Brad Witherspoon was supposed to play in an exhibition game between the Harlem Rockets and Humboldt High All-Stars Monday night in Humboldt’s gym.

The 6-foot-2 guard, who is the No. 3 all-time scorer in school history, had a good reason for missing the contest. He had a commitment to practice with the Kansas Jayhawks – running through his first practice as a member of the Jayhawk team.

Witherspoon was invited to join Matt Kleinmann and Brennan Bechard as KU hoops walk-ons (non-scholarship players) after performing well during Sunday’s open tryouts.

“We got a call before the game. We made an announcement at the game. Everybody was happy for him,” Humboldt High coach Jason Jones said Tuesday of Witherspoon, who as a junior will play two seasons at KU.

“Everybody’s really happy for him. He’s well thought-of both on and off the court. He has strong ties to the Humboldt area,” Jones added.

Jones didn’t coach Witherspoon – he took over a year after Witherspoon graduated.

But he’s seen Witherspoon play a lot.

“He’s athletic. He probably dunked 15 to 17 times his senior year,” Jones said of the player who finished his high school career with over 1,200 points at the Class 3A school. He earned all-Class 3A mention following his senior season.

“He is a scorer, one of those guys who finds a way to get 20 a night. He’s not necessarily a great shooter, but he is a scorer.”

Witherspoon made the KU team in his third try. He left tryouts down, but not out, his freshman and sophomore years of college.

“He almost made the team last year,” KU coach Bill Self said. “He’s quick, he tries hard. He’ll be a great practice player. He understands his role as a walk-on will be to make the other guys work harder. He knows he will not play much if any which is pretty much the case for most all walk-ons. He’s a great young man. He’s part of Kansas basketball.”

All because he kept trying after a pair of disappointments.

“I didn’t know if he’d try again,” Jones said. “When he wants something, he goes after it. He hates to lose. Even in pickup games, at the end he wants the ball because he wants to win so badly. He’s a better player now than he was in high school. People that have seen him in intramurals have told me how explosive he is.”

Witherspoon had a chance to play college ball.

“All the area junior colleges wanted him,” Jones said. “He never got a Div. I look. He decided to go D-1 and try to walk on. It’s a credit to him he made it. He’ll do a good job at KU.”

Witherspoon chatted with the Journal-World after Sunday’s tryout session.

“It would be great and give hope to everybody else that’s out here,” Witherspoon said of making the team as a walk-on in his third attempt. “You never know when they might pick somebody and when they might not, so it just encourages people to keep working hard.”

Witherspoon – who was first in all the drills – said the coaches pushed the tryout candidates harder than in years past.

“My freshman year was tough, but it wasn’t that hard, and last year was a lot harder than the first year I did it,” Witherspoon said. “This year, the thing we did at the end was insane. I couldn’t feel my legs – it was just tough. I was just trying to block it out of my head and get through it. … They did a good job of getting us tired.”

KU will formally announce Witherspoon’s joining the team today.

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Recruiting: KU may receive an official visit from Dominique Sutton, 6-4 from Patterson School in New Jersey the weekend of Oct. 27-28. Sutton has already visited Kansas State and calls KSU his leader. He’s also considering Illinois.