CHICAGO — Roy Williams, the Kansas basketball coach, smiles when he speaks of Eric Chenowith.
"A real California flake," Williams says, and the smile grows bigger and turns to laughter. "Sometimes I think he'd rather be on the beach with his surfboard." But then Williams turns serious and keeps talking. "Eric has improved a lot since last year. He's more serious. He's bigger and stronger. He's a great kid."
Chenowith, the 7-footer from Villa Park High, is starting his second season as a Kansas center.
Yes, you might call him a California flake. Yes, Chenowith will always love coming home to grab his board and find the surf and the sun and the fun with his buddies. Yes, he has sideburns a little longer than normal in the Midwest and yes, Chenowith is absolutely eager to come home Saturday to play at the Arrowhead Pond when Kansas meets Pepperdine in the Wooden Classic.
But do not mistake Chenowith's slouched shoulders or his lazy smile or his loving talk of tanning lotion and running his feet in the sand for a lack of commitment to basketball.
"People might get that wrong about Eric," Kevin Reynolds, Chenowith's coach at Villa Park, says. "That he's the typical laid-back California kid. Yes, he likes the beach and surfing, but he has great desire to be the best. He very much wants to get better. He works harder than anybody I've seen. He is determined to become the best player possible. That's why he is at Kansas."
There is about Chenowith a seriousness of purpose that isn't always apparent in phenomenal young athletes who have been coddled and catered to in their sporting lives.
Williams says Chenowith has put on nearly 30 pounds of muscle. This weight was not gained by gorging on burgers and fries. This is weight produced only by two or three hours a day in the weight room.
That is where Chenowith spent most of his summer. First in Lawrence, Kan., and then, in July, at home.
"I hate sending him home," Williams says, "because I'm afraid he'll head right to the beach."
But Williams wouldn't send his prized center home if he were really afraid. And he need not be afraid because Chenowith has Reynolds. The two talk once a week, and it was Reynolds who joined Chenowith in the weight room at Villa Park for a couple of hours every day, who engaged Chenowith in the footwork drills that the two had perfected when Chenowith was an uncoordinated 6-9 junior who wasn't always sure how to put one foot in front of the other.
