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Hurts so good: pining for NCAAs

Adrian Crawford is healthy and eager to play in the post-season.

By BRIAN LANDMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 17, 2000

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State sharpshooting senior guard Adrian Crawford is aching and, for a change, it has absolutely nothing to do with his troublesome knees.

It's about an intense, relentless longing to make one last run at the NCAA Tournament.

"I want to get back so bad, so bad," said Crawford, who played in the NCAA Tournament as a freshman at Tulsa and then, forced to sit out as a transfer, was a spectator in 1998 as his new FSU teammates reached the second round. "It's not even something you can explain. There's something in the air when you're in the tournament. I miss being there."

Crawford, named a tri-captain along with point guard Delvon Arrington and forward Antwuan Dixon, is simply thrilled to be back on the court.

The Seminoles are thrilled he is, too. Besides his three-point shooting, Crawford has the ability and versatility to play either guard spot as well as small forward and, most importantly, brings a wealth of experience to a young team. He and Arrington are the lone seniors.

"Just watching him over the last three or four days in practice, I've seen him take more responsibility, pointing guys where to go, what to do," coach Steve Robinson said recently.

"Adrian being back is going to be big-time," Arrington said. "We need people like him to help lead us to where we're trying to go to, that's a team that's winning consistently."

That's something FSU couldn't do a year ago. But it didn't have a healthy Crawford.

Crawford, 6 feet 5 and 205 pounds, had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee shortly before fall practice began. He struggled to regain his conditioning.

"It was extremely difficult; we were trying different things and nothing seemed to work," said his father Coleman, Robinson's top assistant who followed him from Tulsa. "There was nothing in the equation for rest and rehabilitation."

Crawford valiantly tried to play, but it became painfully evident he couldn't push off, a death knell for a jump shooter. He made 13 of 81 three-pointers (27.1 percent) and averaged 5.3 points. As a redshirt sophomore the season before, he had made 64 of 161 (39.8 percent) from that range and averaged 10.6 points.

He missed the final 10 games.

"He was the guy coming into the season we could ill afford to lose," Robinson said. "His loss was like two people and actually maybe more than that because of his basketball savvy.

"His sophomore year, you put him and Terrell Baker on the floor and we had a basketball team that could make a lot of basketball plays and did make a lot of plays. I don't think we had that last year. We had to make shots. When it came down to guys making an instinctive basketball play, we didn't have that."

But then Crawford, 22, like so many other sons of a coach, grew up with the game. He was 9 months old when his father became a head coach for the first time. So, as far back as he can remember, he always was watching, listening and evaluating.

For the second time in three years, Adrian, much to his chagrin, had to assume a spot on the bench. Still, he tried to turn the bad experience into a positive.

"If this injury had happened early in his career, I think he would have struggled to get through it," his father said. "But the maturing process and his faith has helped him realize that things happen and you have to try to overcome them."

Leaning heavily on his religious convictions and close friends such as former FSU football star Peter Boulware and his roommate, Arrington, he kept an upbeat attitude.

"Right now, I don't let stuff bother me," he said. "Beforehand, if I made a bad play, I'd beat myself up about it. Now, I understand that another play's going to happen and I'm just really fortunate and blessed to be out there playing. I found out how quickly it can be taken from you. ... I'm out there and I'm having minimal pain. It's just a miraculous difference from where it was last year."

He hopes FSU's fortunes will be too.

He aches for that.

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