Former KU guard Lagerald Vick has won a pair of championships since his college days

Lagerald Vick has played pro basketball in Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Uruguay and his favorite spot of all, Mexico, since graduating from Kansas in 2019.

“You’ve got to go where the people love you. They love me in Mexico,” Vick, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard who just completed a week-long, three-game stint with KU’s alumni team, Mass Street, in the 2023 TBT, told The Star in a recent interview.

Vick, 26, has helped Astros de Jalisco, a team based in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to back-to-back titles in Mexico’s top pro league.

In 49 games during the 2022 title season, Vick averaged 13.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. In 51 games in the 2023 title campaign he averaged 15.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists. He scored 29 points in one of Astros de Jalisco’s games in the league championship series which Vick’s team won four games to two.

Vick enjoys playing basketball in Mexico so much he said he declined an offer to play for an undisclosed NBA summer league team in Las Vegas.

“I could have played summer league. I wanted to play TBT and go back to Mexico,” Vick said.

“The Mexican pro league is a good league (with) six Americans on each team. I play mainly the 1. If I get the rebound, I’m the point guard. I call all the plays,” Vick added of his role.

Vick scored three points in Mass Street TBT’s 70-67 opening TBT victory over We Are D-III Wednesday in Wichita. He hit three 3-pointers for 11 points and seven boards in a 69-65 second-round win over Missouri’s Show Me Squad on Saturday. Vick scored 12 points in Sunday’s 73-60 Round of 16 loss to Team Heartfire which eliminated KU’s alumni squad from the 64-team, $1 million winner-take-all event.

Vick averaged 8.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game while leading all Mass Street players in minutes played (31.2 mpg). He hit 37.5% of his 3s, but was just 29.6% overall from the field in the three contests.

Vick was a double figure scorer his final two years at KU. He averaged 12.1 points per game in 2017-18 and 14.1 ppg while playing in just 23 games in 2018-19.

He missed the final 13 games of his senior season after taking an indefinite leave of absence in early February to tend to a personal matter in his hometown of Memphis. KU’s loss at Kansas State on Feb. 5, 2019 went down as the final official game in Vick’s KU career.

“I still keep up with the football team, basketball, track, I look at it all online,” Vick said. “It (results of KU sports) comes across my Twitter all the time.”

Langford enjoyed TBT experience

Former Kansas guard Keith Langford, who averaged 10.7 points in three games to finish third on Mass Street in scoring at 10.7 ppg, indicated before the TBT it would mark the final appearance of his 17-year pro career.

“Full circle in Crimson & Blue.. So very THANKFUL for this journey. Looking forward to coaching @MassStreetTBT next year and recruiting more of our YOUNGER professional alumni!!” Langford wrote on Twitter after Sunday’s loss.

Prior to the TBT, Langford, who played for both Bill Self and Roy Williams at KU (2001-05) wrote on Twitter: “Finger, hamstring/groin strains and not to mention an unlimited amount of ankle sprains have all been worth it!! The journey has been the best part as well as the part I’ll miss most. Can’t wait to play one last time this July and phase into the next part of life.”

Langford — he scored 13 points with six boards in Mass Street TBT’s four-point win over Missouri on Saturday — thoroughly enjoyed the final three games of his career.

“I appreciate first of all the fans,” he said of spectators who turned out for the three games in Wichita, site of the TBT regional. “What Mass Street has done as far as a collective putting on the event, the level of seriousness that Marcus and Markieff (Morris twins who coached Mass Street) have brought … they came in with a vision. Some guys dropped out. They kept on. Being in the locker room, hearing the music, listening to the stories, this is fantastic. I am very happy. I love the approach everyone has had,” Langford added.

Hunter Mickelson played for Arkansas in TBT

Team Arkansas, which went 2-1 in the TBT, had a former KU player on its roster during this year’s event.

Former KU center Hunter Mickelson, who played for the Jayhawks during the 2014-15 and 15-16 seasons after two seasons at Arkansas, averaged 15.3 points in three games, second on the team to Brandon Wood (15.7 ppg). Mickelson led Team Arkansas in rebounds at 11.0 per game. He also averaged a team-leading 1.7 blocks.

“It’s been fun,” Mickelson said after a 63-52 win over Kansas State’s Purple and Black squad in the second round. Mickelson scored 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds in that game.

“I’ve seen a few people I’ve recognized and remember from those days (at KU). It’s been good catching up with them. Just watching the Mass Street team play and Wichita team play I have friends on both sides so it’s been a good time,” Mickelson added.

He took no extra delight in knocking K-State’s team out of the tourney.

“Not so much on the ego part, more on the handling of business aspect,” Mickelson said of the win. “Whether it was the Wichita team or (K-State) team that was the next step and something we needed to take.”

Mickelson’s squad was eliminated by Wichita State’s AfterShocks team on Sunday, 63-59.

Mickelson, who has played professionally in the Czech Republic, Poland and Latvia, now is an assistant basketball coach at eStem High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.