Rock Chalk Roundball Classic all star Calvin Smith gives fives to the players before tipoff on Thursday, June 13, 2024 at Free State High School. Photo by Nick Krug

Very few basketball games are played to raise money for pediatric cancer treatment. Still fewer feature one assistant coach asking for another’s hand in marriage.

Thursday night’s 16th annual edition of the Rock Chalk Roundball Classic, the charity game featuring former Kansas basketball standouts organized by KU broadcaster Brian Hanni, fit both of those descriptions.

The philanthropic efforts this time around centered on a new high-water mark of a “magnificent seven” group of children battling cancer: Azel Bryant, of Wichita; Rowdy Campbell, of Wichita; Lucas Kromminga, of Olathe; Owen Ragsdale, of Harrisonville, Missouri; Isaac Reynolds, of Topeka; Calvin Smith, of Shawnee; and Keira Whiting, of Topeka.

And at the first timeout during the 40-minute basketball extravaganza, Calvin Thompson, a member of KU’s 1986 Final Four team, got down on one knee and proposed to Barbara Adkins-Henry, a double-digit scorer for Marian Washington’s teams earlier in the ’80s.

“A little story about coach (Ted) Owens when he was recruiting me as a ninth grader,” Thompson said, addressing the crowd. “He said ‘We don’t want you for four years. We want you for life.’ And he wanted to make me a Jayhawk for life, and I tell you guys, there’s nothing like the support that you guys give us.

“This is not basketball-related, but Barbara, I want you for life. Will you marry me?”

She will, and the engagement of blue team assistant coaches Thompson and Adkins-Henry, who embraced to rapturous applause, was just one of the twists providing newfound energy to this year’s edition of the event. The presence of a fresh generation of Roundball participants, including current pros Ochai Agbaji, Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson, lent a new dimension to the competition, as the red team featuring Braun and Wilson took a 116-101 victory after rallying from a 17-point deficit.

“We kind of told them in the locker room to bring it,” said Sherron Collins, who scored nine points for the red team. “… It was fun, and I think we need more NBA guys to come back and make this game bigger.”

Braun, who unleashed an array of highlight-reel dunks, was the game’s overall leading scorer with 24 points, while Silvio De Sousa paced the blue team with 23 and Agbaji and Devonte’ Graham (currently of the San Antonio Spurs) were close behind with 20 and 19.

“I think because we have so many current NBA players, any time they have a basketball in their hand, it’s going to be a competitive environment,” said Kylee Kopatich, a former 1,000-point scorer for the KU women’s team.

It was the shooting of Kopatich that truly turned the tide of the game, as she hit four 3-pointers in just over five minutes to open the second half as the red team went on a 16-3 run out of the break. Red never trailed again and in fact led by double digits for most of the rest of the half, boosted by 3s from Brandon Rush (18 points) and Collins.

“Obviously we can’t run with these young guys no more,” Collins said of the older contingent, “but the thing we got going for us is we still can shoot it.”

The blue team looked like it was going to run away with a victory early, with a pair of 3-pointers by Tyrel Reed fueling a 12-0 run that allowed it to extend its lead to as much as 35-18 just before the first 10 minutes had elapsed.

From then on, the red team undertook its first 3-point barrage and had made seven additional 3s, including three by Rush, by the time the halftime buzzer sounded. With the red squad trailing 51-42, Rush made back-to-back attempts to draw the margin as close as it had been since a dunk by Braun had made it 18-16.

The blue team responded with 3-pointers by De Sousa and Agbaji, with Agbaji hitting a catch-and-shoot attempt from the corner with nine seconds to go, but Braun, after a moment of hesitation, connected from just beyond halfcourt to cut his team’s deficit to 57-51 at the half.

Then Kopatich struck repeatedly from deep on the left wing, and Wilson hit the 3-pointer that put the red team in front for the first time since it was 5-4.

A series of dunks by De Sousa, back for his second straight Roundball Classic after making his debut in 2023, helped keep the blue team afloat, but Rush, Braun and Malik Newman put their foes away late.

“It was a good environment, it was good for the kids, it was just good for the city,” Collins said.

Besides the seven primary beneficiaries and a few “future stars,” the Roundball Classic will also continue to bolster its year-round impact with the “benevolence fund” introduced in 2023. Hanni said he expects about 20 additional kids to attend KU games and receive $5,000 apiece over the course of nine months.

Each June, though, KU luminaries will keep returning to Lawrence for the flagship Roundball event.

“Honestly, it’s the tunnel (when the beneficiaries are announced to the crowd) and watching the kids go through, and just realizing how much it does for them,” Kopatich said. “Why wouldn’t you come back? Especially with such a great group, as they bring in these amazing Jayhawks that continue to come back.”

The festivities continue with the Roundball gala dinner on Friday night and bowling event Saturday afternoon.

Former Kansas player Calvin Thompson proposes to Barbara Adkins-Henry during a timeout in the Rock Chalk Roundball Classic on Thursday, June 13, 2024 at Free State High School. Photo by Nick Krug