TBT Always on JO’s Mind
Jul 17, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
He's wearing a black cut-off hoodie with a large gray Powercat, silver shorts and black-and-purple Jordan shoes the size of Maine. He has a cellphone pressed to his left ear, talking, encouraging, advising a young prospective NBA player, and in a few hours, Jordan Henriquez-Roberts will watch Purple Reign scrimmage the current K-State men's basketball team here in Manhattan. He carries the same carefree smile that brightened Bramlage Coliseum for four years, the contagious bellowing laugh that echo long hallways. He's just taught a children's basketball camp at Manhattan Christian College and in a matter of days will serve as general manager and head coach of the Wildcats' alumni basketball team. It's a love of his — no, a passion, no, an obsession of sorts — what with his eight years of guiding the ship and navigating the path of the The Basketball Tournament with a $1 million prize dangling like a ripe tomato in a western Kansas garden.
Wichita is the destination, the first stop along this journey, as the fourth-seeded Wildcats prepare to take on No. 5 Team Colorado at 1 p.m. Saturday on FS2 in the first round of the Wichita Regional at Koch Arena. If Purple Reign advances to the second round, it'll face the winner of the No. 1-seeded Aftershocks and No. 8 seed Midtown Prestige at 8 p.m. Monday on FS1.
The 64-team field competes in a single-elimination, winner-take-all tournament that has swept the basketball nation.
In the middle of it, is the 6-foot-11 34-year-old man who breaths to life the K-State alumni team, who stews over the intricacies and lineups and lodging and transportation, who gives new meaning to purple passion, and who never could've predicted way back when, back when he roamed the baseball fields as a 10-year-old with a dream, that he'd throw strikes of a different kind, lifting K-State to victory while holding a clipboard and roaming the bench.
This is Henriquez-Roberts. Here's a guy who grew up in Port Chester, New York, who starred at The Winchendon School, who received scholarship offers from DePaul, Kentucky, Missouri, Rhode Island, Saint Louis, Seton Hall, St. John's, UNLV and Xavier before deciding to attend K-State in 2009. Here's a guy who appeared in 126 career games in his four seasons with the Wildcats and was a part of the winningest senior class in school history (101 wins)and just the second class to play in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments (2010-13). Henriquez-Roberts was named to the 2012 Big 12 All-Defensive Team behind a school-record 210 blocked shots. Here's a guy who played professionally from 2013-18 and in the Summer League for both the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks, a guy who spent the 2022-23 season working with the Houston Rockets in their Basketball Operations department as a Player Development/Video Coaching Associate. He spent the 2021-22 campaign working for the Los Angeles Lakers as a Basketball Operations Coaching Associate. Last season, he served as assistant coach at Northern Illinois. Currently, he resides in Long Island, New York — down the road from where he grew up as an aspiring baseball player.
"Baseball was my first love growing up," he says. "I was a huge fan. I wanted to play. I was just way too uncoordinated for it. They should've put me as pitcher instead of outfield, where I couldn't see the ball coming toward me. I only played between ages 5 to 10. Once I turned 11, I said, 'Mom, this isn't for me anymore.'
"Then I focused on basketball."
He laughs.
"Back then, I'm not sure how tall I was, but I know from age 10, I wore a size 10, and as my age progressed, so did my shoe size," he says. "I was just blessed that it stopped at a size 18."
Yes, he fell in love with basketball. He had no idea how it would impact his life. He has been around hoops for about two-thirds of his life. Basketball has taken him on a life journey. And today he has taught Manhattan children to love the game that he loves. He smiles.
Today, he is one of the most ardent K-State men's basketball supporters — period. He beams with energy. Already he thinks about the next potential players for Purple Reign. He spends hours each year working the phones, dropping texts, working to assemble a TBT team that carries the capacity to go places. Want to know what Henriquez-Roberts did after teaching Manhattan-area children in the two-day basketball camp? He was on the phone with another former K-State player, a prospective player for Purple Reign. Grab your shoes. Grab a flight. Let's go.
Eight years ago, TBT came into his life. He had no idea how it would grab him. It grabbed him and hasn't let go. Once he participated in TBT as a player. He has seen TBT evolve. He has seen K-State's alumni presence evolve. He envisions a year, hopefully soon, when Manhattan hosts a TBT subregional, that Bramlage Coliseum is packed with fans in July, that dads and moms and kids get to see their heroes up close on a slightly different stage. He believes this time is coming.
