COLLEGE BASKETBALL NCAA MEN’S FINAL FOUR : Now That’s Motivation : Believing the World Is Against Him, Kansas’ Walters Is Playing Inspired Basketball

That isn’t a chip on Rex Walters’ shoulder, it’s a full-fledged inferiority complex. If the Kansas guard held any more grudges, he’d need an extra set of arms.

In the last two weeks alone, Walters has chided the media for supposedly doubting the Jayhawks as they made their way through the NCAA Midwest Regional and into the Final Four. Said the miffed Walters after Kansas disposed of No. 1-ranked Indiana in the regional final last Saturday: “A lot of people have been picking against us, and a lot of people have been wrong again.”

That’s nothing. You should have heard what he recently said about CBS studio commentator Mike Francesa, who made the mistake of questioning Kansas’ tournament chances. Not only did Walters happily note the error of Francesa’s predictions, but he then added a little zinger about the analyst’s somewhat portly physique.

And shortly before Kansas faced California in the regional semifinal, Walters was at it again.

“All of you media are picking against us,” he said. “I kind of like it. And if (ESPN’s) Dick Vitale and Mike Francesa don’t like me, I (couldn’t) care less.”

Walters isn’t majoring in charm at Kansas. He has made a career out of challenging the perceptions of others, so why stop now? Every time someone tells him he isn’t good enough, tall enough, quick enough . . . whatever enough, Walters takes it as a personal insult.

When an official whistles him for a foul, Walters glowers. When a shot of his bounces off the rim, Walters steams. When a network commentator doesn’t support the Jayhawks, Walters reacts.

“That bothers me, but then again, I’m bothered, not necessarily easily, but I want my teammates to feel proud of what they’ve accomplished and what they’re capable of doing,” Walters said. “When I see somebody challenging us, I try to use that as a rallying point to get us going.”

So far, the angry man persona has done wonders for Walters’ game, to say nothing of Kansas’ postseason fortunes. The senior averaged 14.4 points a game during the regular season, but increased that to 21.8 during the NCAA tournament. He has hit 61.7% of his three-point shots (13 of 21). His overall shooting average from the field is 68.3% (28 of 41).

Francesa should have done that well in the CBS office pool.

As for honors, Walters has plenty: two-time Big Eight Conference first-team selection, member of the Midwest Regional all-tournament team, fourth player in Kansas history to score more than 1,000 points in only two years, 1992 Big Eight newcomer of the year.

On and on it goes. Walters even owns a Final Four ring from 1991, the season Kansas advanced to the championship game against Duke. Back then, Walters was a Jayhawk in name only. As a transfer from Northwestern, he could practice with the team, but not play in games.

In typical Walters fashion, he never slipped on the ring. It belongs to his mother now. The way Walters figured it, why wear a ring you didn’t help earn?

This next one will be different. Walters promises to wear the new jewelry with pride--and maybe with a scowl, too.

Kansas officials swear Walters is a sweetheart. So do his teammates, who praise him at every chance.

“He’s always working on his game,” said guard Adonis Jordan, who roomed with Walters last season. “When I say that, I mean he’s always working every single day. They’ve got an NCAA rule now where you’ve got to take a day off (from organized and supervised practices). But he’s working every day. Even on our days off, he’s out there shooting, working on his jump shot, working on his free throws--and it shows.”

Jayhawk center Eric Pauley said: “What he says about the media or other people might seem brash, but he’s just sticking up for what he thinks is right.”

Nothing has come easily for Walters. Even now his voice grows hard as he recounts the day he learned that his junior high school coach in San Jose had told the local high school coach that Walters wasn’t talented enough to play there.

“I thought that was funny,” Walters said.

By the time Walters left Piedmont Hills High, he had set career school records in scoring, free-throw percentage and assists. Yet, Walters said his high school coach suggested that he consider playing at a junior college rather than pursue a Division I scholarship.

“And I thought that was really funny,” said Walters, who ended up at Northwestern and earned All-Big Ten Conference honorable mention in his sophomore season.

As for his relationship with Piedmont Hills Coach Ruben Lunna, Walters said, “We don’t get along.”

But Lunna wasn’t the only one who misjudged Walters. Truth is, Walters wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school. He would have loved to have gone to California, but Lou Campanelli never called. Neither did lots of schools, including Kansas.

“My phone wasn’t exactly ringing off the hook by the big-name schools,” he said.

So off to Northwestern Walters went, the words of Lunna still fresh in his mind.

“Maybe that has stuck to me a little bit, maybe I do have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder,” Walters said. “But I think I’m living more mature now. I’m more concerned about how I play and not necessarily what people are saying. When people say I can’t do something, that just gives me a lot more incentive to do it.”

Walters stayed two seasons at Northwestern, just long enough to realize he had made a mistake. Weary of continually losing, he became frustrated and decided to transfer. Northwestern could give him playing time, but it couldn’t give him what he wanted most--victories, a championship ring, happiness.

“At Northwestern, if you have a four-win season in the Big Ten, they would be satisfied,” he said.

By then, Walters was a secret no longer. He had averaged 17.6 points in his sophomore season at Northwestern, and there wasn’t a coach who hadn’t noticed his promise to switch schools. In the end, it came down to UCLA and Kansas.

In UCLA’s favor was Coach Jim Harrick and the Bruin tradition. Walters liked Harrick and, better yet, had always dreamed of going to UCLA. He even had a vanity license plate picked out: “UCLA BOY.”

“Just so I could say I could be one of those guys,” Walters said.

But the more Walters considered his choices, the more he found himself leaning toward Kansas.

“(UCLA) had a lot of guards,” Walters said. “They had Mitchell Butler. They had Darrick Martin. Shon Tarver was thinking about going there, and I had a pretty good feeling he’d be going there. They had Gerald Madkins at the time. Plus, I knew a lot of those guys. In my freshman or sophomore year, I almost got in a fight with Darrick Martin during a game. I’m thinking, ‘Is that going to be the best place for me? I don’t know.’ ”

Walters also found himself identifying more with what he called, “Midwestern values.” The difference, as explained by Walters: “When you think of West Coast values, you think of real laid-back, surf’s-up type of guys. I was nothing like that. I wanted to go to a place where basketball was really No. 1.”

With that in mind, Walters told Harrick that if the official visit to Kansas went well, he was transferring to Lawrence. That was three years ago, and the Jayhawks haven’t quite been the same.

All things considered, there might not be a better backcourt in the country than the one at Kansas. Jayhawk Coach Roy Williams wouldn’t trade Walters, Jordan and substitute Steve Woodberry for any other guard rotation. And this from a coach who was known to throw Walters out of practice on occasion.

“I was on his case pretty hard,” said Williams, who was upset in those early years with Walters’ shot selection and defense.

Walters is an acquired taste. Stubborn, defensive and opinionated, almost to a fault, he can infuriate even the patient Williams. But no one can question his work ethic or his commitment to a game that consumes him.

This is the same guy who used to return to the court shortly after a Kansas game at fabled Allen Fieldhouse and shoot jump shots for an hour. It is also the guy who kept a 1989-90 Brigham Young pocket basketball schedule in his wallet, the better to remind him of the time he missed several potential game-winning shots against the Cougars.

“Rex is Rex,” said Pauley, with the simplest explanation of all.

Nothing wrong with that. If Walters wants to think the world is against him, then so be it.

With him, the weight of those grudges never seem to buckle his knees.

“Like I said, some of our guys have been doubted all their lives,” Walters said. “And I’m one of those guys.”