The RoundHouse | 3/6/2019 2:40:00 PM

Rob Kampman – Men's basketball (2001-05)
 
Rob Kampman came to Wichita State less than 20 years ago to help move the Shockers from the days of cockroaches in Levitt Arena and losing basketball to Koch Arena and 20-win seasons.
 
He played in Levitt Arena as a freshman, stepping on bugs and walking to the metal building on the Cessna Stadium track to lift weights. The Shockers moved to the Kansas Coliseum during the 2002-03 season before returning to Koch Arena, renovated, updated with new offices and locker rooms and expanded with a weight room and study area, for his final two seasons.
 
"You feel almost lucky to be a part of all that for that experience and still be a part of the new arena when it was brand new," he said. "Every little detail is better. The quality of everything is better. We used to have to leave the arena to do our lifting workouts. Now, everything is within Charles Koch. You don't have to leave for study hall. You don't have to leave for treatments. It's an awesome facility."
 
Even the basketball court is better. Kampman, a 6-foot-8 forward, remembers the court in Levitt as hard on the legs. 
 
"It didn't have very much bounce," he said. "That floor they have in there now is just a high-quality, solid basketball floor. I don't know if anybody else would recognize that if you didn't play on both."
 
Former coach Mark Turgeon recruited Kampman, along with teammates such as Randy Burns, Paul Miller and Jamar Howard. Wichita State earned NIT berths in 2003, 2004 and 2005 – its first post-season play since 1989. Average attendance dropped to 7,393 fans a game during the 1999-2000 season. By 2003-04, it surpassed 10,000 and would stay above that mark until this day.
 
The Shockers put themselves in position to earn an NCAA bid in 2005 before a late-season slump derailed their resume.
 
"We always talked about how hard it was to be good," he said. "We, hopefully, got things rolling in the right direction. You've got to build a foundation somewhere."
 
Kampman started 104 games in four seasons and averaged 8.0 points and 4.4 rebounds. He made 42.2 percent of his three-pointers for his career. He earned a spot on the Missouri Valley Conference's Most Improved Team in 2004 and twice was named an MVC Scholar-Athlete.
 
Status update – Kampman, from Forest City, Iowa, is in his fourth year as a Wichita firefighter.
 
"You get to serve the community and that's always been something I appreciated and liked," he said. "They call when they need help. Whether it's having chest pains or a heart attack or they're caught in a house that's on fire, we go there to try to mitigate the situation. It's pretty nice to be able to help people when they need help."
 
The 24-on, 48-off schedule also works for Kampman.
 
"Hanging around a bunch of people for 24 hours at a time, it's just like playing on team, just like any other team sports I've played my entire life," he said. "That's pretty nice, too."
 
Family – Kampman is engaged to Kayla Nuttall and scheduled to be married in October.
 
Basketball overseas – Kampman played professional basketball for seven seasons, six in Australia and one in Portugal.
 
"Australia is an awesome place to be," he said. "People down there are very hospitable, very unselfish. They take you right in and look after you. That's why I went back for six full seasons. Every time I came home I was like 'Man, I kind of miss that place.'"
 
Basketball's importance is rising in Australia and the country is sending athletes – Andrew Bogut, Ben Simmons and Patty Mills, for example - to the United States for college and the NBA. 
 
"They start them at a young age and they keep them going," he said. "There is more and more money pouring into it. They are building newer stadiums. As far as newer facilities and quality of facilities, I saw more of that when I was there, for sure."
 
Kampman explored the Great Barrier Reef as a scuba diver and spent a week in New Zealand. He developed an affection for fish and chips. The Australian version of Chicken parmigiana is also a favorite.
 
"I still miss that meal," he said. "It's just not quite the same up here."
 
On the road – Kampman is a cyclist and regularly rides in RAGBRAI, the annual ride across Iowa that started in 1973. In the summer, he estimates he rides 40-100 miles a week.
 
"It's a little bit easier on the joints, but it still pushes me," he said. "I bought the bike the last two or three years I played basketball and used it as a way to stay in shape and get in shape."
 
Shocker time - In November 2003, Kampman scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a win over Northern Arizona to open Koch Arena.
 
He remembers a win over No. 12 Creighton during the 2002-03 season at the Kansas Coliseum. Beating Southern Illinois, then the MVC heavyweight, early in the 2005 conference schedule stands out. The last-second loss at Vanderbilt in the 2005 NIT that ended his career sticks with him.
 
The fans, however, come up first when he discusses his time as a Shocker.
 
"We weren't as good as they are now and we were still packing out the stadium," he said. 
 
Turgeon sold him on building the program.
 
"The (coaching) staff was great," Kampman said. "The potential was there and everybody was on board and there was enthusiasm from the administration."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.