"I stay on TBT's mind about it all the time because I know how good that will be for us to get guys to come back that wore the K-State jersey," he says. "We've done a good job of getting alumni back with guys like Kamau Stokes, who is in his prime and who takes the time to come play for us. We need guys in his years who played with him, if they're available, to come play with us, but we have to win games, and that's the reality of it. If the extra boost is being able to play in Bramlage, I believe we'll be able to get a few more guys for sure."
Henriquez-Roberts believes this, too: That K-State has a good TBT team this year. It starts with Jacob Pullen and then Kamau Stokes and Cartier Diarra. Xavier Sneed was originally going to be on the team, but he was called up to the NBA Summer League. Henriquez-Roberts likes the speed of this team. He thinks their fast pace will pressure defenses.
Henriquez-Roberts and assistants Martavious Irving, Curtis Kellyand Clent Stewart will see the team's progress in the first annual Wheat State Summer Showdown against Kansas in Kansas City on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Johnson County Community College. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and tickets can be purchased at the door. More than 100 tickets were sold in the first 48 hours that they were on sale. K-State versus KU? Bring it.
"There's a lot of love between us but there's going to be that tension (Wednesday)," Henriquez-Roberts says. "Obviously, it's not about who wins and loses. It's about putting on something for the fans, especially for the fans who might not make it to Wichita. For us, it's about coming together and doing something special that hasn't been done yet. Getting to Kansas City and playing against KU, it gives us a good look and gives them a good look (ahead of TBT) and we'll have fun with it.
"We want to continue to build and grow it because we have a good vision for it."
Henriquez-Roberts has visions for this Purple Reign team this weekend.
"We have to stay consistent on what we do and what we want as a coaching staff is for our guys to execute and stay locked in on defense," he says. "For us, just collectively one of our goals is to get out of the second round. That's the hump we haven't been able to get over since 2016 or 2017 when we went to the Elite Eight. That's one of our goals. I feel confident we'll win our first matchup. Now it's about winning the matchup after that."
The winner of the Wichita Regional will face the winner of the Houston Regional in the quarterfinals for the right to advance to the national semifinals in Philadelphia. The semifinals will be played on August 2 on FS1, and the $1 million winner-take-all championship game will be on August 4 on FOX.
Could Henriquez-Roberts have imagined anything like this?
"Absolutely not," he says. "I thought I was going to play until the wheels fell off. I didn't even know we'd have a K-State alumni team until TBT reached out to Drew Speraw, the director of operations under Bruce Weber, and Drew phoned me and Martavious Irving about TBT. Martavious and I were playing in different parts of the world, and we both found time to talk about it, and really just wanted to get the guys back together and see if this was all the right fit for everybody's schedule. It was something completely new. Over the years, man, just the amount of talent and K-State legends we've been able to have over the last eight years has been beautiful."
It's inspiring, really, how much Henriquez-Roberts loves K-State and loves Purple Reign. When it comes to celebrating K-State alums, few, if any, do it better.
"My love really comes from the love of being back in Manhattan and being able to embrace the fans knowing the love is there from the locals," he says. "I enjoy it. As much as I might be busy or not so busy in the summertime, I always try to find time to come back to Manhattan, especially with TBT, because I always want to get the fans to reconnect with the guys who played in the past — guys who have played for Coach Tang or Coach Weber or Frank Martin.
"I just love to be able to combine the eras and try to compete and win."
He's going to battle. He's going to fight. He's going to have the Wildcats ready to roll. It's the only way that he knows. He's a tall, gentle soul with shoes the size of Maine and a heart the size of the Flint Hills. This is Henriquez-Roberts. There's no one else quite like him. The question becomes how long? How much longer will he keep doing this?
"From a GM standpoint, I can see myself continuing to do it," he says. "I talk to Curt and Martavious all the time. Virgos are controlling and prideful, and I think with my pride I want to be GM and coach, and it's hard to let one go."
He'll have time to decide. For now, he has basketball on his mind, this tournament, $1 million, and he's thinking about all the players on Purple Reign. He's thinking about Wichita and getting past the first and second rounds. But most of all, he's probably just living in this moment, being surrounded by K-State talent, and taking pride in the jersey, and being reunited with K-State fans across the state. Henriquez-Roberts wants to win, no doubt about it.
