Friday, Mar. 27, 2009

Hawkins, Kiburz finish careers in heroic fashion

MidAmerica Nazarene University seniors Danny Hawkins and Cal Kiburz left the court at Municipal Auditorium bruised, bloodied, aching and exhausted Monday.

They were hurt going into the Buffalo Funds-NAIA Div. I Men's Basketball National Championship five days earlier. By the time they left the court Monday, they had given everything they had to usher in the Div. I era at MNU honorably — and then they'd given a little more.

After MNU's season-ending 60-56 loss to Columbia College in the semifinals, Hawkins limped off the floor, carrying a strained Achilles tendon and a torn calf muscle. Kiburz used his surgically-repaired knee to put one foot somberly in front of the other, his broken left wrist throbbing and a gash over his eye held together with tape.

They were two battered big men, but they were leaving the floor under their own power and on their own terms. It was an appropriate ending for two who often played through pain — and played well — without a single complaint.

"Danny should be on crutches. I don't know how in the world he got back in the game when he did," MNU coach Rocky Lamar said afterwards. "And Cal, he's been through two ACLs. Really he's playing on his third one — his original one and two they've replaced. He's been an amazing young man for us for five years."

Hawkins played at an All-America level despite sore ankles for much of his career. Going into this year's tournament his bad Achilles had gotten more ice than an Eskimo and he hadn't fully participated in practice for a month.

Still, he gutted out an average of 24.0 points and 11.7 rebounds in MNU's first three games at Municipal — the biggest single factor in the Final Four run.

Hawkins' season (and college career) appeared over when he pulled up lame with the calf injury midway through the first half against Columbia. He stumbled to the locker room, barely able to walk.

Without him, MNU quickly fell behind. It had been a rough offensive night for Kiburz, who started 1-for-10 from the field. Fighting the flu going into the tournament, he was playing his fourth game in five days and looked spent.

A vocal group of Columbia fans sitting courtside razzed Kiburz mercilessly and offered this bit of advice to his defender: "He can't go left."

They were at least partially correct. With his left wrist fractured and heavily taped, it wouldn't be easy to go strong with the dribble to that side. And, of course, his outside shot wasn't falling. His partner-in-crime, Hawkins, wasn't there to take the pressure off him.

But Kiburz had been through too much to go quietly into the night. He had his knee torn apart, cut open and put back together twice. He went through months of rehab and sleepless nights wondering if he would ever be the same player, wondering if he should give up basketball altogether. This season meant too much to him.

"It meant everything," Kiburz said. "I got to spend another year with my best friends. No regrets this year."

With that thought burning in his mind, Kiburz gave Columbia all it could handle. He powered to the basket, he got to the free-throw line and he willed his way to 16 second-half points, putting the Pioneers on his shoulders.

He also held Columbia's second-leading scorer, Jason Ellis, to just four points. That was something the hecklers seemed to have missed, but then, Kiburz' defense has always been under-appreciated. It was a huge factor in MNU's national title run in 2007 and in his last game he led a team defensive effort that was the only thing that kept it close.

With 3:12 left and MNU down 53-46, Kiburz took an elbow to the forehead that sent blood streaming down the side of his face.

When he staggered to the bench it was as though Hawkins had seen enough and, ripped up leg or no ripped up leg, he was going to play.

Hawkins likely has a pro career waiting in Europe if he wants it. Why did he come back in the game? Why would he risk further injury?

The answer is simple: For four years MNU has been able to count on Danny Hawkins. For four years he had led the squad to a 119-26 record, finishing as the program's second-leading rebounder and fifth-leading scorer and hitting a buzzer-beating put-back to keep that 2007 title run alive. For four years he was the quiet leader, the rock that the Pioneers could steady themselves on when seas grew stormy.

How could he not go back in?

Just by hobbling onto the court, Hawkins provided a cool drink to a parched MNU team. Kiburz, who rushed back to the floor after trainers staunched the bleeding, said he was rejuvenated. Brenton Bell said he was uplifted.

When the announcer bellowed, "Now checking in for the Pioneers, number double-zero, Dan-ny Haw-kins," it was a moment no MNU fan who was there will ever forget.

In the end, no amount of inspiration was enough to overcome a Columbia team that subbed in five fresh players time after time. Still, a new era in MNU basketball had started in eye-opening fashion. No one could question whether the Pioneers belonged at Municipal and no one could question their heart.

That is the legacy that Hawkins, Kiburz and the five other seniors left.

There was Austin Boots, the Fort Scott kid who could fill it up from the perimeter, but often accepted a spot on the bench to help the team.

Brady Small, MNU's most aptly-named "big man," whose tireless hustle allowed him to defend and rebound against much taller opponents.

Bryce Karr, the gritty cancer survivor who was content to provide a few minutes of perimeter defense every now and then and Jonathan Knipker and Dutch Thomas, who forced the first team to new levels in practice without any promise of seeing the court in a game themselves.

"We want to hold on to these seven seniors as long as possible," Bell said. "They've been unbelievable."

All of them sacrificed for their teammates, their school and their community, perhaps none more than Hawkins and Kiburz. Before the tournament the two wounded warriors were asked what it would take to get them off the court.

"I would say a broken bone, but I already have that," Kiburz said. "It would have to be quite a bit of blood and stuff."

Hawkins added, "We're going to go until we can't move any more."

In the end, both got to that point, and then pushed themselves even farther.

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