Old friends happy to see Furman vs. Kansas again

Wayne Simien (23) and Nick Sanders, right, celebrate with Leavenworth High teammates after
winning the Kansas Class 6A state championship in 2000. Photo courtesy of Nick Sanders

As of Saturday morning, there were 19 Division I men's college basketball teams still undefeated this season. By Saturday night, that number will go down by at least one after Furman plays at Kansas at 6 p.m. on ESPN+. The Paladins (7-0) get to test their mettle against the No. 1-ranked Jayhawks (6-0) in what will be their stiffest quiz all season.

It will be so much more than that for Furman though. It's an opportunity to slay a college basketball blue blood in one of the most hallowed grounds in all of sports in Allen Fieldhouse. The Paladins will undoubtedly "pay heed" when entering the Phog as the iconic banner warns, but they will undoubtedly be excited to shoot their shot.

"It's going to be an incredible challenge. ... It's going to take our best and we know that. We've gone into some venues before and had some wins and had some losses. But with the wins over Villanova, Virginia Louisville, they're not going to take us lightly," Furman coach Bob Richey said on the Furman Radio Network postgame show Tuesday. "Coach (Bill) Self has done this long enough that he's going to have them ready to play. We're going to have to get to Kansas City and really put a great game plan together."

After leaving Las Vegas with a gritty win over Seattle late Tuesday night, the Paladins spent Thanksgiving together in Kansas City and visited the Basketball Hall of Fame Friday before practicing at Kansas.

On Saturday, Furman will be tasked with trying to drop Self's home record against non-conference opponents to 156-7. Self is the winningest coach in school history and only the eighth for a program that began 126 years ago. Of the other seven, the only one with a losing record is the first, Dr. James Naismith. All he did was invent basketball and his original rules for the sport are on display in an attached portion of Allen Fieldhouse.

This game will also become a special memory for two old friends who were in attendance the only other time Furman faced Kansas - 31 years ago. It's a story some may have never heard if not for another tradition at Kansas - Senior Night speeches. After the last home game of the season, each Kansas senior speaks to the home crowd about their experience of being a Jayhawk.

On March 2, 2005, Kansas All-American Wayne Simien wrapped up his home career with 25 points and 20 rebounds in a 72-65 win over rival Kansas State. He still had enough left in the tank to deliver a 20-minute speech following the game. The Kansas native started with a story about the first time he saw a game at Allen Fieldhouse. He mentioned that he and his best friend saw Kansas defeat Furman that day and oddly enough, he ended up at Kansas while his friend ended up at Furman.

That lifelong friend Simien spoke of is former Furman big man Nick Sanders.

"I had a lot of people to thank, but I had to start from the beginning," Simien said this week when recalling the speech. "He's been a friend my whole life."

Simien and Sanders grew up together in Leavenworth, Kansas, about 35 miles northeast of the University of Kansas in Lawrence. While Simien lives in Kansas and Sanders in Charleston, the two routinely keep in touch these days.

"Wayne and I went to school together from kindergarten to 12th grade. We played middle school, high school and AAU basketball together. So we were together a lot," Sanders said. "Leavenworth is about 40 minutes or so from Lawrence, so we're kind of in the shadow of that. Lots of people who saw us play on Friday nights would then go see KU basketball on Saturdays."

Sanders admits he has no real recollection of that first Furman-Kansas game, which is kind of understandable. He and Simien were 10 years old at the time and a Jacque Vaughn-led Jayhawks team rolled to a 101-60 victory on Dec. 20, 1993.

"No one in my family followed college sports at all, so when I got an invitation from a coach or a friend I would go because it was the Jayhawks," Sanders said. "I really had no other appreciation for who they were playing."

Wayne Simien and Nick Sanders following a 13-and-under
AAU Tournament. Photo courtesy of Nick Sanders

Longtime Furman fans will recall Sanders as a tall, blond forward, who left everything he had on the court every night. There's basketball players who play hard and then there's "midwestern hard." It's a different level that's seems kind of innate for those born in the heartland of America. Sanders and Simien had it. Matt Rafferty had it. Ben VanderWal has it.

That hard-working, connected playing style has been utilized to perfection by coaches like Richey, Self and Niko Medved when he began Furman's transformation into a top mid-major program. Sanders said Medved was actually the first college coach he ever spoke with. That happened well before Medved was a Furman assistant on the Larry Davis-coached teams that Sanders played on though.

