LAWRENCE – Let’s start with the end of the call.
It’s April 4 in New Orleans during the NCAA Tournament. There are 4.3 seconds left and Kansas men’s basketball leads 72-69 in the championship game against North Carolina. And Brian Hanni, “Jayhawks Voice,” takes everyone who listens through to what happens next on his broadcast.
“Wilson will guard the access card,” Hanni says. “Carolina, looking for a home run ball, gets it for Love. KU, not pollution. Love fades, shoots. “
Then there is a small break.
“He misses!” Hanni roars. “He misses! And Kansas will win! It’s a banner year for Kansas basketball. Your Jayhawks are national champions.”
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Fast forward to Tuesday, April 12, and Hanni laughs as he assesses that he has relived the last moments of that call and what followed 20 or 30 times since. He explains that some friends synchronized the sound with a video from a camera angle behind him showing Kansas guard Ochai Agbaji coming over and hugging him after the game ended. It’s something Hanni will cherish for the rest of her life.
Hanni feels more grateful than anything else for having the chance to describe the historic moment in program history. It’s something he was able to share with Greg Gurley, his play-by-play partner. Hanni does not feel that anyone could have written the script for the hug to happen to Agbaji, and plans to show a still-frame of it at home.
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“My hope was that the game would come down to a shot at the last second, not because we needed another Mario (Chalmers) miracle or anything like that, but as a play-by-play guy, you hope the action is a part of a historic last call like that, and you do not just dribble the clock out for the last 20 seconds, “said Hanni.” You want a kind of exciting finish. And so honestly, I could not ask for a better ending to the game. We protected a lead, and yet we had to play defensively. “
Hanni took the time on Tuesday to relive the call, and what followed once again, in this Q&A with The Topeka Capital-Journal:
Question: Before the last moments – how much preparation prior to the tip-off did you not only make for, perhaps, the last call itself… but really for the game as a whole? Did it start after the Villanova victory? Being a part of Kansas for as long as you have, did it go even further than that?
Reply: Hanni began by explaining how he examines each upcoming opponent and compiles information about players that may be statistical or deal with a human angle of interest. He reads articles to learn about the team’s season and any potential trends. There are also interviews to be aware of.
From a Kansas perspective, the North Carolina game was the Jayhawks’ 40th game of the season. At the time, he said, the spotting board for coach Bill Self’s squad would pretty much be what it already is – just with the need to update certain stats. Hanni also looked for the need to add highlights or acknowledgments from the match before against Villanova, where he noted that striker David McCormack collected 25 points and nine rebounds.
“Then the time came to think about the last call and you know if we win and you do it right, that’s the type of call that will be played for years and years, both on the pregame Allen Fieldhouse hype video , but also hopefully in fan circles across the entire Jayhawk nation – whether it’s on a … highlight DVD or social media or something.You really want to make it, and I’m the type of person who – I have played enough games in my career that I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do, but I am certainly still young enough and green enough and humble enough that I would like advice from people I respect.
“So I called the last two guys who had had national championships in 2021 and 2019. In 2021, Baylor Bear’s voice was John Morris. In 2019, the voice of Virginia was Dave Koehn, who happens to be a KU graduate. And he’s now with Milwaukee Bucks by the way.And I asked each of them for advice on what they would recommend.I also talked to Wes Durham who is a famous national speaker and also does the Atlanta Falcons and he was my mentor in helping me get KU But he happened to be down there in New Orleans, so we stayed together for 10 or 15 minutes.
Hanni added that the consensus he received from these consultations was that it is good to have an idea of what he wants to say, but he should not go into the situation with something written to the point that it sounds constructed. The theme that kept popping into his mind was that even though he feels like every year is a great year in Kansas during Self, it really is something special to be a banner year. These seasons do not come close so often.
So, Hanni explained, he wanted what he said to be concise and address how rare a season like this is. That’s something that will lead to yet another banner inside the Allen Fieldhouse. And when he looks back at how the call came about, Hanni is happy with what he said.
Hanni also expressed why it was important for him to use “yours” when he said: “Your Jayhawks are national champions”. Because it’s a team broadcast, he knows he can be more of a homer than he otherwise would. He hopes to put it this way, got those who listened to take ownership of it all as well.
