Wichita ? At the age of 45, Basketball Hall of Famer Lynette Woodard is out of basketball for the first time since shooting sock balls in her house as a 5-year-old.

Now what?

Would you believe she’s back living with her mother, in that same house?

This summer, Woodard returned to make Wichita home again after leaving here for college at Kansas University in 1977. She’s sharing a modest house on North Piatt Street with her widowed mother, Dorothy, who has called it home for nearly five decades.

“I really don’t know what Lynette’s future holds,” said her mother, 75. “I guess you could say basketball’s on a standstill. But it’s nice to have her here.”

Woodard regularly shows up unannounced for various pickup games around Wichita, much to the delight of the surprised vagabonds of the hardwood.

Other than that, though, basketball no longer is her livelihood. Money is.

She’s always had a gift for that, too. Even while she was playing in the WNBA, Woodard was a registered stockbroker in New York.

When Woodard did not land the coaching job at Kansas last spring, after serving as an assistant there for five years, Wichita investment firm A.G. Edwards snatched her up as a financial consultant.

“Now I coach people in the investment world, and there’s a passion there,” Woodard said. “It’s not about making anybody a millionaire. It’s very rewarding for me to help someone set up an emergency fund, or a rainy-day fund.

“I’m living each day to the fullest, just doing what I’m supposed to do, trying not to look too far ahead. I do play a lot of basketball and I do work out to stay in shape. You have to be ready for that big moment.”

Once Woodard returned from her induction last week in the Basketball Hall of Fame, her aim was to dive head-first into her business. That’s going to mean earlier mornings — she already rises at 6 a.m. to get her workout in — and late evenings.

Eventually, Woodard wants to get her “little project” of producing and marketing a line of Christian sportswear off the ground.

She bears no ill will toward KU for passing her over for the coaching job.

“It’s my alma mater,” Woodard said. “Rock, chalk, Jayhawk.”

She refuses to speculate whether coaching basketball still is on her radar.

“A.G. Edwards is on my radar,” she said. “The first years are critical. I’ll be working a lot.”

Woodard has prepared for life after basketball, and makes it sound like Wichita will be part of that.

“It’s been a blessing to come home,” Woodard said. “I’ve gotten closer to my mother. All these people I’ve been hearing about over the years, I’m finally meeting them for the first time. It’s almost like I’m living my childhood again.”