Profile Of Lottery Pick Wally Szczerbiak

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Szczerbiak takes stardom in stride

By Sean Keeler, Post staff reporter

OXFORD, Ohio - The World was busted. A parking cop was in mid-scribble,
moving slowly behind the black Chrysler Sebring. His head was cocked to the
side, once right, to the expired meter, then left to double-check the
plates.

Wally Szczerbiak turned the corner off of High Street just in time. When he
saw the man behind his car, he moved from a brisk walk to tepid jog,
sandals clomping on the pavement.

The cop heard the clomping and looked up. Wally got to within 10 yards
before he was recognized, and when he was, the scribbling stopped.

The cop's eyes said: Oh, it's you. You, You. Wally waved. The cop nodded,
clicking the pen shut.

''Hey, thanks,'' Szczerbiak said. The cop smiled, nodded again, and moved
up the street. No ticket. No big whoop.

It is hard not to recognize Szczerbiak, the All-American forward for the
Miami University Red- Hawks, in Oxford, whose core of cobblestone and maple
leaves make it a ringer for the 1950s sitcom city in the movie
''Pleasantville.''

With his short black hair, Hollywood smile and a shot that rarely misses,
Szczerbiak could very well have played the lead in the film. Miami's campus
is 56 percent female, many of whom find the 6-foot-8 star, to paraphrase
Marcia Brady, positively dreamy.

''You can't walk around campus without people staring at him,'' said Miami
junior Joe Ceccoli, of Sandusky, one of the RedHawks' student managers.
''And I'm not sure how I'd feel about people looking at me all the time
when I walk around.''

Dubbed ''Wally World,'' (or ''World'') by coach Charlie Coles for the theme
park in ''National Lampoon's Vacation,'' Szczerbiak seems to have the whole
of it in the palm of his hands.

He was everybody's preseason All-American. Finalist for the Naismith
College Player of the Year Award. Star of the U.S. Goodwill Games team,
which he led to the gold medal last summer. The World passes, dunks,
shoots, defends and hustles like a Billy Packer instructional video,
leaving NBA scouts gushing like Miami co-eds. Szczerbiak is averaging 22.5
points and 7.5 rebounds in six games for the Red- Hawks (4-2).

''Everyone's saying, 'You're going to be a lottery pick.' But you've still
got to get better every day,'' Szczerbiak said. ''I just want to keep a
real level head about it.''

It's getting tough to do.

On the way to a game against Boston University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a
few weeks back, Szczerbiak looked out the window of the team bus to see his
mug plastered on a billboard as the star attraction, Leonardo DiCaprio with
a jump shot.

''After the game, 80 percent of the autograph-seekers were female, young
girls,'' said Mike Wolf, Miami's sports information director. ''I turned to
one of my assistants and asked, 'Is he a ballplayer or a rock star?' ''

Few doubt the World's a player.

Szczerbiak was the leading scorer on the 1998 Goodwill Games team,
averaging 17.2 points per game and hitting 50 percent of his threes.

Szczerbiak became a household name few could spell.

''I think (being in New York) helped,'' said Szczerbiak, who grew up a
Knicks fan in nearby Cold Harbor Spring, N.Y.

Now he has autograph requests from Italy. Interview requests from here to
Halifax.

Touted as college basketball's greatest secret in profiles by the Sporting
News, Sports Illustrated and SLAM magazines, Szczerbiak's story was
plastered from coast to coast: Born in Madrid, Spain; son of a former
George Washington University star and a Spanish Basketball Federation
sensation (Walt Szczerbiak is now a U.S. scout for the SBF); tutored on
fundamentals by his father and flamboyance by New York AAU competition;
passed over by the ''major'' powers in college hoops, who saw him as just
another skinny jump-shooter.

The powers were way off.

With World at the fore, Miami reached the top 25 for the first

time since 1978. And he has shown no ill effects from a broken wrist that
sidelined him for eight games last year.

''He overcomes,'' Coles said. ''It hasn't all been successful for him. It
hasn't been handed to him at all.

''I remember this summer, before the Goodwill Games, he was down in the
weight room, every day, working hard.''

World needed the strength. Szczerbiak averages almost 36 minutes per game
on an injury-depleted Miami team.

Against Xavier University on Dec. 2, he jumped center, ran a few fast
breaks, hit a pair of threes and even took some turns against XU guard Gary
Lumpkin.

He gets the ball in bunches but is not labeled a hog. Said senior guard
Damon Frierson, Miami's No. 2 scorer, ''He's not big-headed.''

World reminds some of Dan Majerle or Larry Bird. XU fans at the Cincinnati
Gardens hoisted signs comparing him to a less notable power forward -
Duke's Danny Ferry, an NBA bust.

''That brought a little chuckle to me,'' said Szczerbiak, who had 24 points
against the Musketeers in a 64-56 loss. ''I'm a little bit stronger than
Danny Ferry is (Szczerbiak bench-presses 365 pounds, according to the Miami
media guide).

''I love it when people write that stuff. I feed off of that. I might not
look like the kind of kid who does - I don't have tattoos or a crazy hairdo
- but at the same time, I'm fiery inside.''

The World's world is cool by comparison. ''Simple,'' he calls it. School
(he's a marketing major who'll graduate in May), the team, girlfriend
Shannon Ward, his pals, family, sleep (9-10 hours daily).

The order varies.

Most of the time on the road is spent playing euchre on the bus with
teammate Mike Ensminger, Ceccoli and others, and Nintendo 64 in hotels.

If there is a bend to the exotic, it is Monday nights and pro wrestling on
TV.

''I'd love to do WCW, like Karl Malone,'' he said. ''(Shannon) could be my
manager.''

That's about it.

''I'm not the type of guy who needs to go out on Saturday night and be seen
by everyone on campus,'' he said, ''to have them say, 'Oooooh, that's
Wally, that's Wally.' It doesn't really do anything for you.''

Szczerbiak crossed High Street and went into a deli. The cook behind the
counter turned around to take the World's order and looked up. And up.

He smiled. Oh, it's you. You, you. His eyes said it all.

                        Publication date: 12-08-98


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