Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell didn’t have to stay.

The now-senior guard considered cutting his Indiana career one year short and declaring for the NBA draft after his junior season.

Initially, Ferrell was tempted to leave, allured by the professional game, professional contracts. People he trusted told him he had a shot at making his boyhood dream of playing in the NBA come true.

“I thought about it a lot,” Yogi said before the season began. “It’s the dream. But the more I talked to people and thought about it, the more I felt like it was the best option for me to come back.”

Yogi met with his coaches, family, and friends as he reflected on his Indiana journey. He evaluated the things he had already accomplished, and those that remained undone. He saw the talent that would be returning to the Hoosiers in his final season, and embraced the opportunity to cement himself as one of Indiana’s all-time greats.

“I wanted to leave a legacy as a player and a person,” he said.

With his legacy incomplete, it was not his time to leave Indiana. The NBA would have to wait.

Yogi’s path to stardom began early.

A scouting service named him the nation’s top fourth-grade basketball player in 2004. Word traveled about the budding superstar, leading the Indianapolis Star to publish a front-page story about Ferrell and the impact of being dubbed “the next big thing” in basketball at such a young age.

Yogi’s father, Kevin Ferrell Sr., quickly saw the new attention getting to his preteen’s head. He pulled Yogi out of AAU competition in middle school, hoping the break from the spotlight would ease his son’s growing ego and protect him from opponents eager to contend with the next chosen one.

“My dad thought I got a little bit of a big head,” said Yogi, who was dubbed “Yogi” as a toddler by his mother, Libby, because he liked Yogi Bear and used to eat a lot, just like the character. The nickname stuck.

Kevin Sr.’s plan proved successful. The father and son trained together for long hours in small Indianapolis-area gyms. Trainer Shon Bolden, who has helped develop George Hill and Jeff Teague of the NBA and Tamika Catchings of the WNBA, assisted as well. Indiana’s future starting point guard was being built with sweat equity away from travel ball.

“At the time, I didn’t think it was a good decision by my father,” Yogi said. “Now that I look back at it, I think that it was a great decision.”

By high school, Yogi had returned to AAU ball and quickly garnered national attention. As a junior and senior, he led Park Tudor to a 51-4 record and back-to-back state championships, and in the process, he earned his place as a top-25 player in the country.

At the same time, Indiana head coach Tom Crean was rebuilding the school’s basketball program. Yogi’s AAU teammate and good friend, Cody Zeller, committed to Indiana in November 2010, joining the Hoosiers’ 2011 recruiting class. Within two weeks, Yogi pledged to join Zeller at IU in 2012.

Two of the state’s top recruits were going to Indiana University together, and Ferrell already had the idea of leaving a legacy on his mind.

“I came here to turn the basketball program around,” Ferrell told the Indianapolis Star as a freshman.

“Bring it back to its greater glory days.”

Yogi is unquestionably a face of the program.

He has been for more than two years.

Fans flock to him, the Indiana kid who stayed in Indiana. They pack into Assembly Hall’s sellout crowds, many wearing No. 11 jerseys just like Yogi does and like Hoosier legend Isiah Thomas did before.

When public address announcer Chuck Crabb does the player introductions, the loudest applause is for Yogi, and that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon.

“He’s just the epitome of what being an Indiana Hoosier is,” said Clint McCullough, 36, a lifelong Hoosier fan from Columbus, Indiana.

“Other people wanted him, but he chose to stay here,” McCullough said. “That’s almost an immediate connection that, ‘Okay, we love you.’”

Indiana fans are some of the most passionate and committed in college basketball. The program’s culture and traditions rival those of any other school in the country.

Fans don’t just pick favorite players, they idolize them, and when a player like Yogi is one of their own, they obsess over his every move.

“It’s hard to think of this team without Yogi,” said Ben Malcomson, 33, of Tell City, Indiana. Malcomson grew up watching the Hoosiers play on television with his father, another longtime fan.

“It’s not just what he does on the court, it’s what he does for the program,” Malcomson said. “He’s one of us. He’s the heart and soul of our team.”

Yogi hears the applause. He takes notice of the sea of No. 11s filling the seats of Assembly Hall each game. He reads the tweets and the social media comments.

Ferrell said that he feels a responsibility to perform for the fans who have supported him for so long.

“Indiana fans, they’re great,” Yogi said. “They’re passionate. They’re into it. They’re the best in college basketball.”

Malcomson won’t lie. He was nervous when Yogi contemplated leaving for the NBA. McCullough worried, too, as did thousands of other Indiana fans who spent weeks refreshing news pages and Twitter feeds and speculating about whether or not their starting point guard would return.

When he announced his decision to stay, Hoosier fans breathed a sigh of relief.

Even McCullough’s eight-year-old son, Colt, knew how important it was.

“I can tell Yogi’s a true Hoosier because he wants to be here,” Colt told his father.

Even the youngest fans have their favorite players.

Whether or not Yogi will accomplish his goal of becoming an IU basketball legend is still largely up for debate.

His senior season could bring clarity to debating fans.

Yogi entered his final college basketball season as one of the rare four-year starting point guards in the country. If his statistics stay on pace with his career averages, he’ll finish the season among IU’s top 10 all-time scorers, also contributing the most assists in program history and threatening A.J. Guyton’s record for career three-pointers.

He’s tasked with navigating Indiana through a challenging Big Ten schedule with hopes of leading a less experienced bunch to the NCAA tournament.

“Yogi’s a great leader,” said sophomore guard James Blackmon Jr. “He has so much experience that we can all rely on. He’s an older guy, and everyone really respects him and listens to him. When he’s telling you something, you know it’s important.”

Ferrell has experienced a bit of everything in his Indiana career.

He started for the No. 1 team in the country, running the point as a true freshman as the Hoosiers went to the Sweet Sixteen in 2013. He then fought through the downfall of the 2013–14 season that saw Indiana fail to qualify for any kind of postseason. Just last year, the Hoosiers found their footing once more, earning an NCAA tournament bid before being eliminated in the first round by Wichita State.

Through it all, Yogi has developed as the heart of the team. Everything Indiana does this year will be in some way shaped by his actions.

“It’s real easy when you’ve been somewhere a long time to take for granted what [a player] does well [and] not push to [see] what they can do even better,” Crean said. “That’s what we have to do. He’s a very hard worker, but he’s got to take ownership of the guys on the court by putting them in the right spots all the time.”

Yogi’s return promises one thing: the closing of a chapter.

Had he departed for the NBA after his junior year, Yogi’s legacy would have been left incomplete, his true potential unrealized. It would have left fans questioning “What if?” just as they did with the departures of Cody Zeller, Noah Vonleh, and Victor Oladipo.

The need for closure is partially what brought Yogi back to begin with.

“There was definitely unfinished business,” he said. “This team, we can be great. You want to go out on top.”

But what does “going out on top” mean exactly? School records? Program fame? Being an NBA lottery pick next summer?

“No, nothing individual,” Yogi said. “I want a national championship.”

An Indiana kid leads the Hoosiers back to national glory. The Hoosier cuts down the nets and hangs a sixth national championship banner at Assembly Hall.

A national championship would be all too fitting an end for Yogi, and he knows it.

That’s the legacy he wants to leave behind. That’s why Yogi came back.