Final Four doubles as a high school reunion

<p>Will Bynum and Tony Allen grew up a few miles apart in Chicago and played on the same team, but it took a scuffle to make them friends.</p><p>Bynum was in seventh grade, Allen a year older. After a tournament in New York City, they lingered on the court, playing a little 1-on-1.</p><p>Something happened. Allen started talking trash. Shoves were exchanged. And their lives changed.</p><p>"We've been best friends ever since," Bynum said. "I guess we realized how alike we were. We're both very competitive. We just bonded that day."</p><p>At the Final Four, those bonds are coming together again. On Saturday, Allen will take the court for Oklahoma State, looking across the court at Bynum wearing a Georgia Tech uniform.</p><p>For a moment, they'll probably think back to the days when they teamed up at Crane High School to form, in Bynum's modest estimation, "the best backcourt in Chicago."</p><p>Then they'll play _ and try to send each other home.</p><p>"He's been talking a lot of trash," Bynum said. "He keeps telling me we're going fishing. He thinks they're going to put us out of the tournament, so we'll have plenty of time to go fishing."</p><p>The relationship between Bynum and Allen is not unique at this Final Four. The gathering of four very distinct teams from different parts of the country is also doubling as a high school reunion.</p><p>Former teammates are everywhere.</p><p>There's Luol Deng of Duke and Charlie Villanueva of Connecticut, who played together at Blair Academy in New Jersey.</p><p>There's Daniel Ewing of Duke and Ivan McFarlin of Oklahoma State, teammates at Willowridge High School near Houston.</p><p>And don't forget Connecticut star Emeka Okafor and John Lucas III, hero of Oklahoma State's victory in the regional final. They played together at Bellaire High School in Houston.</p><p>Deng and Villanueva roomed together at Blair. While they came from vastly different backgrounds _ Deng was born in the Sudan and settled in London, Villanueva grew up in Brooklyn _ their time together forged a lasting friendship.</p><p>"He was a huge help to me," Villanueva said. "I was so homesick and he would talk to me about that. He encouraged me to just hang in there. I was homesick, but he was from a whole other country. My home was only about an hour and a half away."</p><p>Lucas figures the Final Four _ in Texas, no less _ will be a chance to show off all the talent that was nurtured in the Houston area.</p><p>"You always hear about East Coast basketball, West Coast basketball," Lucas said. "I have already talked to Emeka Okafor and Daniel Ewing both, saying, 'Play your heart out.' We're not playing for us. We're playing for the upcoming players in Houston. We want to show everybody we have talent in the city of Houston."</p><p>Growing up in Chicago, Allen and Bynum had to stay focused on their goals or get swallowed up by the streets. Basketball was a way to escape their crime-ridden neighborhood on the South Side.</p><p>"It's a high school right down the street from the projects," Allen said. "You'd be getting out of school and before you knew it, you'd hear shots ring out."</p><p>Allen always seemed to be running, as if he was trying to stay ahead of all the pitfalls.</p><p>"Tony used to get up at 4 of 5 in the morning and just go running around the block," Bynum remembered. "And not just jogging. He would be running full-speed. He was always trying to get me pumped up to run with him. Man, that guy is crazy."</p><p>On the court, he knew his place. The 21-year-old Bynum was the younger of the two by a year. He always deferred to his teammate at Crane.</p><p>"I just passed him the ball," Bynum said, grinning. "He did all the shooting."</p><p>Their reunion at the Final Four hardly took a direct route. Bynum initially signed with Arizona, but decided to transfer when his playing time dwindled.</p><p>Allen, meanwhile, had just gotten to Oklahoma State after playing his first two seasons in the junior college ranks. He immediately got on the phone, hoping to persuade his old high school teammate to join him with the Cowboys.</p><p>It almost worked.</p><p>"The last I heard, he was coming," Allen said. "Instead of making that right, he went straight" to Atlanta.</p><p>Bynum decided to go along with his mother's wishes. She was impressed with Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt and had wanted him to play for the Yellow Jackets all along.</p><p>The cell phone keeps them together. They talk just about every day, their friendship remaining strong even though their lives took different paths.</p><p>"We just talk," Allen said, "about how far we came."</p>

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