Hanni also laughed when he remembered the broadcast, when he heard him tell Agbaji, “Love you brother,” too.
Question: It is clear that the position you hold is one that means a lot to you. Were the feelings you felt before or during the game comparable to anything else you’ve experienced in that role before?
ONE: “I’m not sure there’s an equalizer. I got called the 2018 Final Four, which was my first time sitting on that seat at the Final Four. But it was 22-4 (early) … and the match felt like it was over.So before this race, the most significant call I had had was the Elite Eight victory over Duke in 2018 to get us to San Antonio.And then it was the only thing to pull off in terms of similar, great stage experience.
“But this, of course, blows it out of the water. And then it was certainly a cut above everything else I’ve had a chance to do. But to get to do it with the same crew now four years deeper in my tenure, even more comfortable on that seat, felt like I had the right readiness and the best team around me to deliver what I hope was our best call of the season and think it really was. “
Question: Fast forward to 4.3 seconds back, North Carolina waiting to get into the ball, what are you looking for? Where is your focus and why?
ONE: “Well, we had just discussed, Will Self make mistakes? And what are the pros and cons of fouling there? You do not want to offend a guy who starts making an upward motion towards the basket and possibly giving him three free throws to equalize it But if you can fail him before they’re in a shooting and make sure there’s no threat of a tie, it’s sometimes a strategy. So Greg and I had just discussed it. So that was the first thing I was looking for. will they fail or will they not make mistakes?
“But it was so short a time before Caleb Love got the ball off that all I had time to get out was – They get it in to Love. KU is not going to fail. He fades. He shoots. He misses. If I had two seconds extra, I would love to have said it was Christian Braun’s hand in my face. But you do not want to speed up the call by so much that you are not on time with the ball rimming off and the game is over. That might be the only thing I regret if we had a split second longer to get (Braun) name in there. But at that moment it was more about strategy, mistakes versus not mistakes, who is the shooter and where does the shot come from? ”
Hanni added that they were trying to get in what they could in the time they had. So, after the shot was missed, they went straight into celebration mode.
Question: When that spectacle unfolds while pandemonium follows, are you so locked into the moment, to say, what is going on around you? Or, to some extent, is your mind moving to some, perhaps, personal memories you might have associated with just Kansas basketball?
ONE: “At that moment, you’re so busy getting the last call right and then describing everything you see while the confetti is falling and the celebration is underway that you’re very uniquely focused on the here and now. But clearly, as we got deeper into two hours of postgame and we go to commercial breaks and I sit back a bit in the chair and look around, count my blessings, think how surreal it all is, how lucky I am to have this opportunity, and how this is truly the pinnacle of everything I have worked for my entire career – that was when those moments of gratitude and reflection began to strike me. “
Hanni added that in the specific moment of the game ending, he focused on it. So, in this case, Agbaji was on his way to celebrate as well. Again, Hanni expressed how special it was.
Question: In addition to the extent of that moment, why was that moment between you and Ochai so special to you?
ONE: “Well, I just respect him so much as an individual and as a student-athlete ambassador that he has been to Kansas Athletics. His character, which was rooted in him by Erica and Olofu, who have become friends with mine, his parents, and just seeing the way he derives praise for others, building others up, the type of teammate, the type of hard-working he is, there is so much I respect about him.And we have had a special bond.
“And it was fun when the senior day happened and the match was over, he and I posed for a picture with the Big 12 title trophy. And he apologized for forgetting to mention Greg and I in his post-game senior speech. And I said, ‘Are you kidding? You do not owe us anything. You do not have to worry about that. I can not believe you would even think of mentioning us. ‘ He says, ‘Well, I had planned that. But then I faced the opposite corner where my teammates and coaches were at. You were behind me and it just fell off me. ‘ And I thought, man, he doesn’t have to think about that kind of thing. “
Hanni added that if someone had told him that night on senior day that a month later he would receive that hug from Agbaji after Kansas won the title, he would have thought that person was crazy. Hanni thinks that what happened was simply that after Agbaji had celebrated something with his teammates, Agbaji turned around and looked for a familiar face and saw him and Gurley. Knowing that moment was captured is something Hanni will always cherish.
* This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Jordan Guskey covers the University of Kansas Athletics on The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.