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Forever family

Kalin Lucas, Durrell Summers set to play final game at Breslin Center

March 1, 2011

Durrell Summers doesn’t know what to say. What is there left to say?

The senior guard didn’t eclipse the double-digit point total in any game in February. He’s tired of taking the blame for the MSU men’s basketball team’s struggles this season. He doesn’t know why he hasn’t come out of his slump. And he’s running out of time with one home game remaining and an NCAA Tournament appearance still very much in question.

After not saying much to reporters during media availability Monday, Summers heads across the Breslin Center floor.

A few rows up in the bleachers is Ken Lucas, father of fellow senior guard Kalin Lucas.

Summers sits on Ken Lucas’ left side and talks. Listens. Never taking his eyes off of Ken Lucas. Summers has known the Lucas family since middle school. He and Kalin Lucas have played together since they were AAU teammates in high school. Ken Lucas is a friendly face — needed support during this troubled time.

“It’s like he is our other son,” Ken Lucas said. “I was just sharing some things, like I do with Kalin, just to help everybody. So many people are in his ear, I just tell him to go out there and have fun, because he hasn’t (struggled like) this before. The kid is down.”

It’s that family relationship that has kept Summers and Kalin Lucas together through ups and downs. It helped them come to East Lansing. And it will continue after the two play their final game at Breslin tonight against Iowa (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network).

The pair will leave as part of one of the most successful senior classes in MSU history — currently sixth all-time in wins with 102 — and with a tough senior season not over, Summers and Kalin Lucas want to make one final impression on their legacies.

“If you look at Senior night, this is going to be a little harder for those seniors,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “You always look at the year they had and you want them to go out the right way, and somehow you do have to look at the whole body of work, which is a four-year period, which is probably one of the best five or six senior classes in the history of this school.”

‘The best player out there’
Summers and Kalin Lucas first met on a basketball court. They were playing against each other in AAU basketball in middle school.

“He definitely was the best player out there,” Lucas said of Summers. “When the game was over, we exchanged words. The next thing I knew, we kept trying to tell him to come play with us. He came and played with us and since then we kicked it and were always best friends.”

Both from Detroit, the two played for the AAU team The Family in high school. A fitting name for their relationship.

As for high school itself, Summers’ school, Detroit DePorres, closed after his sophomore season. While Lucas wanted Summers to join him at St. Mary’s Preparatory in Orchard Lake, Mich., Summers decided to go to Redford Covenant Christian, where his previous high school coach and teammates were headed.

“It was a loyalty thing,” Summers said. “They wanted us to go somewhere where our whole team could stay together and we’d have the same coaching staff.”

Lucas was rated the No. 38 player in the country by Rivals.com, the No. 3 player in Michigan. Summers was rated No. 58 in the country and No. 4 in Michigan. As soon as they stepped on campus at MSU, they knew success was possible.

“The first time I stepped foot in the Bres, I looked up in the rafters and said, ‘I definitely want my jersey retired,’ so hopefully that will come true,” Lucas said.

There is a chance it could happen some day. Lucas is sixth all-time in scoring at MSU, 29 points away from passing Jay Vincent — whose jersey is retired — for fifth place. Lucas also is three made free throws away from being the sole MSU career leader in that category.

The other part of the Detroit duo, Summers ranks sixth all-time in 3-pointers made at MSU and is responsible for one of the most memorable moments in recent Spartan basketball history. A moment and event Lucas and Summers should have seen coming.

Homecoming
Before Lucas and Summers came to MSU, the men’s basketball program had made one Final Four and hadn’t won a Big Ten championship in the previous six seasons.

Yet when MSU head coach Tom Izzo recruited Lucas and Summers, he talked about the 2009 Final Four. The one in their backyard: Detroit.

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“It was fun because when we were getting recruited, Coach Izzo, one thing he always said to us was, ‘The Final Four is in Detroit your sophomore year and we’ll be there.’ … For it to really come true and happen, it was like a dream come true,” Lucas said.

