THE line of Shaheen Holloway wannabes in Queens extended from Springfield Gardens to Flushing, and Erick Barkley was one of the kids taking a number. Holloway, the best point guard in the nation in the recruiting class, remembers the face, the name, not much about his game, which was indistinguishable from most of the others.
Two years age difference didn’t leave much reason for a rivalry, at least in Holloway’s eyes. Since eighth grade they had been glued to the NBA. Seton Hall coach George Blaney called the signing of Holloway, from Jamaica, via St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth, one of the happiest days of his life. NBA personnel men thought he might be a fringe lottery pick if he came out after a freshman year in which he averaged 17.3 point and 6.3 assists per game.
He decided to stay. And had reason to regret it. Blaney never was able to put the right complementing players around him. Holloway, accustomed to running at St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth, was stuck in a halfcourt offense. Blaney was fired and new coach Tommy Amaker wanted his point guard to pass first, shoot later, which hardly seemed unjustifiable when Holloway’s shots weren’t falling. Teams doubled teamed him through the lane to control the penetration, dared him to miss, which he did, often.
Holloway shot only .355 for his first three seasons, his assists dipped like his star, as did his enjoyment of the game, which became all work and no play. “Any time you’re playing for a school and you’re representing the school as well as yourself, that’s extra pressure right there,” said Holloway a year ago. “I’d say probably AAU ball is fun, summertime ball is fun, high school ball is fun. This is different.”
This was sad, is what it was, the most unfortunate manifestation of basketball being a business, of the college experience becoming a perverse means to an end, winding up as a dead end.
It’s hard to be a failure at age 21, but expectations are often way out of whack when players are identified as blue-chippers as early as eighth grade. Some peak early, some wind up in the wrong program, some face failure for the first time and shrink before it. And some get lost in the shuffle and some find themselves again, which brought the divergent paths of Holloway and Barkley together at the Meadowlands last night.
Holloway spent last summer working on his shot. It appears he has found one. He is nailing 47.8 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range, for the 11-3 Pirates. The best recruiting class in the school’s history is coming next year, one year too late for Holloway, but the program already seems on the upswing, not coincidentally along with Holloway’s game. Freshman Samuel Dalembert is making like Bill Russell and Seton Hall is playing like a team that can get to The Big Dance, which would be a big reward considering the only dance to this point of Holloway’s career has been over his professional aspirations.
Meanwhile, the little kid from Fort Green, Brooklyn, and Christ the King in Queens who looked up to Holloway now towers over him as a college star and professional prospect, an irony that Holloway says hasn’t made two hard years any harder or the chance for redemption last night any sweeter.
“You have to understand he’s in a great situation with a coach who gives him a lot of freedom,” said Holloway. “He came in and had a lot of success as a freshman. It can be tough to keep that up. I hope he can and so far he has and you have to give him credit for that.”
Come June, Barkley is scheduled to get more than credit. He’ll get millions as a high lottery pick. “I think I have the best point guard in the United States,” says Mike Jarvis, the St. John’s coach. Saturday, going against Khalid El-Amin and the NCAA champion Connecticut Huskies, Barkley had 16 points, five assists, five steals, nailed a huge 3-pointer as Connecticut worked a 13-point second half deficit down to two.
He is averaging 17.5 points, 4.2 assists per game and is first in the Big East in assist-to-turnover ratio. He has found the right coach, and program, but he’s making the coach look good and the program better, not to mention the other players on the floor, which is the prime requisite of the point guard.
“I’m pretty basic,” Barkley says. “I used to study [John] Stockton, who is good because he takes what the defense gives him and played defense, too. Don’t get me wrong, I can play fancy, too. But being fancy gets you nowhere. It just tires you out.”
St. John’s plays seven guys, who exhaust the opposition’s 10 guys with their relentless hustle and quickness. They jumped into the national ratings with the win at UConn and last night had to defend it against a team that is one win short of national recognition itself. So, was Seton Hall’s point guard, trying to save face against the once face-in-the crowd.