Out of the Darkness
Duquesne, Everhart Hope to Triumph Over Tragedy
By Ray Mernagh

Ron Everhart's seven predecessors at Duquesne were pink-slipped. Not one, in almost 30 years, has moved on to a bigger job or retired. Every one got-as Dick Vitale would say-the Ziggy!

So Everhart came in to the job with eyes wide open. He received support from the administration in the forms of both salary and facility upgrades. Finally, a coach at Duquesne was going to have a real shot at turning a program around that hadn't been ranked nationally since 1972.

This time it seemed, maybe Duquesne got it right. Maybe hiring Everhart, with deep ties to talent hotbeds in both the AAU and Prep School ranks, was like hitting the jackpot. He'd already done the rebuilding thing at McNeese State and Northeastern, not to mention assisting Perry Clark in restarting a Tulane program that had been disbanded from 1985-1989. Clark, with the help of Everhart's recruiting, had Tulane back in the NCAA tournament in the 1991-92 and 1992-93 seasons.

Everhart took immediate steps to change the culture of losing that surrounded the Dukes program. He started by making it clear to those returning how hard they would be asked to work should they return.

Only two, Aaron Jackson and Kieron Achara, decided to stay and buy in as Everhart brought in 10 new faces to join them. Two of the new faces, Sam Ashaolu and Stuard Baldonado, were JC transfers expected to lead their teammates until transfers Shawn James and Kojo Mensah became eligible the following year. The two power forwards were going to step in and provide the toughness that an Everhart-coached team relies on right away.

Expectations were spiked when some recruiting analysts hyped-up Duquesne's class. The fact that there even were expectations for the program could be seen as progress. Everhart would in the end be judged, like any coach, on his progress in winning games. Winning is, after all, the ultimate sign of progress for a rebuilding program.

Then, on the night of September 17, a dozen shots rang out on the Bluff and everything changed. Five Duke players were shot as they walked on campus after a dance. Everhart's phone rang at an hour when only bad news motivates such a call. Suddenly, the Duquesne players and staff found themselves in a situation unprecedented in college basketball history. Ashaolu (head) and Baldonado (back and left arm) were critical, while Mensah (arm and shoulder) and James (foot) were released shortly afterwards. Returning point guard Aaron Jackson was grazed on the wrist.

One thing became clear as the days passed, as Baldonado's condition was upgraded and Ashaolu fought for his life: Everhart was a great hire. Before September 17 there wasn't a handbook on how to handle such a situation. Now there is, because Everhart created it. Not only did he handle the obvious tasks of visiting Ashaolu and Baldonado several times each day, he also made sure his other players were being taken care of emotionally after having gone through such a traumatic event. Several players needed assistance in dealing with A) what they saw that evening or B) what didn't happen to them but to their teammates. Everhart admits that he loses sleep thinking about the families of the players. What happened at Duquesne is a coach's worst nightmare: having something terrible happen to a kid whose well-being has been entrusted to you by his parents.

He worries that his own twins at home have been deprived of valuable time with him because so much of his focus has been on his other kids since the shootings.

Fast forward now to a cold night in late-October. The Duquesne basketball team is going through a three-hour practice that started at 9pm. They work on all phases of the game as Everhart directs them with assistance from assistant coach Richard Pitino. If one thing stands out it's the lack of size on the floor.

There's 5'9 Lucas Newton knocking down a jump shot in a half court drill. Newton is a preferred walk-on-one of three on the Duke's roster-from Florida. Freshman Stephen "Stix" Wood, from Brooklyn, shows flashes of scoring potential mixed with first-year mistakes. 6'6 Scott Grote, a freshman from Ohio, looks like the biggest Duke on the floor - because he is. 6'10 Kieron Achara walks in late from a class and immediately wraps an ankle in ice on the trainer's table. 6'9 Almamy Thiero is nursing a knee that recently required some surgery and isn't quite ready to play yet.

Jose Juan Barea is watching practice with former Northeastern teammate Shawn James - who's scheduled to have the bullet removed from his foot soon. Barea has a decent shot of making the Dallas Mavericks and is in town because the Mavs are playing the Cavs in Pittsburgh tomorrow night. Kojo Mensah, the talented point guard from Siena, is also sitting out his transfer year. He too is rehabilitating from gunshot wounds to his shoulder and left arm. The scene inside the Palumbo Center looks more like a MASH Unit than a basketball practice. Baldonado walks by after getting a massage that elicited a series of painful grimaces.

"Nice of you to make it to practice," says Everhart to the quiet Baldonado as he walks by to sit down after getting his back worked on. The skinny Baldonado gives his coach a huge grin, happy to be the subject of some good-natured ribbing. I ask Everhart about Sam Ashaolu: "Sam's doing better everyday," says Everhart, "the medical people are amazed with the speed in which he's done some things."

Ashaolu still has bullet fragments in three areas of his head, but he's made serious strides at the brain rehabilitation unit of Mercy Hospital. He works daily on improving his mobility, memory, and motor skills. He even stunned the team with an unannounced visit to practice late last month.

What about the team? "We have a long way to go," says Everhart, "but we just have to concentrate on getting better every single day."

Just then a ball bounces on the other side of the gym, the sound echoing throughout the Palumbo Center. Stuard Baldonado is shooting jump shots at the far basket. The young man who left the hospital in a wheelchair is now regaining strength with each passing day.

Maybe winning isn't the ultimate progress after all.

Ray Mernagh's book on Mid-Major basketball: 1Chance 2 Dance: A Season Inside Mid-Major Hoops in Mid-America will be available by November 1 at www.hoopwise.com from HoopWise Publishing LLC. Mernagh is the Basketball Editor for PSR and also writes for Basketball Times. He can be reached at MernaghR @ aol.com.