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

As event organizer Brian Hanni, the broadcasting voice of the Jayhawks, puts it, an event like the Rock Chalk Roundball Classic could only really happen at Kansas because of the wide-ranging pool of basketball players available and the high character of those players.

“That’s a huge, huge leg up for us,” Hanni said, “that we’re dealing with awesome Jayhawk legends like we are.”

It’s been such an advantage for Hanni and his fellow Roundball Classic organizers that the event, a charity game that raises money for pediatric cancer treatment, is coming up on its 17th annual edition. This year’s iteration is taking place a little later in the summer months than usual: It’s next Thursday night, July 10, at Free State High School, with the Roundball Celebrity Dinner set for the following night at the Burge Union on KU’s campus.

“I’m super proud that the Roundball Classic volunteers and board have kept building these things year in and year out,” Hanni said, “and I think it’s because of the people … that we still have that ambition to get to 20 years and 25 years and see how far we can take it.”

This year’s event features the usual star-studded array of participants, in many cases drawn from what Hanni refers to as “Final Four clusters.” Specifically, there is a host of attendees lined up from some of the winningest teams in modern KU basketball history: Ron Kellogg and Calvin Thompson from 1986; Sherron Collins, Darnell Jackson and Brandon Rush from 2008; Elijah Johnson, Travis Releford, Tyshawn Taylor and Kevin Young from 2012; Devonte’ Graham and Svi Mykhailiuk from 2018; and Ochai Agbaji, Mitch Lightfoot and David McCormack from 2022, among others.

Hanni said one of the most rewarding aspects of organizing the event is to see newer players, when they meet the beneficiaries and experience the Roundball Classic as a whole, get a sense of “the position of influence they’ve been given and the type of impact they can create” and then decide to come back on an annual basis. The alumni will have occasional conflicts, but he pointed to Graham and Mykhailiuk as examples of loyal participants since they left KU: “That speaks a lot to their character, but it also speaks to how inspiring these kiddos are that we’re raising money for.”

There are some new additions. Most notably, Jerod Haase is a first-time participant now that he’s no longer in his former longtime role as the head coach of Stanford. Hanni called it a “huge coup” to get him involved. He noted that new KU assistant coach Jacque Vaughn will be out recruiting, so the iconic pair won’t be reunited this year, but it could happen in future editions of the event.

Hanni said that moving the event to July this year — to accommodate key players’ schedules, he said, even if it inadvertently created some additional conflicts in the process — allows the Roundball Classic to cross-promote with The Basketball Tournament, in which a KU alumni team will be participating not long afterward. Collins, McCormack, Taylor, debutant Nick Timberlake and Young are all in some way involved in both events.

“I’m really excited with how the rosters have come together,” Hanni said, “and if a couple of the last two guys we’re waiting (on) do end up committing, these rosters will be just as good as we’ve ever had, with some new names that fans have really been hoping to see for a long time.”

On the philanthropic side, the 2024 event is benefiting six main children battling cancer: Tyson Barnett, 15, of Kinsley; Oliver Combes, 6, of Overbrook; Jaxson Kress, 10, of Webb City, Missouri; Ty’Nia Parker, 12, of Kansas City, Kansas; Ezra Talkington, 3, of Salina; and Taygan Teneyck, 10, of Silver Lake.

The Roundball Classic also continues to benefit a handful of additional “future stars” at its main event with $1,000 each, and as part of the “benevolence fund” that has arisen over the last several years, 20 more kids over the course of the following calendar year receive gifts of $5,000 apiece.

The newest addition in this realm is the Yvonne Adams Legacy Fund. Named for the late mother of recent KU basketball player KJ Adams, and conceptualized and funded by KU benefactors Kent and Missy McCarthy, it will award $25,000 to a family with a parent battling cancer.

“In the last 100 days leading up to Roundball week, which is almost upon us, my favorite day so far of the buildup and all that is the day that Kevin (KJ’s father) and KJ selected Kristi McAlister of Lawrence as this year’s Yvonne Adams Legacy Fund winner,” Hanni said. “I had a chance to call the family. In hearing why Kevin and KJ picked her, and in getting to know her through her family, I totally see why this was the choice.”

Hanni described McAlister as a mother of three with a high-school-aged child who is an athlete. He said he’s “so excited for our Roundball fans to meet her on event night and have the Adams family be the one presenting the check.”

“The spotlight will forever be about pediatric cancer,” Hanni added, “but this is a new addition that I think is going to be a fabulous add-on, year in and year out.”

One subtraction from this year’s festivities, at least in its traditional form, was the Round-Bowl Classic, a bowling event at Royal Crest Lanes that has typically taken place the day after the celebrity dinner.

“This year we decided to focus on just two events based on player availability,” Hanni said, “but we have terrific partners in Royal Crest Lanes, who allowed us to have a Meet the Families Day where the volunteers and board members got to bowl with a bunch of our beneficiary kids and their families for free at Royal Crest.”

He said that it’s challenging with players’ schedules to keep them in town for several days at a time, but a Round-Bowl event of some kind could potentially return during a different part of the year.