Newman ready to soar with new additions Jalen Love, Gavin Thurman

The man with his name on the basketball court at Newman University needed wins, so he got in his car and drove west.

It wasn’t a normal thing for Mark Potter to do, but this was far from a normal situation.

The Jets needed this. He needed this.

So he drove west, to Denver. To try and change the fortunes at the school where Potter, entering his 18th season as the Jets’ men’s basketball coach, is as much associated with the athletic department as any person in school history.

Because even if you’ve got your name on the court, you still need wins.

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It wasn’t that Newman completely quit winning in the last two seasons – well one year, pretty much – it’s just that anything the Jets did after the 2012-13 season was probably going to pale in comparison.

That was the year that Potter and the Jets upped the standard of what was possible at the NCAA Division II school. They went 20-8, swept all four of Kansas’ MIAA schools for the first time – including a home win over No. 2 Washburn – and made the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time.

It was success Newman couldn’t sustain. The Jets went 9-17 in 2013-14 and 15-11 last season, finishing ninth and seventh place in the Heartland Conference.

And after last season’s slight uptick, more setbacks.

All-Heartland guard Reggie Baker, the team’s leading scorer at 21 points, decided to transfer to Division I Savannah State for his senior season. Talented freshman forward Luka Vermezovic, a 6-foot-9 Sunrise Christian Academy product, would also eventually decide to leave.

“Sure, I’ve had a handful of people ask me if I feel pressure (after the last two seasons),” Potter said. “But I kind of go back to what I’ve heard a couple of NFL coaches say. Respect the process. Respect the way things are done.”

That process became clear in April.

That’s when a pair of Wichitans – Denver guard Jalen Love and Missouri State forward Gavin Thurman – both announced they were transferring with one season remaining for each.

And the word on both was that if they were going to go Division II, they wanted to play together. And they wanted to play close to home.

So Potter and assistant coach R.J. Allen, whose father, Ron, coached Love in high school at East, went to work.

“This wasn’t a done deal, or an easy deal by any means,” Potter said. “We had to go to work. And that’s where I need to point at that R.J., in this whole thing, was tremendous.”

Allen went at the task like a man on fire.

“It was a huge opportunity for us to have two Wichita guys of their caliber available,” Allen said. “It was kind of an awkward deal with the timing, but the mindset was just to get them back to Wichita. I went to the phones. I used the connections with my dad and with (Heights coach) Joe Auer and with knowing the Thurman family a little bit to get the wheels turning.

“It wasn’t just something that happened overnight. With the severity of the situation, we needed to make a statement.”

Love and Thurman, who won a state championship at Heights in 2012 alongside Kansas forward Perry Ellis, got the message loud and clear.

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If you were lucky enough to wander into the old Biddy Basketball gym near Parklane Shopping Center about 15 years ago, then made your way over to where the smallest kids were playing, you got to see a little slice of Wichita basketball history.

That’s where you would’ve seen a group of future Division I players – including Love, Thurman, Ellis and Wichita State forward Evan Wessel – first learning how to play the game.

“If you weren’t at Biddy, it was like you didn’t even exist back then,” Love said, laughing. “It was like a little-kid status symbol … if you were there, you really felt like you were doing something. It’s funny to think of it now, of us as little kids, just 5 or 6 years old running around out there.”

“That’s where you got that respect to begin with,” Thurman said. “That place was like our entire world when we were little kids.”

It was on those courts where Love and Thurman first became friends. It grew into summers playing together on the same AAU team and winters spent battling each other in the City League, with Love at East and Thurman at Southeast and eventually Heights.

“We knew each other so well, knew each other’s games so well from playing together for so long,” Love said. “So when we would play against each other in high school, I was always the one telling everybody what (Thurman) was going to do.”

Both left Wichita for Division I schools, and both found out they could play at the highest level right away and were both always on the court during their three seasons.

Love, 6-2, started 24 games for Denver last season, averaging 7 points, 2.7 assists and 2.2 rebounds. He averaged 9 points and started all 31 games in 2013-2014 and was Denver’s Most Valuable Freshman in 2012-2013.

Denver shared a Western Athletic Conference championship Love’s freshman season and made it to the second round of the NIT.

Thurman, 6-8, averaged 6.2 points in three seasons, then announced he was leaving Missouri State via his Twitter account on March 23, three weeks after the end of the season. The Bears won 11 games in Thurman’s freshman and junior seasons.

Thurman still won’t say exactly why he left Missouri State.

“It was weird, because after (Thurman) announced he was going to transfer, I called him and wished him good luck,” Love said. “Then a couple of weeks later, I was transferring, too.”

Love’s exit came after a falling out with with Denver coach Joe Scott. Love and Thurman quickly determined they wanted to team up.

“I knew I didn’t want to sit out a year (at a Division I school),” Love said. “So all the coaches that would call, I would put Gavin’s name out there and he was doing the same with me. I think we both knew if we were going Division II, we wanted to be close to home.”

With Emporia State and Fort Hays State also in the running for Love, Potter went to Denver to try and seal the deal.

“That’s not something (Potter) does very often, if at all,” Allen said. “It was that important to get (Love).”