In some ways, he has already won.
He's wearing a black cut-off hoodie with a large gray Powercat, silver shorts and black-and-purple Jordan shoes the size of Maine. He has a cellphone pressed to his left ear, talking, encouraging, advising a young prospective NBA player, and in a few hours, Jordan Henriquez-Roberts will watch Purple Reign scrimmage the current K-State men's basketball team here in Manhattan. He carries the same carefree smile that brightened Bramlage Coliseum for four years, the contagious bellowing laugh that echo long hallways. He's just taught a children's basketball camp at Manhattan Christian College and in a matter of days will serve as general manager and head coach of the Wildcats' alumni basketball team. It's a love of his — no, a passion, no, an obsession of sorts — what with his eight years of guiding the ship and navigating the path of the The Basketball Tournament with a $1 million prize dangling like a ripe tomato in a western Kansas garden.
Wichita is the destination, the first stop along this journey, as the fourth-seeded Wildcats prepare to take on No. 5 Team Colorado at 1 p.m. Saturday on FS2 in the first round of the Wichita Regional at Koch Arena. If Purple Reign advances to the second round, it'll face the winner of the No. 1-seeded Aftershocks and No. 8 seed Midtown Prestige at 8 p.m. Monday on FS1.
The 64-team field competes in a single-elimination, winner-take-all tournament that has swept the basketball nation.
In the middle of it, is the 6-foot-11 34-year-old man who breaths to life the K-State alumni team, who stews over the intricacies and lineups and lodging and transportation, who gives new meaning to purple passion, and who never could've predicted way back when, back when he roamed the baseball fields as a 10-year-old with a dream, that he'd throw strikes of a different kind, lifting K-State to victory while holding a clipboard and roaming the bench.
This is Henriquez-Roberts. Here's a guy who grew up in Port Chester, New York, who starred at The Winchendon School, who received scholarship offers from DePaul, Kentucky, Missouri, Rhode Island, Saint Louis, Seton Hall, St. John's, UNLV and Xavier before deciding to attend K-State in 2009. Here's a guy who appeared in 126 career games in his four seasons with the Wildcats and was a part of the winningest senior class in school history (101 wins)and just the second class to play in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments (2010-13). Henriquez-Roberts was named to the 2012 Big 12 All-Defensive Team behind a school-record 210 blocked shots. Here's a guy who played professionally from 2013-18 and in the Summer League for both the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks, a guy who spent the 2022-23 season working with the Houston Rockets in their Basketball Operations department as a Player Development/Video Coaching Associate. He spent the 2021-22 campaign working for the Los Angeles Lakers as a Basketball Operations Coaching Associate. Last season, he served as assistant coach at Northern Illinois. Currently, he resides in Long Island, New York — down the road from where he grew up as an aspiring baseball player.
"Baseball was my first love growing up," he says. "I was a huge fan. I wanted to play. I was just way too uncoordinated for it. They should've put me as pitcher instead of outfield, where I couldn't see the ball coming toward me. I only played between ages 5 to 10. Once I turned 11, I said, 'Mom, this isn't for me anymore.'
"Then I focused on basketball."
He laughs.
"Back then, I'm not sure how tall I was, but I know from age 10, I wore a size 10, and as my age progressed, so did my shoe size," he says. "I was just blessed that it stopped at a size 18."
Yes, he fell in love with basketball. He had no idea how it would impact his life. He has been around hoops for about two-thirds of his life. Basketball has taken him on a life journey. And today he has taught Manhattan children to love the game that he loves. He smiles.
Today, he is one of the most ardent K-State men's basketball supporters — period. He beams with energy. Already he thinks about the next potential players for Purple Reign. He spends hours each year working the phones, dropping texts, working to assemble a TBT team that carries the capacity to go places. Want to know what Henriquez-Roberts did after teaching Manhattan-area children in the two-day basketball camp? He was on the phone with another former K-State player, a prospective player for Purple Reign. Grab your shoes. Grab a flight. Let's go.
Eight years ago, TBT came into his life. He had no idea how it would grab him. It grabbed him and hasn't let go. Once he participated in TBT as a player. He has seen TBT evolve. He has seen K-State's alumni presence evolve. He envisions a year, hopefully soon, when Manhattan hosts a TBT subregional, that Bramlage Coliseum is packed with fans in July, that dads and moms and kids get to see their heroes up close on a slightly different stage. He believes this time is coming.
