8: Fresno State
The Bulldogs hope to make sweet music with a
6'11" rapper in the
post
"Ask Tremaine Fowlkes if his practices were like this at Cal," says coach
Jerry Tarkanian, smiling benignly as he surveys line after
line of exhausted players scrambling backward while
performing a defensive drill in Fresno State's South Gym.
"Ask
Avondre Jones if they
practiced this hard at USC. Ask Courtney Alexander about
Virginia. I'd like to know what they say."
The collective
answer—Those practices
(gasp) were nothing
(gasp) like
this—should please Tark. At college basketball's halfway
house, where foundering former high school All-Americas
come for resurrection, there's a price to be paid for
redemption, and it's
sweat.
"What we have here is a lot of talent that hasn't
lived up to its potential," says Tark, who has five
erstwhile high school
All-Americas on his roster and two others, Alexander and freshman
Melvin Ely, redshirting this year. "In his second year
at Cal,
Tremaine Fowlkes was a substitute. Avondre Jones was a bust at USC.
He's had three terrible years in college. But now he is
motivated and really working hard. Right now he is the best
center I've ever been
around."
The
6'11" Jones, a rap singer of exceptional gifts, is
downplaying his interest in music because he says it has
been unfairly blamed for his past lack of commitment to
basketball. "That wasn't what was distracting
me," says Jones. "I had a bunch of problems
at USC, and I made a lot of bad decisions. But now I'm very
focused on basketball because this is my last chance. I
have to make it work this
year."
He'll have to, because the Bulldogs, who "couldn't get
a rebound against the Girl Scouts last year,"
according to Tarkanian, don't really have a backup center.
They are thick with talent at other positions, though.
Fowlkes, a
6'8" forward who was the
Pac-10 freshman of the year in 1994-95, is now eligible
after transferring from Cal, and
6'9" blue-chip forward Winfred Walton should be eligible
to play on Dec. 20 after transferring from Syracuse. Add
guard Rafer Alston, a juco transfer and New York City
playground sensation, and have them mesh with returning
guard Chris Herren and forwards
Daymond Forney and Terrance Roberson, and the Bulldogs
could be formidable,
especially
if everyone stays healthy and out of trouble. (The latter
is no minor consideration on this team: Alston has been
suspended for Fresno's first game because of an altercation
with an ex-girlfriend; Roberson and Forney were both
suspended—Roberson for two
weeks, Forney indefinitely—for the always ominous reason
that they "failed to complete team requirements";
and a grand jury is still looking into the
point-shaving rumors that implicated Herren last spring.)
|
Last Year | 20-12 |
|
Returning Starters | 2 |
| Points Per Game '96-97 | 82.8 |
| PPG By All Returning Players | 37.3 | Fresno fans may never see the likes of these Bulldogs
again. With Jones in his final season and Walton likely to
go pro after just one year, this is Fresno State's best
chance to make a splash in the NCAA tournament. Jones
thinks the Bulldogs will
excel. "All this hard work has to pay off sometime," he
says. "It just has
to."—Kelli Anderson
Next: Xavier
|