On April 28, the news broke that both Love and Thurman were coming home.

“We’re trying to be the best we can be, trying to get the most talent on our roster that we can,” Potter said. “It just so happened that these two are some of the best to come out of Wichita in awhile and we did everything in our power to bring them back home.

“When all that stuff came together, and I know that some people will think this is weird, but I believe it’s a God thing. I know that might be something people don’t like to hear, but I believe that. I believe they were meant to be here. I believe they were meant to come back here and play in front of their friends and family.”

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Love came home and started school in the summer, diving into the communications program at Newman and getting adjusted to his new surroundings. Potter named him a team captain just one month into the school year.

“That’s really unusual for me to do that,” Potter said. “But he has all the intangibles you look for in a leader.”

Love has embraced being home. He spends much of his free time around his family and relishes getting to spend time with his 90-year-old grandfather, Emmanuel.

“Birthday parties, family functions, newborn kids ... I get to be around for all that stuff now,” Love said. “I relax, I spend time with my brother, with my siblings and cousins catching up.

“My grandfather is 90, but he doesn’t look 90. He doesn’t act like he’s 90. He cooks, he cleans, he drives ... and I’m sorry if he’s giving y’all hell out there on the streets, but I’m sure he’ll be coming to all the home games.”

Thurman, a self-described mama’s boy, said he’s just happy to be back around his parents. And to have his mother, Cheryl, cooking for him.

“My parents are always there for me, always supportive and they’re excited they don’t have to drive so far to see me play,” Thurman said. “And of course the pastas and the chicken and shrimp alfredo ... she likes to take care of me.

“It’s already 10 weeks into the school year, and to be honest, me and Jalen talk about this every day, but it still doesn’t seem real. We just really want to do something special this season.”

Now all that’s left is to start winning games — something Love and Thurman will need plenty of help to do. Newman doesn’t have much depth, but the Jets do have a few pieces in place. And outside expectations aren’t really something anyone will have to deal with — Newman was picked seventh in the Heartland’s preseason poll ... although they did, somehow, get one first-place vote.

Arkansas-Fort Smith was picked to win the title.

“I always guard my optimism, but that being said I’ve never been more excited about a team headed into the season,” Potter said. “The only negative thing I can say right now is that (Love and Thurman) are too quiet. They don’t communicate quite well enough yet, but they bring it every day as far as consistency in practice and going about their business.”

Newman has two starters back in 6-2 senior guard Cortael Colbert, who averaged 13 points and led Newman with 5.3 assists, and 6-6 senior forward James Pegues, who averaged 11.6 points and 5.2 rebounds.

Newman’s wild card is 5-8 guard Jarvis Williams, a transfer from Holmes Community College who won the V.C. “Bud” Obee Award last season, which is given to the top player at the NJCAA Tournament under 6-foot-1. Williams averaged 11.6 points, 3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals during three tournament games.

“(Williams) is electric, just a lightning bug,” Potter said. “Jalen can play the point or the two pretty much seamlessly, and Cortrael even played point a little bit last year ... I can definitely see us having three guards on the floor, because they’re all capable.”

The key will be getting Thurman to commit to playing in the post in spots — at Missouri State, he had a tendency to drift to the perimeter and averaged 2.4 rebounds over three seasons. At Newman, he’s the tallest player on the roster.

“He knows what he needs to do, and we’re doing things so we can get him the basketball on the block, to get him in the right spot where he can do his thing,” Potter said. “But he can also hit the three, so I don’t want to take that away. He can do a lot of things, and he’s got the green light to shoot. I’m not going to say he’s got to play just on the block, because that’s just not the case.”

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On a Tuesday afternoon, just weeks before the season opener next Friday against Cameron in Oklahoma City, Potter looks better than he’s looked in years. He looks lean, fit.

“I feel great,” Potter says. “There’s just something ... I can’t explain it. I feel really good.”

Allen barks out orders at the team, running them through drills at the beginning of practice.

“It’s just a great time for the university, a great thing to get guys back here from Wichita, to be ambassadors for Newman,” Allen says. “We have a good product of basketball over here that’s being played year-in and year-out. And with Wichita kids, yeah, you want to show out. You want to deliver. That’s what’s left.”

Thurman and Allen walk from the grassy field in front of Fugate Gymnasium, right beside Kellogg, through Gorges Atrium and onto the Potter Family Court.

The two old friends talk basketball. Students look down on them from the top of a large, spiral staircase that runs up each side of the atrium.

“He doesn’t rotate at the right time,” Thurman says. “We’ve got to get him to come over and help.”

Love nods his head in agreement. He’s holding a basketball and makes a swinging movement with it.

“...and when I come in, I’m going to finish like this,” Love says, mimicking a dunk. Thurman smiles and jogs away, toward another drill.

“His strengths, my strengths, put that combination out there and it should be pretty fun this year,” Thurman said. “Everything we’ve learned from each other, everything we’re learning from (Potter) ... we came home to do something great.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 2:40 AM with the headline "Newman ready to soar with new additions Jalen Love, Gavin Thurman."