"When he was at Macalester in St. Paul, Minnesota my freshman year of high school, he came to recruit a guy who was a senior. He ended up signing that kid, but saw me play," Sanders said. "That summer, he got hired by Coach (Larry) Davis at Furman and they started recruiting me basically right away."

As his high school career went along, Sanders and Simien were part of a national championship AAU team when they were 16. That led to a bunch of calls from different places, but Sanders said that Furman had "the right mix of everything," and had been recruiting him the longest. While he may not have remembered the first time he saw the Paladins play, he vividly recalls his first trip to campus.

"(Medved) said 'Just come to campus, man. Just come to campus. I'm from the Midwest too. I promise you won't regret it.' " Sanders said. "I'll never forget coming around the off ramp on 25 into the front gate of Furman and seeing the trees, manicured hedges and fountains. That was it. They didn't have to do anything else. I was done. I was like, 'give me the national letter of intent.' "

That love of Furman never wavered once his playing and coaching days concluded.

"I've been uniquely blessed and positioned to sort of a seat to the last 20 years of basketball at Furman. I played for Larry Davis, coached with Jeff Jackson, was recruited by Niko and then been really close with Bob since about 2007," Sanders said. "To see how this program has been built and continues to grow ... for those of us who sort of live and die by Furman basketball, this has been an incredible ride." 

Simien worked his way to an All-American career at Kansas that provided him an opportunity to later become part of an NBA championship team with the Miami Heat, while Sanders worked to have a productive career at Furman and also a brief professional career. After playing overseas for a time, Sanders returned to Greenville to work as an assistant on Jackson's staff.

Sanders is the Associate Dean of Students and Career Services at the Charleston School of Law. His coaching days now consist of leading his son's seventh grade team. He coaches them like he was coached.

"We talk about every day in practice, we talk about the most fun way to play is by competing as hard as you possibly can on every single possession," Sanders said. "I truly believe that. The proof is in the pudding.

"I try not to bore my kids with too many old stories, but I've tried to communicate with them is that I made it my mission to squeeze every ounce of performance out of whatever ability I had. That required me to play harder than most, but that got me a long way. It got me a free education, a college playing career and an opportunity to play overseas."

Simien said that type of work ethic has been something he's admired about Sanders his entire life. He said he's seen it on the basketball court and off.

"As a basketball player and a friend and now as a husband and father, it's been really impressive to see the sustained success he's had in life," Simien said. "He's able to impart that into other people around him now, whether its the players he coached at Furman, the students he gets to teach now or his young sons that are growing up probably wanting to be Paladins as well."

Nick Sanders during his Furman days.
 Photo courtesy of Furman

While he can't recall the first meeting between the Paladins and Jayhawks, Sanders has dreamed of this second meeting since he was at Furman. With every "Legends Weekend" that sees former Paladins return to mingle with the current team, Sanders has asked Richey about getting Kansas on the schedule. Sanders has also asked Simien about it in recent years as Simien now works as the Associated AD of Engagement and Outreach at Kansas. 

"I've always felt a personal connection to these two programs. We played in Kansas City when I was in college, so that was fun to get home. We played in Iowa and Saint Louis, but we never played Kansas. That would've been a dream," Sanders said. "I never played there. Never shot a basket at Allen Fieldhouse, but the idea of Furman playing the Jayhawks was always a bucket lister for me."

"It's going to be a dream come true for me to take my boys there, show them the original rules of basketball, see Wayne's jersey in the rafters and hang out with the Furman team a little bit. It's going to be a fun trip."

In addition to his administrative duties at Kansas, Simien has also worked as a color commentator on some basketball broadcasts. He will be on the call for Saturday's game and is looking forward to seeing the Paladins in person again.

"I've been a huge Furman fan ever since Nick went there and I'm a huge Bob Richey fan. So much so that I went out of my way at a Final Four to go sit in a coaching seminar he was giving," Simien said. "I'm sure he had opportunities to take a bigger job, but it's been really cool to see him stay in his home state and keep building that environment.

"When you get a leader that's really passionate about being a caretaker steward of a program that they've been entrusted with more so than just making a name for themselves to try to get the next job, that can really create a special environment that a lot of people want to be a part of."

While Simien's broadcast duties won't allow he and Sanders to sit together Saturday like they did 31 years ago and their rooting interests will be quite different from when they were kids, they're both excited to be among the 15,000 who will be in attendance.

"Undefeated teams makes for an incredible matchup on a Saturday and it will be fun to give it a call," Simien said. "I'll have the headsets on, but being able to look up in the stands and see my friend Nick Sanders there will be pretty special for me."