Jerseys in the AFH Rafters: Women's & Men's names and criteria @2025-04-12

OP in this thread updated for the AY2023-24 additions of Thomas Robinson and Bill "Skinny: Johnson in The Rafters.

KUAthletics.com: Kansas to Retire Two Jerseys in 2023-24 Beginning with Thomas Robinson, Dec. 9

KUSports.com: Influential 1930s center ‘Skinny’ Johnson will have jersey retired Monday

It was pointed out to me today that I forgot to update the "guaranteed rafters" listing in the OP when Jalen Wilson earned that status.

Jalen Wilson, 2023 Big 12 POY and consensus first team All-American

Situtation corrected!

ROCK CHALK, JALEN!

Just a thought...

Thinking about the impact of conference expansion on the "Jerseys in the Rafters" criteria -- having to compete for Big 12 POY against players from another 4 teams (16 versus 12 - not 15 versus 11, because the player is also competing against his own teammates for this award) strengthens the case for having the "Conference Player of the Year" criterion.

Saturday February 22, 2025 another jersey was honored with its place in The Rafters of Allen Fieldhouse.

Arthur C. "Dutch" Lonborg's #7 jersey is now flying high in "The PHOG!"

Here is his Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame bio:
Dutch Lonborg first trained for his legendary career as a basketball coach and administrator by playing guard for the father of basketball coaching, Phog Allen, at the University of Kansas. He was a fine player earning First Team All-America honors from the Helms Foundation in 1919. Coaching collegiately for 29 years at McPherson College, Washburn University, and Northwestern University, his greatest success was at Northwestern, where in 23 years he won 237 games and made the Wildcats a force in the Big Ten. After coaching, Lonborg became athletics director at Kansas for 14 years and went on to be active in all facets of basketball administration. As chairman of the NCAA Tournament Committee, the tournament grew from an eight-team to a 25-team format. Lonborg also served as president of the NABC in 1935 and managed the U.S. Olympic basketball team in 1960 that won the world title in Rome.

Thank you, KANSAS, for honoring your deserving hoops pioneers!

Reposting my argument for putting Big DAVE McCormack's #33 Jersey in the Rafters


As Coach Self has repeatedly said, the criteria are "guidelines", not hard and fast minimum requirements.

SO I make my pitch once again for putting Big Dave McCormack's jersey in the heavens of AFH.

But for an NCAA mismanagement screw up of their new Final Four Most Outstanding Player voting process, Big Dave would have been named the FF MOP in 2022 after his dominating game against Villanova in the National Semifinal and his clutch performance in the title game. But despite a new computerized internet voting system that would have allowed votes to be cast up to the end of the game and STILL have the votes counted and awardee determined before the awards announcements, the NABC/Basketball Writers and NCAA required that the votes had to be in with 2 minutes left in the game. Result - Ochai Agbaji edged out Big Dave for the MOP because some voters -- who had not recognized that Dave's offensive and defensive presence was tremendous throughout the FF (+41 +/- when he was on the floor in those two games), cast their votes before Dave's heroics in the last two minutes of the title game eliminated any doubt who deserved the award.

For the details on the stats below, see CorpusJayhawk's excellent post in the April 2022 thread MOP

BIG DAVE McCORMACK 2022 FINAL FOUR MOP CLAIM STATISTSICS

LEADING KU SCORER BOTH GAMES
25 v Villanova
15 v UNC (tied with Jalen Wilson)

INCREDIBLE +/- RATING
DAVE in the game, KU was
+25 v Villanova
+16 v UNC
+41 for the FF
DAVE on the bench, KU was
-9 v Villanova
-13 v UNC
-22 FF

On a per minute basis for both games of the Final Four...

IN THE GAME
0.70 more KU points per minute than Opponent with DAVE in
0.40 more KU points per minute than Opponent with Dajuan in
0.31 more KU points per minute than Opponent with Wilson in
0.25 more KU points per minute than Opponent with Agbaji in
0.20 more KU points per minute than Opponent with Braun in
-0.09 more KU points per minute than Opponent with Remy Martin in

ON THE BENCH
-1.02 KU points per minute than Opponent with DAVE benched
-0.35 KU points per minute than Opponent with Wilson benched
-0.18 KU points per minute than Opponent with Dajuan benched
0.14 KU points per minute than Opponent with Agbaji benched
0.60 KU points per minute than Opponent with Braun benched
0.61 KU points per minute than Opponent with Remy Martin benched

A link to the mentioned 2022 thread MOP with CorpusJayhawk's excellent analysis of the 2022 Final Four performances by KU players has been included in both the OP and the immediately preceding post. As is clear by his analysis, David McCormack stood head and shoulders above his teammates for the MOP performance during the 2022 Final Four.

ROCK CHALK!

I fixed the link to CorpusJayhawk's analysis in the preceding posts. Sorry! Mea culpa!