Clay Johnson hosted one around 2013

Posted on: June 19, 2017 at 08:47:06 CT

It was a 'Border War' game against a ku alumni team.
With an announced lineup of Tigers including Anthony Peeler, Kareem Rush, Willie Smith, Derrick Cheivous, Jevon Crudup, Doug Smith, Jason Sutherland and even Norm Stewart. Here was the full announced MU roster beforehand:

Anthony Peeler
Kareem Rush
Jason Sutherland
Steve Moore
Willie Smith
Doug Smith
Derrick Cheivous
Chip Walthers
Sara Campbell
Tony Temple
Tommy Saunders
Mike Sandbothe
Jevon Crudup
Norm Stewart

Only problem was Kareem Rush, Doug Smith, Willie Smith, Steve Moore and Norm Stewart didn't end up being in attendance. And that Jevon Crudup and Mike Sandbothe were in attendance but they wore street clothes and watched from the stands. And Derrick Cheivous played only the first half.

I hadn’t heard of most of the ku players. They did have Conner Teahan, the guy Denmon destroyed in our final matchup with them. And Jeff Graves, who was way bigger than anyone else on the court and played harder that he did in about 80% of the college games he participated in. And the game was won for ku by Billy Thomas, the 6th man on their great 1997 team who made 10 three pointers in the game (believe that guy was the all time D-League high scorer until that kid from SMS passed him).

Peeler still had some game, and can certainly stroke it. He obviously isn’t nearly as explosive but it was pretty cool seeing his prominently lefty drives and shots again. He looked like he could have still taken over that game should he have chosen to do so.

Cheivous was mostly a low post banger, I think they mentioned he was responsible for assembling all the former MU players upon request from Clay. He seemed to get hurt towards the end of the first half and spent the second half icing his knees without his shoes on. I did run into him afterwards and he seemed in a good mood.

Sutherland was just as you would expect, taking charges and yelling directions and being intense. He was probably the most commanding presence on MU’s team and still has quite a bit of athleticism.

Jeff Hafer did end up playing even though he wasn’t initially listed. Still looked pretty good (although I couldn’t believe how skinny his legs are now). Shot quite a few air balls from outside but when he got around the basket he was still pretty effective.

Best player for MU though was Tommy Saunders, by quite a bit. His shot selection made Phil Pressey look conservative, but he was very skilled and I believe led the Tigers with 31 points (although on about 50 shot attempts).

I would say there was probably 3,000 to 3,500 people there. MU ended up losing 101-80, they lost a lot of steam in the second half and most of their roster was made up of the younger football players at that point. It was kind of annoying they played music during the entire game but I suppose that created some atmosphere. My son couldn’t believe there were actually players from the past who scored more points than Marcus Denmon, it was kind of cool getting to tell him some stories of they guys who were my childhood heroes.