Patrick Cassidy, KU manager turned walk-on, fulfills another dream during scrimmage

Patrick Cassidy fulfilled one childhood dream with his promotion from Kansas men’s basketball manager to walk-on player on Monday.

Now he has fulfilled yet another, scoring five points and guarding former Jayhawks and NBA sharpshooter Ben McLemore during a KU scrimmage Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“Watching (McLemore) growing up as a kid, it’s just surreal being out there with all those guys,” Cassidy told the Star afterward. “It was cool. I knew I couldn’t really stay in front of him because he’s a damn good player, but I tried my best.”

Cassidy was once among the hundreds of coach Bill Self’s campers who lined the bleachers to watch KU scrimmage. He came to games and camps as a child, and his father is a Kansas alum. In his words, the university has been “enriched” in his life.

The 6-foot guard starred on the court at Columbus High School in Columbus, Kansas, averaging 18.2 points as a junior while also excelling in football and baseball, according to sportsinks.com.

As a senior, he quarterbacked the Titans to an 8-2 record a year after they finished 1-8. On the hardwood, he was named Southeast Kansas Player of the Month for January 2020 while averaging 27 points per game.

However, Cassidy said any foreknowledge Self may or may not have had about his excellent high school career didn’t factor into the KU coach’s decision to add him to the roster for the 2023-24 season. Rather, he earned his position with hard work daily.

“I think it’s just because the last two seasons I’ve been with him (as a manager), I think he’s grown to trust me,” Cassidy said. “And I’ve just shown him what I can do in practice, and that’s where he really saw my play-style.”

Having displayed what he’s capable of and obtained a spot, Cassidy’s day-to-day routine looks different now, but he still has immense respect for KU’s remaining managers and what he learned over two years with them.

“The manager lifestyle is no joke,” Cassidy said. I’m still grateful for all those guys we’ve still got there… they work their butts off. A day to day, we come in before the players come in and we get their laundry and stuff out… and then we’re there two to three hours after them cleaning up and doing their laundry and stuff.

“If you make fun of managers, they don’t deserve that, because they’re busting their ass every day.”

Even now, Cassidy intends to keep working every bit as hard as his manager cohorts and is cognizant of ways he can help his new teammates.

“Just keep carrying it over in practices, scout team,” Cassidy said. “Just learning the offenses of other teams, just doing my best to give the team the best look they can going into games.

“And then just providing another spark off the bench, as in like an energy standpoint, not playing wise. But just bring energy every day in the locker room, have a positive outlook, make sure guys are always feeling good, feeling prepared for everything.”

And if he gets to provide an actual spark off the bench in a game this season, he won’t be disappointed.

“I would totally be in for that, if the time comes,” Cassidy said. “That’d be exciting to get in there and play in front of this crowd, because the KU fans are unbeatable.

“I just hope I can inspire other managers, not just at KU but throughout the country that if they keep their nose down, they grind, they do the work when people aren’t watching, it’ll pay off in the end.”