For 7-1 Woods, win was measure of the man

SHELTON E-mail: Click here Archive

By GARY SHELTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 1, 2001

MINNEAPOLIS -- The world does not ask much of men such as Loren Woods. Just be a giant. That's all.

Be Chamberlain.

Be Russell.

That's all it takes to make the critics happy. Measure up until you are unmeasurable. Every night you are the biggest, so every night, you have to be the best. Just that.

Be Abdul-Jabbar.

Be O'Neal.

Such is the blessing, and the curse, of being 7 feet 1. Few opponents are big enough. Few performances, too. Always, he could have done more. Always, he could have stood taller.

And so it is that there will be those yet who squawk about Saturday night's performance by Woods, the Arizona center and designated target. He had only 11 points, two in the second half. He had only eight rebounds, just one in the second half. He blocked only three shots. There were times he looked awkward. There were times he looked soft.

Dang him.

All Woods did, basically, was change the game.

In basketball, you don't always have to be great to be a difference-maker. That was true Saturday night, when Woods forced Michigan State away from what it does well -- bang the ball inside -- and into what it does poorly, which is play from the perimeter. That put the game into an area of the court the Wildcats dominated, and they won going away, 80-61.

To this point, Michigan State had been about as subtle as an elbow to the eye. The Spartans had rolled through the tournament by pushing the ball inside to where those defensive ends disguised as power forwards could muscle it through the defenders, and pity the soul who stood in the way.

Woods made that impossible. After all, he has five inches on the Spartans' Andre Hutson, who spent the first half rushing and altering his shots to keep them away from Woods' fingertips. Even worse, that forced the Spartans into a jump-shooting contest. For the first time in the tournament, the Spartans seemed to desperately miss Mateen Cleaves.

Such is the effect a player such as Woods can have on his team. When he is strong in the middle, his Wildcats turn into a force. The guards start speeding around, and the forwards take over the game, and you start wondering how the opponent is going to stop them instead of the other way around.

It all started with Woods, however, who has not been treated kindly for most of the season. If the glimpses of excellence -- the finish against Illinois, the start against Michigan State -- seem to make Arizona great, then Woods' funks in the regular season make them soft and self-doubting. There was the day Lute Olson kicked Woods out of practice, the game in which he had to be restrained from an official, the time he described his game as "a joke." Fans were divided into two groups: those who doubted his head, and those who doubted his heart. Even last week, the crowd was on him, taunting him with chants of "C-B-A, C-B-A."

Soft? He could have been a dessert topping. Soft? You would have thought the guy was the world's largest Beanie Baby. He was as mushy as toothpaste in an 85-inch tube, wasn't he? Push on him for a while, and he was going to turn into a small forward. Soft? You could make pillows out of the guy.

That was the theory, anyway. But in his past two games, against the rough, tough Big Ten teams, Woods has been feisty if not fantastic.

"He's doing what he has to do," teammate Eugene Edgerson said. "He's being aggressive. He's getting the job done. A lot of people don't give him any credit. But he can play on my team any time."

That sounds fine to Woods who, frankly, wasn't that impressed with his play against Michigan State.

"I had a decent first half, but I vanished in the second," he said. "But that's okay. I'll ride these guys all the way to the championship. I didn't prove anything to anyone tonight."

Well, maybe he did. There has been a difference to Woods lately, an edge. Even his teammates have noticed it.

This season, Edgerson visited Woods in his room and told him, flatly, that he was not measuring up. If the season was going to end properly, it was up to Woods to do something about it.

There are times that Woods is such a target that you have to feel for the kid. What was it Wilt Chamberlain used to say? That no one feels sorry for Goliath? It's odd, because the world will give you a break if you are a mere 6-11, but once you crack 7 feet, the critics come out.

"He's a 7-footer," Edgerson said. "People expect him to dunk over everyone every time he gets the ball. They expect him to get all the rebounds. But Shaq doesn't dunk over everyone all the time. He doesn't get all the rebounds.

"Look, Loren isn't the biggest, brawniest guy out there. But he's playing aggressive ball. He wasn't soft. He was banging with those guys. He's proving a lot of people wrong."

Someone suggests as much to Woods. He shrugs, mumbles how it doesn't matter what people think. He sits at his locker, his face passive. His team has just advanced to the national championship game, and he doesn't smile about it.

"We have 40 more minutes," he said. "I won't smile until we're cutting down the nets."

If it happens, it will be because of Woods.

Because he finally is big enough. Because he finally measures up.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright