Reece Gaines Cardinals' cornerstone Without his drive to succeed, where would this program be? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Eric Crawford ecrawford@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal Reece Gaines has spanned the Denny Crum and Rick Pitino eras at U of L, helping maintain the pride in a program that was teetering on the brink of ineptitude. PHOTOS BY BILL LUSTER When the University of Louisville basketball program was struggling near the end of the Denny Crum era, when it looked as if things might get much worse before they got any better, the only thing that stood between Cardinals basketball and rock bottom was Reece Gaines. If you're looking for a legacy for the 6-foot-6 senior from Madison, Wis., that isn't a bad one. He has endured the most tumultuous four-year period in the history of U of L's proud program, while helping to maintain the pride. After Crum retired following a 1219 season in 2000-01, Gaines wasn't sure he would come back for his junior year. When Rick Pitino came on board as coach, Gaines did come back, and that largely is the reason U of L is headed back to the NCAA Tournament after a brief stay in obscurity. Without Gaines, Pitino said, that stay could have been far longer. ''Reece Gaines stopped the rebuilding process cold,'' he said. Gaines was the only true freshman on a team of veterans when he came to U of L; one year later he was one of the most experienced players and a leader on a team dominated by newcomers. ''When I got here, they hadn't been winning a whole lot,'' junior forward Luke Whitehead said. ''But you could look at Reece and tell: This guy's a winner.'' It has been only as a senior that Gaines has begun to get national attention -- a feature in Sports Illustrated, national Player of the Year hype. The U of L record book, however, illustrates his long-haul contribution. He has started 118 games. Six players in U of L history have started or played in more games, but Gaines hasn't benefited from a single NCAA Tournament run. He'll finish as U of L's No. 4 alltime scorer behind Darrell Griffith, DeJuan Wheat and Pervis Ellison. He also will rank in the top five in threepoint field goals, assists, free throws made and steals. He will be the only player to crack the top five of all five lists. In fact, no other U of L player is on more than three of them. But Gaines' contribution goes much deeper than that. With Gaines, the operative word is drive. The most enduring image of Gaines was repeated over and over the past two seasons: Ball bouncing, legs pumping, arms flapping, Gaines dashes for the lane on the dribble, ducking in like the last guy sprinting onto an elevator. Inside the free-throw lane is where Gaines does much of his best work. ''Once he gets there, if you're the other team, there's about 10 things he can do to you, and they're all bad,'' freshman Taquan Dean said. He can pull up, **** the ball behind his right ear and turn loose a crooked-looking jumper that has gotten better in each of his four seasons. This year, he made 54.7 percent of his two-point tries. Or he can slash through the lane, drawing defenders before rifling the ball to an open three-point shooter. If you move over to help stop him, he can find the open post player. If you don't, he's at the rim. If you foul him, his career free-throw percentage is .757. So how do you keep him out of that magic area? ''You can't,'' Dean said. ''I don't know how he does it, but he gets there no matter what.'' It's that kind of drive that immediately impressed Pitino. ''He is one of the fiercest competitors I've ever coached,'' Pitino said. ''I've never been around anyone who, just in a one-on-one drill, still wants to win badly. Very few players are like that, with that competitive nature. You wish every player has it, and he has it.'' Clyde Gaines said his son always has been competitive, but he said there's a new element in Reece's will to win. As a teenager, Gaines might have shed some tears after a loss ''But, really, it was pretty impassionate,'' Clyde Gaines said. ''There was a little bit of the feeling that 'as long as I play well, I'll be satisfied,' '' he said. That changed during the 12-19 season. The next season, Gaines was overcome by emotion after several losses. ''He was out of it,'' Clyde Gaines said. ''He was in a different place, somewhere I'd never seen him before.'' Clyde Gaines didn't realize how deeply his son had come to detest defeat until a phone call this season while the Cards were in the midst of their longest winning streak since their 1985-86 NCAA championship season. ''Everybody was asking them why they were playing so well when they'd won 17 in a row,'' the elder Gaines said. ''He told me, 'Dad, we'd rather die than lose.' '' Little-known fact about the player whose drive to succeed has helped rebuild the U of L program: He doesn't have a car. ''It would just be a distraction,'' Reece Gaines said. ''I don't need it.'' Over the past couple of summers he had a car on campus to get around town. ''But when school starts and basketball starts,'' said his mother, Carola Gaines, ''he calls up and says, 'Come get it.' And we do.'' Under Pitino's guidance, Gaines has paired drive with organization. ''He's managing his life,'' Carola Gaines said. ''He talks more and more about how he's using his time and trying to discipline himself.'' There have been other changes, the biggest being this: Gaines has gone from being a self-centered youth to someone who understands the importance of working with others -- on and off the court. ''Reece has always been a strongminded, determined, kind-hearted person,'' Carola Gaines said. ''But as he has matured he has shown a side that is really willing to help others and acknowledge others, which has surprised me.'' As a freshman, Gaines often found himself shouldering the blame from older players when things didn't go well. Although he isn't hesitant to get on teammates, he said he has gone out of his way to make sure none of the team's young players felt the blame he felt as a freshman. On the court, Gaines has spent his career in two worlds. In one, he is the scorer, expected to carry the offensive load for his team. In the other, he is the playmaker, expected to make the offense go and keep his teammates involved. Last season he became the first player since Griffith to average more than 20 points per game. His role was clear -- do everything. He came into this season ranked as one of the top shooting guards in the nation. But in a career full of changes, it figured he'd undergo one more major change. After five games, Pitino moved him back to point guard, where he had spent the first two seasons. ''When you really think about it, it's a tough mental adjustment to make,'' Gaines said. ''I think it was even tougher than I realized.'' The transformation rarely has been graceful. With Gaines, there is but one speed on the court -- mad dash, and sometimes he sails past the mark because he's trying to reach it so quickly. Even now, Gaines at times finds himself between the point guard's and shooter's mentalities. At times, Pitino has been critical of Gaines for allowing his scoring to dictate the rest of his game. But he's still the player the team looks to when it needs someone to take over, and he's drawn criticism for trying to do that at times. ''I'm still learning how to balance things,'' he said. ''You just have to have a feel for your teammates.'' Gaines always has had the talent. Only lately has he developed that ''feel'' for teammates and others. Clyde Gaines remarked on it after a recent trip to a Louisville shopping mall. For U of L basketball players, if time is precious, free time is priceless. Gaines had a brief furlough to spend time with family members who had come to town. ''We're there, but you can tell he's tired,'' Clyde Gaines said. ''And we're walking through there, and all of a sudden he gets mobbed. There's 20 people around him, then 30, and he starts signing, and he's smiling at people and talking to them. ''And I stood back and watched, because I knew he didn't feel like doing that, and maybe two years ago he wouldn't have. But he stood there for a long time -- and people kept coming, I don't know for how long -- and signed something for every person that came. He didn't have a lot of time, but he gave it all away right there.'' Three years ago, Gaines played in his only NCAA Tournament game, a first-round loss to Gonzaga. He didn't think too much about it at the time, figuring he'd have plenty of chances to make his mark in the Big Dance. But next week's NCAA first-round game -- wherever it is -- will be his second and last chance. And this time, he's going to savor it. ''It was really important to me that we get back to the tournament this year,'' Gaines said. ''I know coach Pitino is going to have this program back at a national-championship level, but it was a big thing for me to leave this program strong. ''I've been through a lot in four years, and these fans have been through a lot. A lot of things have gone wrong, but I'll feel good knowing that before I left, we got the program back where it is supposed to be.'' Don't be suprised if this guy is our point guard!!!!!
