MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Michael Beasley stepped off the plane to begin his new life at Kansas State last summer carrying nothing but his cellphone and a charger.
"He had no extra clothes, no bag, no anything. His charger was stuffed in his pocket with the cord hanging out," said his mother, Fatima Smith. "But they were so happy to see him, they didn't care if he came out here with his boxers on."
People call this remote college town on the rolling plains of Kansas the Little Apple, and after the way Beasley made it here, he can make it anywhere.
A season after Kevin Durant's seemingly once-in-a-generation debut at Texas made him the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft and the first freshman ever to be named national player of the year, his boyhood friend from the Washington, D.C., area has nearly outdone him.
Durant averaged 25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds at Texas. Beasley averages 26.5 and 12.4 for Kansas State, making him the nation's leading rebounder and third-leading scorer, and he broke Carmelo Anthony's NCAA freshman record for double-doubles, now 26 and counting.
He is the co-favorite for national player of the year with North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough in a race charged with debate over the merits of a freshman who might become the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft and a veteran who might be on his way to an NCAA title.
If Beasley travels light, well, he has learned to. His prep career included five schools, and his whistle stop here could end as soon as Thursday in the first round of the NCAA tournament against USC.
"All I need is a basketball," Beasley said. "I'll take my ball and dribble through the airport."
Beasley will face another freshman phenom Thursday in O.J. Mayo, a player he met on the summer ball and all-star circuits.
They made vastly different college choices, Mayo choosing the big city. Beasley picked the one so small that when the clothes he shipped ahead didn't arrive for two weeks, he couldn't find a pair of sweat pants big enough for him at the local mall.
"He looked like Urkel," his mother said.
Amid the famous of L.A., the smaller Mayo often goes unnoticed. For Beasley in Manhattan, it's "like being a giraffe in a zoo," he told ESPN.com.
"He's what, 6-9, 240?" Kansas State Coach Frank Martin said. "It's hard for him to blend into the crowd."
Still, Mayo got into a bit of NCAA trouble for accepting a ticket to a Lakers game. That would be nearly impossible for Beasley, who lives two hours from Kansas City, which only wishes it had an NBA team.
