Their words now, in the wake of one tragic death and two impressive victories, are tinged with palpable emotion and a near-mystical hue. Guard Jeff Fryer, who nailed 11 three-pointers in Loyola Marymount`s Sunday victory over Michigan, says, ”Before each game last weekend, I had a weird feeling inside me. I can`t describe it. But it`s not something I`d ever felt before in my life.”
”It was like nothing I`d experienced in my life before,” says Chris Knight, who took over as the Lions` starting center after Hank Gathers` sudden death. ”I felt stronger than I ever had in my life, and I could tell everyone did, even the players on the bench. I just knew we weren`t going to lose.”
”The only way I can explain it is like this,” says Paul Westhead, Marymount`s coach. ”I`ve said that I don`t care now whether we win or lose, that Hank`s death is bigger than that, and I think they`ve picked that up. They play like that now, and they play for Hank Gathers. So Jeff Fryer goes out there, and he doesn`t care. The typical kid wants to score so he looks good and puts up points, but we don`t care about that kind of stuff anymore.
”Normally at this time of the year, teams are playing nervous. `Gosh, we have to win or we`re done.` But they`re playing out of a commitment to Hank Gathers. So the normal, average jitters are below them, or above them, or whatever. But in any case, it`s not them.”
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It was different last week, their first week of practice since Gathers`
March 4 death. Then, the funeral just behind them, the pain still acute, their nerves were taut, and their hearts and minds and stomachs all churned violently.
They had been through so much in the previous 10 days. There had been Gathers` collapse in their midst, and a memorial service at their gym, and the vote to continue playing, and a church funeral in Philadelphia, and as they moved dazzedly through it all, emotions piled atop emotions to a dizzying height.
They had no way to release them, no way until now at practice, and so it was not surprising when the moment finally occurred. There was a fight, a quick, bump-shove-punch fight between Terrell Lowery and John O`Connell.
Lowery, a sophomore guard, had been affected deeply by Gathers` death, and just days earlier, had been one of the pallbearers in Philly.
”They were all close to Hank, but he was closest. He was more like Hank`s son,” says Westhead, and when his feelings finally exploded, he left O`Connell with a black eye and a cut that required several stitches.
”It was really tense,” Fryer says of that week. ”Emotions were running high, and it finally got to a point where guys couldn`t control them anymore. That`s when some of us lost it.”
”I had no sense what their emotions would do to us as a basketball team,” says Westhead. ”I felt if they focused on our (fast-break) system, that could help us. The system would give them a chance to just let it all hang out. If we had a more traditional system, in this frazzled time, they could have heard themselves thinking. They were that close to cracking.”
That, then, was their state as they traveled to Long Beach, Calif., for their first NCAA Tournament game, but then in the locker room, in those final minutes before they would go out to face New Mexico State, Westhead noticed a change. There was suddenly, he remembers, ”an incredible stillness. There was a calm, as if the players were saying, `Finally, something`s going to happen so we can relieve these emotions. The event is here.` ”
What happened then is Loyola went out and made the event its own by routing New Mexico State and Michigan, and what happened then is the Lions went out and paid homage to their former teammate in small ways, ways not generally noticed. While stretching, or while on the bench, they unconsciously left a spot open for Gathers, and when they broke their huddles, they no longer screamed, ”One, two, three, Lions!”
”One, two, three, Hank!” they now screamed.
Per Stumer, their workmanlike forward, dribbled between his legs, which Gathers had often done. Fryer, a 6-foot-2-inch guard, crashed for rebounds, a Gathers forte. Forward Bo Kimble, normally quiet on the court, talked some trash with Michigan`s Sean Higgins, which Gathers would have done had he been there. And the 6-9 Knight, so skinny that he resembles a vertical hyphen, rushed to the aid of teammate Tony Walker when he was jostled by a Wolverine. ”I`m trying to be the enforcer now, which was one of Hank`s jobs,” says Knight. ”What we`re all doing, maybe not even purposely, is trying to play like Hank, trying to fill the roles Hank did. Some of us are trying to step up our rebounding. Some of us are trying to step up our scoring. We`re all doing the best we can to help the team win.”
”The thought of Hank is bringing guys to give a more incredible effort while chasing a ball or going for a rebound,” says Kimble. ”Me, I`m sharing more of the burden of leadership. If a guy makes a turnover, now I`m the guy who goes over and says, `That`s all right.` That`s one way you see it. You see Jeff Fryer grab six rebounds, and grab them viciously, that`s another way. You see that, you see the message got through. That`s the best way I can describe what`s happened to us.”
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John Wooden often said it back in the 1960s and `70s, back when he was coaching UCLA and the Bruins were winning all their national titles. ”It`s amazing what you can accomplish when you don`t care who gets the credit,” is what he said.
Now, years later and in another Los Angeles gym, Paul Westhead recalls that aphorism for his players as they prepare to practice for their Friday West Regional semifinal with Alabama.
”Now take the corollary,” he says. ”Isn`t it amazing how much you can accomplish when you care that the credit goes to someone else.”
”That`s where they`re at now. So they`re not in it anymore, and when you`re not in it, you can hit home runs all night long.”
”I think of our team as a hurricane now,” adds Fryer. ”We`re out there now to wipe teams out. It`s a different feeling. You can feel the energy in everybody, and the more emotion we have, the better our system works. It worked to perfection the last two games because of the emotional level we`re playing at.”
”I think that`s fair in that the team is consumed by its feelings,”
agrees Westhead. ”I didn`t initially want them to put themselves on the line and say they were going to win this for Hank. But it came out of their natural spirit, so I couldn`t say, `No, no.` But Hank`s death goes much beyond winning, and you can`t equate caring with winning and losing. You can`t equate their winning with their caring. That`s why I say that winning is not that important now.”
”But it`s not like, `We won two games. Hank would be happy.` It`s not like that at all,” says Knight. ”He was a perfectionist. He was never satisfied. I start every game now sad and angry. It helps me remember why I`m playing so hard. A friend is gone, and if we can win (the title), everyone will remember Hank. We`ll be the Loyola team sparked by Hank.”
”But it is fair to wonder how long they can maintain this emotional level,” concludes Westhead. ”I think, in this case, the feelings will stay this high long after the last game. This is deeper than `We lost a tough game in the conference tourney and now we`re going to show everyone in the NCAAs.` That stuff stays about 10 minutes.
”This emotion, this will stay with the players many months, maybe longer. They have their own kind of spirit now, and that`s what`s sustaining them.”