Area players to be on display as KU plays Kentucky, Duke plays Michigan State

As far as convenient recruiting trips go, it was near the top of the list. A few years ago, Kansas coach Bill Self headed out to watch his son, Tyler, play for the varsity squad at Lawrence Free State High School. That night, the Firebirds were facing Olathe Northwest, which just happened to feature one of the top high school centers in the country.

His name was Willie Cauley-Stein. He grew up in Kansas. And after receiving minimal interest from Self and KU early in the recruiting process, Cauley-Stein rebuffed some late overtures and signed with Kentucky and coach John Calipari.

“Recruiting is an inexact science,” Self says now. “Would we have loved to have had him? Absolutely; no question.”

Three years later, Cauley-Stein and No. 1 Kentucky will face No. 5 Kansas on Tuesday night at the Champions Classic in Indianapolis, the annual doubleheader that has grown into college basketball’s early-season showcase event.

No. 18 Michigan State is set to face No. 4 Duke in the opening game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

For Cauley-Stein, a 7-foot center who projects as a future first-round pick in the NBA Draft, it’s an opportunity to face his home-state school on a national stage. But it will also be an unofficial showcase for Kansas City basketball.

Cauley-Stein is one of four players with Kansas City-area ties who will take the floor in Indianapolis, and ironically, none of those players will suit up for Kansas.

Cauley-Stein might start for Kentucky. Duke sophomore forward Semi Ojeleye, a native of Ottawa, could play some for the Blue Devils. Michigan State, meanwhile, features freshman forward Marvin Clark, a Kansas City native, and freshman point guard Lourawls Nairn, who both attended high school at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kan., and played AAU basketball for MoKan KC, the same organization that produced Cauley-Stein and Ojeleye.

“We’re proud of those guys,” said Matt Suther, who founded the MoKan program after finishing a playing career at UMKC in the early 2000s. “I think it kind of shows the exposure and opportunity that we’re giving kids in Kansas City.”

Kansas City has always produced its share of Division I basketball players. But Cauley-Stein is believed to be the first Kansas City-area high school player to play for Kentucky, while Ojeleye is the first area player to play for Duke. The same goes for Michigan State and Clark, who like Cauley-Stein, flew under the radar for most of his high school career.

Cauley-Stein grew up in Spearville, Kan., near Dodge City, before moving to Olathe to gain exposure during his final two years of high school.

Clark, a 6-6 forward, grew up in Kansas City, unsettled and often on the move. For a time, Suther says, Clark was essentially homeless. Suther always believed that Clark, given the right structure and resources, could become a high-major basketball recruit. Clark found that structure and environment at MoKan, which has grown into a regional powerhouse on the grassroots basketball circuit, complete with multiple summer teams and a Nike sponsorship. Clark eventually picked Michigan State over Kansas State, among others.

“When we started, it was about impacting kids lives,” Suther says. “It was about guys like Marvin. That’s still the goal. It’s just that we’ve had some kids be able to play at a high level.”

Cauley-Stein, who averaged 6.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game last season, returned to school for his junior year after injuring his ankle during the NCAA Tournament. He missed the final three games of Kentucky’s run to the NCAA championship game.

“He’s gotten so much better,” Self said. “He’s made tremendous improvement, and he’s so athletic and so active.”

On one level, Self would certainly love to have Cauley-Stein patrolling the paint at Allen Fieldhouse, an athletic shot-blocker on a team without a true rim protector. On another level, if the Jayhawks had landed Cauley-Stein three years ago, they probably would have missed out on Joel Embiid the following year.

“If we got him, we wouldn’t have gotten JoJo, either,” Self said. “That’s how recruiting works out.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2014 at 10:29 PM with the headline "Area players to be on display as KU plays Kentucky, Duke plays Michigan State ."