Lucas said at the time the whole experience was a blur. But nearly two years later, it still brings a smile to his face.

“Us going to Somerset (Mall) for the pep rally, that’s something that will always stick with me, just because I’ve never seen that many people in a mall before,” he said. “It was Spartan nation that day and that’s something I’ll always remember.”

There was one play in the game that was representative of the run. One play that has been viewed on YouTube more than 100,000 times: Summers’ dunk over Connecticut forward Stanley Robinson, which nearly blew the roof off Ford Field.

Although the Spartans fell to North Carolina in the National Championship, Lucas, Summers and the Spartans lifted the spirits of downtrodden Detroit, something that won’t be forgotten around those parts.

“It’s been a lot of great memories here, and we’ve done some great things,” Summers said.

Setbacks
One year later, the Spartans looked to finish what they couldn’t the previous season.

On March 21, 2010, Lucas ruptured his left Achilles’ tendon in MSU’s second-round game against Maryland. Although Summers helped take the Spartans back to the Final Four with his regional MVP performance, Lucas underwent months of rehab because of the injury.

Lucas said Monday that if the injury hadn’t occurred, he likely would have left MSU a year early and entered the NBA Draft. When asked if Summers would have joined him, Lucas said he thought Summers would have as well.

But by coming back, Lucas was able to improve his game. He still won’t say he’s 100 percent healthy, but Lucas is playing arguably the best basketball of his life, averaging 21.5 points in his last nine games and playing at least 35 minutes in eight of them.

He also has grown up.

“Since the injury, (my wife and I) have seen a big growth as far as maturity, something that we’ve been waiting on,” Ken Lucas said. “Kids, we all mature at different times. I was waiting on this maturity level with Kalin to come and that injury changed him a lot.”

For Summers, his senior season was supposed to be a continuation of last season’s NCAA Tournament as he played himself into an NBA Draft pick.

But Summers has struggled to find consistency this season, and with the Spartans’ season not going according to plan, Summers has been the target of fans’ frustration.

Lucas has tried to help his best friend — his roommate of four years — get through his struggles, as Summers did when Lucas was hurt.

“As far as him, his is more mental and I try to talk to him, tell him things are going to be alright, just to keep his confidence up and work through it,” Lucas said.

With games left to play, there still are believers who are excited for what Summers will bring in the final stretch.

“A strong finish at Michigan State for Durrell Summers, that’s an understatement,” his mother, La’Andrea Summers said.

If the Spartans are to get to their 14th straight NCAA Tournament, Durrell Summers will be a big part of that.

“Every year I’ve been here, we’ve been to the tournament and good things have happened,” Durrell Summers said. “Regardless of how we got there, we’ve had other seasons where we struggled in the beginning, but somehow we pulled it together and made a run down the stretch.”

Lasting legacy
With the Breslin Center floor being remodeled last summer, there no longer is an ‘S’ at midcourt to kiss, a Senior Day tradition that dates back to 1995.

As the first senior class since the remodeling, Lucas said he, Summers and senior guard Mike Kebler might change the tradition. Lucas said he didn’t know what he’d do, but smiled and told reporters to wait and see.

The pair has elevated the MSU program to consistent success in their time. The senior class currently sits at 11 NCAA Tournament wins and still can add to that number.

“They can look up at these banners, the two Big Ten championships, the two Final Fours, unbelievable accomplishments. … When they take their next steps in life, if that’s NBA, if it’s overseas or whatever, they’re going to be playing basketball after college,” MSU associate head coach Mark Montgomery said.

It’s a friendship that has seen the highest of highs in their four years at MSU.

While the pair will try to make sure the lows don’t get any lower, they know they’ll have each other’s backs for the rest of their lives. And so will their families.

“I don’t even consider us friends, I consider us more as brothers,” Lucas said. “That’s my brother. He’s family, he’s part of the family. My parents and his parents, my cousins and his cousins are all one big family. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”

To read more about Lucas’ legacy at MSU, check out the MSU men’s basketball blog.

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