Former KU video coordinator Kyle Keller’s Lumberjacks may have been a Cinderella team
Former University of Kansas video coordinator Kyle Keller’s Stephen F. Austin basketball team went 28-3 this past season, the same record as Bill Self’s Jayhawks.
The midmajor Lumberjacks from Nacogdoches, Texas went 19-1 in Southland Conference play, almost identical to the Jayhawks’ 17-1 league mark in the Big 12.
And Keller’s Jacks completed the campaign with 15 straight victories; the Jayhawks finishing with 16 wins in a row. Both teams won their respective conference regular-season titles — SFA by four games; KU by two.
“It would be a total honor for somebody to say we were clones of KU, but we are Stephen F. Austin. That’s who our kids are and they play for Stephen F. Austin,” said Keller, who worked on Self’ s KU coaching staff from 2009 to 2011.
“We use the same terminology as Coach (Self) does. We run a lot of the same offense Coach does. We’d love to be able to say we emulate the way Coach plays the game — unselfishly,” fourth-year SFA coach Keller added in a Wednesday afternoon phone conversation with The Star.
It should come as no surprise Keller’s Lumberjacks, who were prime candidates to be bracket busters in the 2020 NCAA Tournament in the same mold of Loyola Chicago in 2018, took last Thursday’s news of the cancellation of the tourney over COVID-19 coronavirus concerns mighty hard.
The No. 1-ranked Jayhawks were favorites to win the entire tourney. The Lumberjacks, who barely missed making the final AP poll, would have been perhaps the top midmajor in the field.
“When we got home (from Katy, Texas, where the Lumberjacks gathered for the conference tourney only to be sent home before the semifinals) there were so many tears,” Keller said.
“We just broke emotionally. The tournament was canceled.”
Could Keller’s Lumberjacks, who shocked a nation by beating Duke, 85-83, on Nov. 26 in Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, have been Cinderella of the 2020 NCAAs? Remember, KU lost to Duke, 68-66, on Nov. 5 in the season-opening Champions Classic in New York.
“One hundred percent,” Keller said of his team emerging as darlings of the NCAAs 68-team field. “We were in the top 10 in the country in three-point shooting, We turned people over. We were in the top 10 in rebound margin. We shoot a high percentage. We do all the things that translate to winning,” he added.
Though SFA’s program received positive national publicity after the victory over Duke, Keller’s Lumberjacks flew under the radar most of the season.
“I had national media say we were the ‘quietest 28-3 team in the country,’’’ Keller said.
“I don’t know if everybody appreciates the kind of season we had honestly. We were about 115 seconds from being perfect, from being undefeated. We played Rutgers (69-57 loss, Nov. 20 in New Jersey) and Alabama (78-68 loss, Dec. 6 at UA) to the last minute. Our one loss in conference play (73-72 to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Jan. 8 at SFA), we missed a layup in the last two seconds, It was almost perfect … our entire year,” Keller added.
SFA loses three senior rotation players off this year’s squad and will return four of its five top scorers, meaning the Lumberjacks should excel again next season. Keller’s second SFA team also won 28 games (against seven losses) and dropped a first-round NCAA game to Texas Tech. His first Lumberjack team went 18-15 in 2016-17 and last year’s squad, which was hit hard by injuries, was 14-18.
“You don’t do these kind of things every year like this team has been able to do,” Keller said, “I’m going to steal a line from Coach Self. I think it’s a great line. I don’t believe him, but he used to say to the players he’d never be the best coach at Kansas but he wants to coach the best team. It really resonated to me.
“I tell our players the same thing. I’ll never be the best coach at Stephen F. Austin. I just want to coach the best team that’s ever been here. I thought this team could be the best ever at Stephen F. Austin.
“But that’s based on what you do in March. We’ve won games in March. This team thought they were bulletproof. They thought they were going to have an opportunity to play into the Sweet 16 and beyond. We’ve won one game a coupe different times in the tournament. This team thought they could go farther than any,” Keller added.
Keller said he not only felt sadness for his players and staff members when the NCAAs were canceled, but also for Self and his KU staff and players.
“I talked to Coach this weekend. Like everybody else I hate it for him because it is a tournament but right now do they have the best team?” Keller said.
“Everybody thought they did. I certainly did. It was an opportunity for another national championship and it’s taken away. I hate it for him, his staff members, players and great fans of KU, to get a chance to win another championship as well as they were playing now.
“They were playing great,” Keller noted. “I thought it was his best defensive team he’s had in a long time. I hated it for him. As much of an identity as Bill Self is, I thought that team was playing like Bill Self,” Keller added.
Keller said folks need to put this all in perspective.
“It’s not life and death,” he said of sports. “We need to love our loved ones, our parents and siblings, grandparents. Those are most important things over anything else. I just try to bring some reality into it.
“I lost my mom this summer,” noted the 52-year-old Keller, who along with wife Chaunsea have a daughter, Kenzie, and son, Kemper.
“My dad (who lives in Tulsa) wanted to go to our tournament (in Katy, Texas). I said, ‘Dad I don’t want to lose you,’ in a conversation I had with him. I said, ‘We just play a game. As much as you and I and everybody else love sports, we need to keep in mind this is just a sport. There are more important things in life.”
Such as stopping coronavirus in its tracks.
“I sure hope so,” Keller said of things getting back to normal soon in the United States. SFA students have all been sent home for the rest of the semester. That includes his players who will not be honored at any banquet since large gatherings are not allowed at this time.
“I’m not a political guy,” Keller added. “I’ve got a lot of faith. We’re going through some hardship now. I think everybody is making the right decisions for this to be successful.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 10:44 AM with the headline "Former KU video coordinator Kyle Keller’s Lumberjacks may have been a Cinderella team."
