LUKE AXTELL

AXTELL, LUKE DANIEL           

Hometown:  Austin, TX  (Westlake HS)

Transfer from University of Texas

Transfer from Texas U.

1998-99:  Ineligible transfer.

Axtell goes pro in Moscow

Joey Berlin, University Daily Kansan

Thursday, February 6, 2003

Former Kansas men's basketball player, Luke Axtell, is taking a new journey in his quest to put his turbulent and disappointing college career behind him.  Axtell, who played at the University from 1999 to 2001, signed a contract last week with Dynamo, a professional team in Moscow. He left his Austin, Texas, home for Russia yesterday and will play in his first game for Dynamo on Saturday.  "It's their top league," Axtell said. "They have an A-league and a B-league, and they're in the A-league."

Axtell couldn't have played competitive basketball at this time last year, when the back problems that helped limit his Kansas career to just 39 games were still nagging him. It wasn't until late last summer, after enduring a rigorous rehabilitation program and workouts with former NBA player Dave Jamerson, that he finally got to show his stuff on the court again.

In August, Axtell joined an American exhibition team, along with Jamerson and several other former NBA players. It toured Latvia and Lithuania for two-and-a-half weeks. With his back feeling sound, Axtell tore up the opposition and averaged about 22 points per game.  "We got our butts kicked, but it was great over there, man," he said. "We won two out of six games. But I played well, made lots of contacts."

After returning to Austin, Axtell hooked up with an agent and began to market himself to teams in Europe looking for a replacement player.  "They look at your tape, talk to some people who have seen me play and decide whether or not they want you," he said.  "It's been hard, going through giving tapes to all these European teams. You're on 48-hour standby."

Axtell's stint in Russia will be a big step forward after a college career that ended with more controversy and injury rehabilitation time than memorable moments on the court.  He drew plenty of attention as a freshman in the 1997-1998 season. A long-haired, 6-foot-9-inch, long-range bomber, Axtell started 25 games for the Longhorns and averaged 13.3 points while shooting 39.3 percent from three-point range.

But in March 1998, then-coach Tom Penders suspended Axtell for academic reasons. In the midst of a public war of words, involving reports that Axtell and other members of the Longhorns were criticizing Penders' coaching style, Axtell received permission to transfer to another school.  Meanwhile, someone on the Texas staff orchestrated the release of Axtell's grades to a local radio station. Assistant coach Eddie Oran initially took responsibility for distributing the grades but later claimed Penders had been involved in the decision.

Axtell filed a lawsuit against the university, Penders and Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds. The lawsuit was dismissed. Penders, who resigned after the 1997-1998 season, later won a defamation lawsuit that Oran filed against him.  Even after Axtell announced he was transferring to Kansas, the nightmare didn't end — in fact, it got worse. He received a series of death threats while he was finishing his last semester at Texas.  "I'm walking down campus wondering if I'm about to take one in the back," Axtell said. "Pretty scary for a 19-year-old kid."

Today, the ugly split from Texas is in Axtell's rear-view mirror.  "There's really no residue of it," he said. "People know what went down, and I haven't met one person in the last four years who has had anything negative to say." Because of NCAA rules, Axtell's decision to transfer to another school in the Big 12 Conference left him with just two years of eligibility at Kansas. He joined the Jayhawks for the 1999-2000 season and averaged 8.7 points in 20 games before leaving the team to be treated for an undisclosed medical condition.

He returned the following season but missed 11 more games with a degenerative disc in his back and an ankle injury. After averaging 5.3 points and 2.6 rebounds in his senior season, his career at Kansas was over.  "It just stinks, you know," he said. "I wish I could have stayed healthy."

Axtell graduated, returned home and did odd jobs in Austin, as his back slowly began to get better. After a year-and-a-half, he decided to adopt a serious rehabilitation program and began working out with Jamerson, a former member of the Houston Rockets.  Jamerson said a healthy Axtell had a chance to make a living at pro basketball's highest level.

"I really believe that if he stays healthy and works hard at his game, he can still play in the NBA," Jamerson said. "He's only 24, and his best basketball is still ahead of him potentially."  Jamerson said he thought the three main things were whether he was healthy, continued to work and stayed in the right mind frame, he could do it."  Axtell is still not willing to reveal the nature of the medical ailment that derailed his junior season, but he said it is a thing of the past.

"I'm definitely healed at this point," he said. "There's no lingering effects or anything. To me, it's no different than the back injury. It's just another injury."  As he prepared to join his new team for the last quarter of its season, Axtell said that because his plans never work out, his only long-term goal is to take his basketball talent as far as it will let him go. "Beyond that," he said, "I could care less."

