Jacob Gilyard’s journey to NCAA Tournament embodies what we love about March Madness
When Jacob Gilyard was about 8 years old and in the habit of dribbling a basketball around the family home in Overland Park, his mother, Tanya, often implored him to quit it. It went something like this, she recalled Tuesday:
“‘Jacob, don’t dribble the ball in the house. Jacob, stop dribbling the ball in the kitchen. Jacob, stop.’”
What became his reply resonated ever since.
“He looked at us and he would say, ‘But mom, it’s my life,’” she said, later adding, “That’s just the story of how Jacob got here, I think: It was his life.”
By “got here,” she meant not just his mesmerizing play and crucial role in Richmond winning the Atlantic 10 tournament to qualify for its first NCAA Tournament since its run to the Sweet 16 was ended by Kansas in 2011.
She meant a journey that both epitomizes what we love about March Madness but also is a unique and inspiring odyssey in itself: from being an entirely underestimated and under-recruited prospect out of The Barstow School because no Power Five school could see beyond his 5-foot-8 or 5-9 frame … to becoming the NCAA career steals leader (466) and a marathon man who played every minute in Richmond’s four A-10 tournament games on his way to being named its most outstanding player with 26 points in the title game against Davidson.
“He controlled the whole tournament,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said.
Or as Davidson coach Bob McKillop put it after sixth-seeded Richmond’s 64-62 victory propelled the Spiders into NCAA play with a No. 12 seed and a game against fifth-seeded Iowa on Thursday in Buffalo, New York: “To be able to play 40 minutes and have that kind of stamina is an extraordinary statement on how gifted he is and how talented and valuable he is.”
But the best part of the story extends beyond that.
It’s because, as Gilyard put it in a postgame interview, it wasn’t all “glitter and rainbows” along the way.
It was delivered only after Richmond had to overcome 15-point deficits in two tournament games. It arrived after a frustrating 19-12 regular season, made all the more so since Gilyard and five other seniors had opted to return together for a fifth year enabled by COVID-19 provisions.
And it came with the memory of a budding opportunity (Richmond was 24-7 overall and 14-4 in A-10 play at the time) to play in the NCAA Tournament two years ago was scuttled by the COVID-based cancellation.
“It doesn’t feel too real,” Gilyard said with a laugh in a phone interview with The Star on Monday night, adding that he was sure he was ready to turn forward toward the reality of the Iowa game. “You’ve got to love the opportunity to make a name for yourself.”
He meant Richmond, which also features freshman Liam Weaver from Pembroke Hill. (“We kind of bond on things most people here don’t know about,” said Gilyard, including KU basketball and barbeque that “is not what it’s supposed to be” out there.)
But he surely also meant the family name, including grandfather Dale Voysey, with whom he has been so close that Richmond made him part of its recruitment.
He does this, too, for his mother and father, Rodney, who graduated from Ottawa (Kansas) University in 1992 as the school’s career leader in assists and steals. And for his older siblings, Chris and Marleigh.
But in the most tender and special of ways for all concerned, he does it for his 17-year-old brother, Roman, whose name he bears in a tattoo on his wrist extolling his role as part of “Roman’s Army.”
In fact, as Tanya considered the flood of emotions and images on Sunday, watching Jacob reach the NCAA Tournament at last and help snip down nets and being bestowed with the most outstanding player trophy, her favorite snapshot was seeing “Roman’s Army” scrawled on Jacob’s game shoes.
Roman has autism, defined by Autism Speaks as “a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.” He is high functioning and a student at St. Michael’s in Lee’s Summit, a school the family chose for its inclusion program under the Fire Foundation Partnership. And even with considerable competition, he may well be Jacob’s biggest fan.
Certainly, he was overcome on Sunday.
“It felt as if we were struck by lightning,” Roman said Tuesday over the telephone from Washington, D.C., with his parents.
Beyond his admiration of Jacob on the court, he’s grateful for how he’s taught him to embrace not worrying about what other people think and just being himself.
But it turns out that Jacob also has learned plenty from Roman, who Tanya will tell you has made the whole family closer and better people and more appreciative of the little things.
“He means the world to me, for real,” Jacob said.
He takes frequent inspiration in Roman’s resilience and appreciates the annual game that Richmond hosts on behalf of Autism Speaks to raise awareness for the disorder that affects an estimated one in 44 children in the United States.
“For him to use his voice, to be able to advocate for people who are on the spectrum,” Tanya Gilyard said, “I think that’s huge. Pretty cool, pretty cool.”
Roman also further fuels him to embrace the role of underdog, which has come naturally enough to Jacob because of his height. Asked if he knew of a report that he had been rated 367th in the nation coming out of high school, he laughed and said, “If people even ranked that many people.”
But don’t let his sense of humor fool you. That was part of what his father called “a chip on his shoulder.”
And he always knew how tall he actually stood. Knew that even if Power Five coaches wanted to see another growth spurt that he was plenty grown in all the ways he needed to be: uncanny savvy and quickness and a relentless work ethic.
“I always felt like I could play against anybody, no matter who it was,” he said. “Some offers came; some offers didn’t come. But I never doubted myself for a minute.”
It’s funny how this offer came, but it also embodies the story. According to The Athletic, assistant coach Marcus Jenkins was in Atlanta to watch a tournament with a list of prospects to monitor that didn’t include Gilyard.
But he caught his eye, and aced the eye test. Then he happened to score 50 points for Barstow the night Mooney came to see him play.
As if it were all meant to be, really. Even if it wasn’t all glitter and rainbows, Mooney would say after Gilyard stoked Richmond to a win at No. 10 Kentucky last season that there was “some magic in what he does.”
And now it’s the kind of magic that we all love to see in March.
Because, after all, basketball has been his life.
“Words don’t really do it justice,” Gilyard said, later adding, “When you tell yourself you’re going to do something, you never know what it’s going to be like. So when it actually happened, it was just insane.”