College
Gooden joined fellow freshmen Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich for the 1999–2000 season. Although at times Gooden was frustrated with the way things were going his freshman year, he finally adjusted to coach Roy Williams' system.
In his freshman year, KU went 24–10 and lost to Duke in the Round of 32 during the 2000 NCAA Basketball Tournament. The next season, the Jayhawks went 26–7 and fell to the Illinois in the 2001 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen.
In 2002, he led the nation in rebounding and was named NABC national player of the year. The Jayhawks went 33–4, including 16–0 in Big 12 Conference play to win Kansas its first conference championship since 1998. The Jayhawks advanced to their first Final Four in the 2002 NCAA Tournament since 1993; however, they lost to the eventual national champion Maryland in the semifinal.
For being named NABC Player of the Year for 2002, Gooden's jersey (#0) was retired in 2003, at halftime of a Kansas home game with Kansas State in what would have been his senior year had he not foregone his senior year for the NBA.
Read more about this topic: Drew Gooden
Famous quotes containing the word college:
“No girl who is going to marry need bother to win a college degree; she just naturally becomes a “Master of Arts” and a “Doctor of Philosophy” after catering to an ordinary man for a few years.”
—Helen Rowland (1875–1950)
“Generally young men are regarded as radicals. This is a popular misconception. The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates. The radicals are the men past middle life.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“[B]y going to the College [William and Mary] I shall get a more universal Acquaintance, which may hereafter be serviceable to me; and I suppose I can pursue my Studies in the Greek and Latin as well there as here, and likewise learn something of the Mathematics.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)