College Career
As a freshman with the University of Kansas Jayhawks, Hinrich tallied 123 assists and received the Clyde Lovellette Most Improved Player Award. The next year, he ranked eighth in the nation in assists per game (6.9), led his team in steals, and set a Kansas Jayhawks record with a .505 three-point shooting mark. Hinrich was also voted onto the Associated Press All-Big 12 Second Team and earned All Third Team status from the NCAA coaches.
In his junior season with Kansas, Hinrich, along with power forward Nick Collison, led the Jayhawks to the Final Four, and was voted onto the All-Big 12 Second Team by coaches and the media. He led his team in free throw shooting and three-point shooting, while contributing 5.0 assists per game. He also received Kansas' Ted Owens Defensive Player Award. In his final year with the Jayhawks, Hinrich helped Kansas reach the NCAA Men's Championship Game (losing to Syracuse) and was named the NCAA Tournament Midwest Region's Most Outstanding Player. He ranked second on his team in scoring and led them in three-pointers made, while also contributing 3.5 assists per game, 3.9 rebounds per game and 1.9 steals a game. Following the season, he was named a third-team All-American by the Associated Press.
On March 1, 2009 Kansas retired Hinrich's number 10 jersey and raised it to the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse. Hinrich's was just the 25th jersey to be retired by Kansas and is an honor reserved for the highest caliber of player which includes names like Wilt Chamberlain and Paul Pierce. Hinrich was quoted as saying:
| “ | "I don't know if there's a greater honor in basketball than to have your jersey hanging in the most historic basketball building in the world. It's an unbelievable honor." | ” |
Read more about this topic: Kirk Hinrich
Famous quotes containing the words college and/or career:
“Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervis in the desert.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)