 L-J World 12/16/04

Former KU player Luke Axtell is head boys basketball coach at Hill Country Christian School in his hometown of Austin, Texas. The Class 2A team is off to a 9-3 start under the former Jayhawk and Texas player.

Putting woes in the past, Luke Axtell enjoying life at Texas high school

L-J World Thursday, January 27, 2005, By Gary Bedore, Assistant Sports Editor

Luke Axtell doesn't wear a suit, tie and Gucci shoes as he paces the bench and barks instructions to his Hill Country Christian School basketball players.

That wouldn't fit Axtell's style. "Khakis, boots and coaches shirts with the emblem of the school," Axtell said of his casual game attire.

Axtell, a 6-foot-10 former Kansas University basketball player and country music singer-songwriter, has led the small-school Knights in his hometown of Austin, Texas, to a 13-7 record in his first coaching gig of what could be a long career.

Axtell, who because of injuries and illness never reached his potential as a player at the University of Texas and KU, has resurfaced in his home state after his bid at a pro basketball career was cut short because of persistent back problems. Now Axtell believes he may have found his true calling at the age of 26.

"I have great kids, so it makes it easy. I lucked out. I don't have to deal with any attitudes," said Axtell, who coaches the boys team in a part-time position with the school as he completes work on his college degree.

"In coaching," Axtell said, "you don't have to deal with what players do, which is being totally exhausted. Physically, it's less taxing. You don't have to deal with injuries, which for me is big."

Axtell suffered a broken hand and incurred a back injury, which ultimately ended his career with several games to play during his senior year at KU (2000-01).

"My goal is to give the kids the best experience I can. We are not playing for money. I want them to enjoy themselves and have this prepare them for life," Axtell said.

Christian values

Axtell says he's fortunate to be coaching at a school that encourages him to instill Christian values.  "I'll try to show them the best way I can, being an authority figure, to be as Christian-like as I can be," Axtell said. "I can show them I truly love them and it's not whether they win the next game or not. It's not all about basketball."

Axtell doesn't want his players to go through what he did in college. His woes started when his former coach at Texas released his grades to a radio station. He transferred shortly after to KU.

"There are several things wrong with the system I saw," Axtell said. "I just happened to go through some things other kids don't have to go through. It seems I was exposed to some stuff not everybody is exposed to." At this time, Axtell can't envision himself as a college coach.

"At a big-time college there are things sacrificed," he said. "Players are less important sometimes than what goes in the won/loss column. I would never want to sacrifice players." Axtell has no specific complaints about his days at KU.

"The fans were the best," he said. "Everybody treated me the best possible way you could be treated." Yet he's using much of what he's learned not from ex-Jayhawk mentor Roy Williams, but from Jim Robinson of Maumee (Ohio) High.

Axtell played one year of high school ball under Robinson and went to visit his former coach in suburban Toledo last summer.

Eager, hard-working

"I believe he'll do well as a coach. He's eager interested, and hard working," said Robinson, now in his 36th season in coaching. "I believe that basketball is good for Luke and Luke is good for basketball. He'll relate to players because of some things he's been through and teach character."

Axtell, who went through much at KU including an undisclosed medical condition that he won't discuss, said "coaching is really different. You find yourself getting really competitive on the sidelines."  That competitive spirit is something Hill Country Christian School athletic director Pete Craycroft admires.

"We're winning with a team that doesn't have a player over 6-feet tall. Our biggest guy is sitting on the bench in a polo shirt," Craycroft said, adding he likes Axtell's game-day strategy.

"The first game we had a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter. We ran 3 1/2 minutes off the clock and I almost cried. It was a thing of beauty. It's great to see our guys scoring off backdoor cuts." Some of the parents know of Axtell's career and even his musical talents, which includes writing songs for his sister, recording artist Brooke.

But the players?  "Our kids are just young enough, they don't really know who he is," Craycroft said. "He's dealing with the stuff a regular coach deals with. If a parent thinks a kid isn't playing enough, they don't care the coach is Luke Axtell. It's an occupational hazard."

Degree needed

Craycroft hopes Axtell will stick around to build a program and teach English. For that to happen, however, he needs to complete a college degree. "Finishing at Texas would keep him local and he'd be able to continue here," Craycroft said. That would be fine with Axtell.  "It's been a blessing," Luke said, "to work with such great kids." And win some games in the process.