Golden: Texas men's players of old are reuniting for Longhorns regional TBT team

Several large boxes arrived at Maricel Hu’s home last week.

Her husband, Vince, would be home soon from his shift at Sushihana, his family’s San Antonio restaurant.

She walked through the door and couldn’t believe her eyes as she began to open the packages.

The basketball kids call them kicks, and these shoes were top of the line, a gift from one of the godfathers of Texas hoops.

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When Vince Hu, a former UT basketball team manager, decided a year ago to form a Longhorns alumni team for a decade-old event called The Basketball Tournament, he knew it would have to come with sacrifice. He also understood there was no way he could do it alone.

“As a former manager, I wanted to bridge that gap and bring everyone in,” said Hu, 32. “Getting guys together to represent our school in this tournament felt like a no-brainer.”

As general manager of Austin’s Own, he helped unite Longhorns from all over — from notable alumni such as Kevin Durant and T.J. Ford to past and current head coaches Rick Barnes and Rodney Terry, general manager Chris Ogden, staffer Rob Lazare and longtime sports information director Scott McConnell.

They were all invested in doing their part to make this happen.

Former Texas players Jordan Hamilton, Clint Chapman, Alexis Wangmene, Myck Kabongo, Jacob Young, Cameron Ridley and Kerwin Roach are part of the roster for Wednesday's game against The Enchantment, a team from New Mexico, in the Lubbock Regional. The Austin team is seeded fifth in the regional.

As the GM, Hu has to handle everything from travel arrangements to hotel reservations, meals and figuring out how to pay for it. He brokered a chief sponsorship deal with the Thomas J. Henry law firm, and Yeti agreed to donate water bottles with the team logo.

But there was still the matter of the shoes.

A call to Durant’s partner, Randy Williams, last week was one of those nothing-to-lose swings for the fence. When Williams texted back asking for shoe sizes — with the understanding that there were no guarantees — Hu had hope that it could actually happen.

Two days later, the kicks arrived: 18 pairs of KD 15s, the hip-hop version.

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“It was such a blessing,” Hu said. “For KD to take the time to do this for us says a lot about him.”

Durant actually was in town last week for a brisk workout at the UT practice facility, as were several team members, head coach/former player Reggie Freeman and Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen. Freeman and Hamilton actually shot around together.

As Hamilton knocked down a couple of 3-pointers, Freeman moved a few feet closer and began knocking them down from 18 to 20 feet with his familiar lefty stroke.

“I’m not messing with those 3s,” said Freeman, the owner of one of the most effective midrange jumpers in UT history. “You know how I got down when I played.”

Several alumni swapped stories a day later over pork chops at Perry’s. They talked hoops and life and agreed that they would play for Longhorn Nation and their fallen fellow Horn, Lance Blanks, who took his life earlier this year.

“We’re dedicating this tournament to Lance,” Freeman said.

The theme is basketball-related, but let’s call this what it is: a Longhorns family reunion.

It started with a tweet

Hu spends most of his days as the front of the house manager at Sushihana, a Japanese restaurant where he has entertained Texas luminaries such as Vince Young and Terry over the years.

The owner of a UT bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, he remembered the lessons in organization and leadership under Barnes and longtime assistants Russell Springman and Terry. He was there for some big wins, but also suffered on the bench after the mystery five-second call against Arizona in 2011 and the upset loss to Chaminade at the 2012 Maui Classic, so he’s seen the ups and the downs and learned from them.

Once he transitioned to professional life, Hu applied those same lessons to the service industry.

Then a light went off one day while he was sitting at home last summer.

“My phone kept blowing up,” Hu said. “It was all TBT. It was all over ESPN, Instagram and Twitter. They were talking about the 10th anniversary happening in 2023, and I realized Texas had never had a team play in it. So I tweeted at the top guys that we needed to have a Texas alumni team.”

He also jumped into the DMs of any great former player he could think of who still had some juice in those legs and a fire in his belly.

Hamilton was one, and he didn’t need too much convincing. He was part of the only UT draft class with three first-round picks — current NBA players Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph were the others — and has spent the past decade-plus playing for 22 different organizations all over the world. His NBA career spanned 151 games over five seasons, and the other eight have come at the international level in places such as Russia, Venezuela, Turkey, the Dominican Republic, Israel and Japan, where he has played the past three seasons.

"Vince was the manager at Texas, but he was also my friend,” Hamilton said. “He was right there during my wedding reception. When he told me about this, I was down to play. Some guys are still busy, and some are still playing at this time. It definitely wasn’t easy, but when it’s time to reunite the family and put the older Texas guys that were here back on the map, it’s a beautiful feeling.”

The coach: 'You've got to do this'

Hu had originally planned to hire Texas ex Javan Felix, whose buzzer-beating jumper propelled the Horns to an upset of No. 3 North Carolina in 2015, but Felix was in the middle of applying for coaching jobs, eventually landing an assistant’s gig with New Orleans.

Freeman, 48, was an ideal choice. He was a 6-foot-6 all-conference guard during Tom Penders’ last four seasons before playing 14 years overseas.

Hu’s call came at the right time for Freeman, who works in software sales at Dell Technologies. He had battled depression after his mother and brother died within three weeks of each other four years ago. He had been coaching at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas but left.

“I had to get my head together,” he said.

Coming back to the 512 turned out to be the right move. Freeman began training kids at Westlake and remembered his early days as an athlete and how good the process felt.

Hu’s call replayed in his mind.

Then he got another.

T.J. Ford called.

“You’ve got to do this,” he said.

“I knew he had been working with getting his son ready for college, and we all know how respected he is, not just at Texas, but everywhere," Freeman said. "This would not have happened without his experience and his advice.”

The plan? Same one as always: Win in Lubbock

The tournament will be televised from eight cities on the ESPN networks, with the Final Four taking place at Philadelphia’s Drexel University.

In case you’re wondering about the Lubbock Regional: If Austin’s Own beats The Enchantment, it will face the winner of Purple Hearts and the Air Raiders, who are representing Texas Tech, at United Supermarkets Arena on the Tech campus.

Think it might get a little raucous with former Longhorns and former Red Raiders going at it the way they did back in the day?

Freeman said he hated those road games on the Plains.

“We need to handle our business, but if we play them, it’s going to be packed,” he said. “We’ll just do what we always did: Beat them and get the hell out of there.”

Wednesday's game

The Basketball Tournament regional semifinals: The Enchantment (New Mexico) vs. Austin's Own (Longhorns), 6 p.m., ESPN+

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas men's basketball well represented in 10th annual TBT event