Kansas City, Mo — Luke Axtell's senior season is officially over.
Axtell, Kansas University's 6-foot-10 shooting guard, who saw limited action in two of KU's last five games, will not play in any postseason contests because of excruciating back pain.
Luke Axtell, waving to the crowd in Allen Fieldhouse, will sit out for the remainder of the season.
Axtell has two degenerative disks and a bulging disk in his back, rendering him all but helpless the past month.
"This is a big loss for us as a team, but an even bigger blow to Luke," KU coach Roy Williams said of Axtell, who also missed six games earlier this year because of a severe ankle sprain.
"He has tried very hard to play, but his year has just been one problem after another. Luke had a great preseason and then was slowed with an ankle injury. He came back and there was another ankle injury.
"He recovered and struggled with the back problem, which is the worst of all. Luke just can't practice or play without tremendous pain and it is not going away."
Axtell averaged 5.3 points and 2.6 boards in 19 games. For his career at Kansas, Axtell averaged 7.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 39 games.
"Luke has MRI proven degenerative disk disease in his lower back," KU team doctor Ken Wertzberger said. "This was there in the original MRI in 1998, and this season has progressed both symptomatically and on the repeat MRI two months ago.
"Multiple different methods of conservative treatment have been attempted (including a shot in the back). Nothing relieved his symptoms enough to allow him to participate."
Axtell has been told the severity of his bulging disk is a "5." A "10" would be a herniated disk.
"We hope there will be basketball in Luke's future, but this back problem has to be resolved," Williams said. "Luke and I felt it was best for him to stop at this time and he will look into other medical solutions to solve his back problems."
Axtell plans on seeing a specialist who could recommend surgery.
"I guess with the bulging disk the cartilage is coming out from between the disk. They might have to saw it off," said Axtell.
He will be with his teammates in Kansas City for the Big 12 tournament. There's a strong possibility he won't accompany the Jayhawks to the NCAAs, however, because his back tightens on flights.
His back is to the stage it feels OK after a couple days of rest.
But after a practice or game, he's in pain again for another day or two until the rest cycle kicks in. That won't cut it in the postseason when KU will play games in rapid succession."
"I didn't think it would get to this degree but it has," Axtell said. He's had back problems in the past, but none this year until his back tightened after the Oklahoma game in mid-January. "The way it's progressed, I couldn't have predicted it. I struggled with it every year. It happens about the midway of each season. This is the worst it's been."
His theory is his left leg is longer than the right, which is where he feels pain each season.
Axtell pinpointed the best and worst moments of his KU career:
"Iowa State is the worst, definitely. The shot at the end," said Axtell. His long three-pointer misfired at the buzzer in KU's 79-77 loss to the Cyclones on Feb. 5 Allen Fieldhouse.
"The best? That tournament in Alaska was a lot of fun. I really felt that if I could have spread that out over two years, I'd be really satisfied," he said of last year's Great Alaska Shootout in which he earned all-tourney honors after scoring 35 points off the bench in three victories.
Axtell will not graduate in May. "No. Some hours did not transfer from Texas," he said, noting he would be marketing his CD "The River Runs Dry" following this season while working on a new CD with his brother Cliff, also a KU student.
He says he has "no clue" whether basketball is in his future.
"Off the court I'm doing great," Axtell said. "It's been well-publicized the changes that have happened in my life (being re-born last summer)."
Bob Knight headed to Tech?
Baylor coach Dave Bliss, who was an assistant to Bob Knight for four years at Indiana University (1972-75), has no idea if Knight will be the next coach at Texas Tech.
He does have positive things to say about Knight, the man his 20-year-old son, Robert, was named after.
"Coach Knight called me after we beat Kansas," Bliss said.
The Bears, who built a 25-point halftime lead, held on to beat KU, 85-77, on Feb. 12, in Waco, Texas. "He said he liked our defense in the first half better than the second half. He also told me how to break the Kansas trap press.
"I told him, 'That's what we were trying to do, but didn't execute it.' All kidding aside, he is a terrific coach and has been given a higher level of fame than anybody out there. I think he appreciates his job more after being out a year."
KU coach Roy Williams is a major Knight supporter. "I'd say 90 to 95 percent of the things I do I've stolen from coach (Dean) Smith. I've stolen from other people, including a great percentage from coach Knight.
"In coach Knight, you're talking about a friend of mine. He and I have talked. He has told me, 'Roy, you don't do things exactly like I do.' He is a great coach. I could play for him. I would like to play for him. It's hard for me to be critical of both a friend and guy I have respect for as a coach.
"He's a great teacher of the game and great teacher of other coaches. Some problems he's had I don't know enough to comment on."
Lee rattles rim
KU signee Michael Lee, a 6-2 shooting guard from Portland, Ore., scored 20 points, including a vicious reverse slam dunk off a feed from fellow KU signee Aaron Miles, in Jefferson High's 84-49 first-round Oregon Class 4A state playoff victory.
"I really didn't think I could jump that high," Lee said. "It just happened."
Miles, a 6-0 point guard, had nine points.
"I've never seen Michael jump that high," Jefferson coach Marshall Haskins said.
Simien in Capital Classic
KU signee Wayne Simien of Leavenworth High will play in the Capital Classic All-Star game on April 7 in Washington, D.C. He will play for a U.S. all-star team that will play a team of D.C.-area standouts. Simien, of course, joins Miles in the McDonald's game on March 28 in Durham, N.C.
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