Growing up in Sterling Heights, Kalin Lucas rarely let a basketball out of his hands. Day or night, hot weather or cold, Lucas would be outside dribbling a basketball. Some nights, he even slept with his ball. Now basketball has taken Lucas on a journey from Sterling Heights to Ford Field, one that takes just a few miles by car but a trip that in basketball terms is much longer and more difficult, one that friends and family said is not only a testament to his talent but his tenacity, competitiveness and humility. “K is just an amazing young man,” said Marty Alwardt, one of Lucas’ former youth basketball coaches. “Everything he’s gotten he’s deserved.” This weekend Lucas will play on college basketball’s center stage when he leads Michigan State into the Final Four. The sophomore guard and Big Ten Player of the Year will lead the Spartans against Connecticut in a national semifinal Saturday at 6:07 p.m. For Lucas, Saturday’s game will put the exclamation mark on a season in which he averaged 14.6 points and 4.6 assists per game to help the Spartans win the Big Ten regular-season title. More importantly for a person who always kept his hands on the basketball, Lucas had a 2.19-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and gave a steadying touch whenever MSU needed it. From an early age, Lucas showed a love for the game. He was dribbling a basketball by age 3, and he often followed his father, Ken, to church-league games. The Lucas family moved from Detroit to Sterling Heights when Kalin was 6, and by age 8 Kalin was playing basketball in a youth league in Sterling Heights. “Kalin was always around basketball,” his mother, Tina Lucas, said. From ages 8 to 16, he played on a summer basketball team called the North Macomb Spartans. Coached by Alwardt, a former high school coach at Romeo and New Haven, the team included future Division I players Blake Cushingberry (Oakland) and Paul Williams (Dayton). “He was a person who would create for everybody,” said Cushingberry, who played against Lucas earlier this season when his Oakland team lost to Lucas’ Spartans 82-66 on Dec. 27. “He created a lot for others on the team. He wasn’t selfish at all.” With Lucas leading the way, the North Macomb Spartans won a couple American Youth Basketball Tour championships. “We were always a good team,” Alwardt said. “But Kalin gave us the edge.” In fact, Kalin stood out wherever he played. He starred on The Family, a standout AAU team that eventually included current MSU teammate Durrell Summers and Michigan star Manny Harris. “When Kalin was 11, 12 or 13 and playing with The Family, I could see it,” his mother said. “He was really quick, not just with his feet but his hands.” Though his talent stood out, other traits set him apart from other players. As a sixth-grader, he would compete in pickup games at an open gym at his junior high school, and he never backed away from older players who were several inches taller than him. In the seventh grade, Lucas’ team at Grissom Middle School lost just one game, and the next year as an eighth-grader he led the squad to the Warren Consolidated Schools championship. All the while, the kid with Michael Jordan posters hanging in his bedroom kept his passion for the sport burning. Some mornings Kalin would be outside by 8 a.m. dribbling a basketball until his mom told him to stop bothering the neighbors. In the afternoons, he would hurry home for school and head outside to play before his mother talked to him about making homework and other duties a priority. “It didn’t matter,” Tina Lucas said. “If he could dribble in the snow, he would.” Kalin wanted to get better, and he learned by immersing himself in the game. “I never had a kid who was like a sponge, (but Kalin was),” Alwardt said. “He soaked up what you taught him.” After going to Grissom Middle School in Sterling Heights, Kalin Lucas attended high school at Orchard Lake St. Mary after his family also considered Detroit Country Day and U-D Jesuit. “We wanted to get him in a different type of setting, a private type of setting,” Tina Lucas said. “We prayed about what was the best fit.” It proved a wise choice as Kalin earned all-state honors at St. Mary, and he led the Eaglets to the state semifinals as a junior. That route helped lead him to Michigan State, and he has excelled this season. In the NCAA Tournament, Lucas has delivered in the clutch. He has scored in double figures in all four games, and he is heading back home for the Final Four. “Honestly, it has been such a blessing — and overwhelming,” Tina Lucas said. “Everyone has been calling to go to the games — people we haven’t heard from in years. Our phone has been ringing off the hook.” Of course, this is a huge weekend for the Lucas family. Tina, who works as a nurse at St. John Hospital in Detroit, has received congratulations from co-workers and had her workplace decorated with articles about Kalin. Kalin’s grandmother, Mae Sturvivant of Detroit, has attended all of his games this season and will be in the stands at Ford Field. His grandfather, O.C., whom Kalin talks to after every game, and his aunt and uncle are traveling up from Alabama for the Final Four. His friends and family, his former coaches and ex-teammates — everyone it seems — will be rooting for Kalin this weekend. “He’s an unbelievable kid,” said Alwardt, who talks to Kalin before every tournament game. “He’s not forgotten his roots. He’s a wonderful human being.” For a kid who’s always loved basketball, there are glimpses that there are more meaningful things. Watching Michigan State’s victory over Louisville in the Midwest Region final, Ken and Tina Lucas were brought to tears, not because of a play on the court, but for a humble gesture by Kalin. While the rest of Kalin’s teammates were celebrating their trip to the Final Four, Kalin kneeled on the court in prayer before pointing to the sky. “We know family is very important,” Tina Lucas said. “We have a thing that we always try to instill that God is first. God, family and then everything else was in a pyramid. Basketball and all that is good, but God and family come first. That’s something we instill in him. “He’s grounded,” his mother said. “He knows where his blessings come from.” Send comments to
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