"I stay on TBT's mind about it all the time because I know how good that will be for us to get guys to come back that wore the K-State jersey," he says. "We've done a good job of getting alumni back with guys like Kamau Stokes, who is in his prime and who takes the time to come play for us. We need guys in his years who played with him, if they're available, to come play with us, but we have to win games, and that's the reality of it. If the extra boost is being able to play in Bramlage, I believe we'll be able to get a few more guys for sure."
Henriquez-Roberts believes this, too: That K-State has a good TBT team this year. It starts with Jacob Pullen and then Kamau Stokes and Cartier Diarra. Xavier Sneed was originally going to be on the team, but he was called up to the NBA Summer League. Henriquez-Roberts likes the speed of this team. He thinks their fast pace will pressure defenses.
Henriquez-Roberts and assistants Martavious Irving, Curtis Kellyand Clent Stewart will see the team's progress in the first annual Wheat State Summer Showdown against Kansas in Kansas City on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Johnson County Community College. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and tickets can be purchased at the door. More than 100 tickets were sold in the first 48 hours that they were on sale. K-State versus KU? Bring it.
"There's a lot of love between us but there's going to be that tension (Wednesday)," Henriquez-Roberts says. "Obviously, it's not about who wins and loses. It's about putting on something for the fans, especially for the fans who might not make it to Wichita. For us, it's about coming together and doing something special that hasn't been done yet. Getting to Kansas City and playing against KU, it gives us a good look and gives them a good look (ahead of TBT) and we'll have fun with it.
"We want to continue to build and grow it because we have a good vision for it."
Henriquez-Roberts has visions for this Purple Reign team this weekend.
"We have to stay consistent on what we do and what we want as a coaching staff is for our guys to execute and stay locked in on defense," he says. "For us, just collectively one of our goals is to get out of the second round. That's the hump we haven't been able to get over since 2016 or 2017 when we went to the Elite Eight. That's one of our goals. I feel confident we'll win our first matchup. Now it's about winning the matchup after that."
The winner of the Wichita Regional will face the winner of the Houston Regional in the quarterfinals for the right to advance to the national semifinals in Philadelphia. The semifinals will be played on August 2 on FS1, and the $1 million winner-take-all championship game will be on August 4 on FOX.
Could Henriquez-Roberts have imagined anything like this?
"Absolutely not," he says. "I thought I was going to play until the wheels fell off. I didn't even know we'd have a K-State alumni team until TBT reached out to Drew Speraw, the director of operations under Bruce Weber, and Drew phoned me and Martavious Irving about TBT. Martavious and I were playing in different parts of the world, and we both found time to talk about it, and really just wanted to get the guys back together and see if this was all the right fit for everybody's schedule. It was something completely new. Over the years, man, just the amount of talent and K-State legends we've been able to have over the last eight years has been beautiful."
It's inspiring, really, how much Henriquez-Roberts loves K-State and loves Purple Reign. When it comes to celebrating K-State alums, few, if any, do it better.
"My love really comes from the love of being back in Manhattan and being able to embrace the fans knowing the love is there from the locals," he says. "I enjoy it. As much as I might be busy or not so busy in the summertime, I always try to find time to come back to Manhattan, especially with TBT, because I always want to get the fans to reconnect with the guys who played in the past — guys who have played for Coach Tang or Coach Weber or Frank Martin.
"I just love to be able to combine the eras and try to compete and win."
He's going to battle. He's going to fight. He's going to have the Wildcats ready to roll. It's the only way that he knows. He's a tall, gentle soul with shoes the size of Maine and a heart the size of the Flint Hills. This is Henriquez-Roberts. There's no one else quite like him. The question becomes how long? How much longer will he keep doing this?
"From a GM standpoint, I can see myself continuing to do it," he says. "I talk to Curt and Martavious all the time. Virgos are controlling and prideful, and I think with my pride I want to be GM and coach, and it's hard to let one go."
He'll have time to decide. For now, he has basketball on his mind, this tournament, $1 million, and he's thinking about all the players on Purple Reign. He's thinking about Wichita and getting past the first and second rounds. But most of all, he's probably just living in this moment, being surrounded by K-State talent, and taking pride in the jersey, and being reunited with K-State fans across the state. Henriquez-Roberts wants to win, no doubt about it.
In some ways, he has already won.
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