Microphone in hand, Brett Ballard stood in front of more than 100 Washburn University basketball campers last Tuesday while moderating a Q and A with Kansas redshirt sophomore guard Malik Newman.
“Malik was a McDonald’s All-American,” Ballard, the 37-year-old former KU guard and first-year Ichabod head coach, told the 6-to-14-year olds.
“Hey Malik … do you get a discount on McDonald’s for life? I was hoping to get some free french fries from Malik,” Ballard added, putting a smile on the face of his guest speaker and some of the campers and their parents.
Onlookers poking their heads into Lee Arena — site of Ballard’s two weeks worth of camps — see in Ballard somebody clearly having fun working at the NCAA Division II school located just a half-hour drive from his alma mater in Lawrence.