Nearly 20 years ago, Mike King strapped up his shoes for two consecutive appearances at the Big Dance.

Now the former men’s basketball guard is back in Foggy Bottom dancing again. But this time, he is in the classroom – not on the court.

King played for GW from 1997 to 2001 before leaving the University before he finished his degree to chase after an opportunity to play in the NBA, he said. King returned to the University to wrap up his sociology degree and one of the five classes he is taking, Understanding the Dance, has quickly become his favorite.

“We started off with ballet and I was like, ‘Oh Lord, I’m using muscles that I didn’t even know I had,’” King said. “And like I told professor, I said, ‘Man, there’s days when I leave here I’m sore.’ And he laughed and said, ‘I thought you were an athlete.’”

During his days on the court as a Colonial, he made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.

As a junior, he ended the season with the highest field goal percentage on the team – shooting 45.9 percent from the field on 112-for-244 shooting in 24 games.

In four years, he tallied 175 career steals – the fifth-highest mark in program history – and joined the 1,000-point club, notching 1,327 points and giving him the 24th highest tally of all time.

After departing GW, King tried his hand playing professionally in Europe before returning stateside and coaching at the high school level.

King said making a return to campus brought back a slew of memories from two decades ago and he was glad to see former teammates like Chris Monroe, the director of marketing and sales for the athletic department, still roaming around Foggy Bottom.

“It’s funny, running into my guy Chris, playing with Chris over the years and now he works here, it’s kind of funny,” King said. “It’s a good feeling.”

Monroe is a men’s basketball hall of famer and the highest scoring men’s basketball player in program history, tallying 2,249 career points over four years. Monroe said King was “in [his] ear” consistently offering advice to the young guard who was shouldering a starting role as a rookie.

“He had a winning mentality, he never quit and always pushed his teammates to what we would call a ‘level up,’” Monroe said. “So to play to the expectations of what he thought we should play at, being one of the senior leaders on the team.”

King said it’s “hard” watching men’s basketball games from the sidelines as a spectator now and he hopes one day the Smith Center returns to the lively atmosphere packed with students and fans that he remembers seeing during his time as an athlete.

“I just remember us having small games, like Fordham, and it would be packed with students just to watch us play,” King said. “I’m hoping that one day it’ll get back to that support because these guys really need it.”

Although King is no longer a traditional student himself, he said he has been able to fly under the radar despite being nearly twice the age of his peers because he “looks younger.” But he said administrators and professors – like his senior thesis adviser – remember the young star who was once likened to Superman on the basketball court.

“It’s cool to come back and people still remember,” King said. “That means that you left a good impression.”

Dana Tai Soon Burgess, a professor of dance, teaches King’s class and said he is a “life-long learner.”

“Mike is obviously a team player, he is very dedicated to class, he always gets there early, he asks questions, he really goes for it 100 percent,” Burgess said. “You can just see the dedication he has to movement.”

The class has tackled plies and salsa dancing, and next they will take on hula dancing, whirling dervish dances and modern dance, Burgess said, before creating their own choreography.

“We just got off of learning the salsa,” King said. “So trying to think about using it at some point in time.”