Barbara Adkins, was playing at KU. Kansas coach Ted Owens had never seen Carl play, but Carl drove up to Lawrence and joined in a summer pickup game among players.

Owens saw enough to offer Carl, a 6-foot-6 guard, a scholarship.

Playing one season for Owens and another for first-year coach Larry Brown, Carl led the Jayhawks in scoring for two straight years. Still, he was not coveted by NBA scouts.

“Everything didn’t just come easy for him,” says Barbara Henry, who has been divorced from Carl for five years. “He always did the extra to try and get better.”

Carl was taken in the fourth round of the 1984 NBA draft by the Kansas City Kings and played a part of one season for the franchise once it moved to Sacramento. He landed in an under-6-foot-5 league despite being 6 feet 6 and eventually made the move to Europe.

To reach Kansas reporter J. Brady McCollough, call 816-234-4363 or send e-mail to jmccollough@kcstar.com

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