NEWS FROM THE THREE FRESHMEN

Article by Bob Iacopi

Photography by Don Anderson

They may not yet be as famous as The Three Tenors or The Four Freshmen, but Stanford's Three Freshmen are already starting to make some sweet music of their own on the basketball court. Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, Morgan Clyburn and Jillian Harmon all came to Stanford with very impressive credentials. But all the honors were earned while they were playing at the high school level, and now they are playing big-time college basketball with a team that ranks high in the pre-season polls and expects to contend for a national championship. Here's the big question: Can The Three Freshmen adapt their skills to a higher level of play, and make some contributions during the 2005-2006 season?

All three were on the Stanford campus this summer, along with the three freshmen on the men's basketball team. They took a couple of classes, worked out to improve their strength, and played pick-up basketball to get familiar with the Stanford system and players.

If you think summer school is a walk in the park, consider the selection of subjects. All of them took the same class in Human Physiology, and then each selected a different second class. Morgan took Computer Science, Jillian took a class in Social and Cultural Anthropology (along with Kristen Newlin), and Rosalyn a Management Science and Engineering class. Talk about student-athletes!

All agree enthusiastically that this summer experience paid off handsomely, because they had a head start when official practices started at the beginning of the school year on September 26 (more details below).

The team had a day off from practice on Tuesday of this week, so we had a chance to sit them down in street clothes and talk about their lives on and off the court. As you'd expect of Stanford basketball players, these three are intelligent, articulate, and very personable. But more than that, even a brief conversation about basketball shows quickly that they also understand the game, know their own strengths and weaknesses, and are very anxious to get on the floor in a Stanford uniform. Here are some notable quotes.

Rosalyn Gold-Onwude

To start with, I asked Roz about her personal background. "I'm a city girl, start to finish. I was born in Queens, New York and always lived right in the heart of town up until the time I came to Stanford. My mom lives in an apartment right across from a highway and I saw a lot of asphalt in my early life.

"My mother, Patricia Gold, is Polish. She was born in New York, after her parents immigrated to this country from Eastern Europe along with other Jewish families before World War II to escape the Nazis. My father, Austin Onwude, is Nigerian and is Catholic. So I'm right in the middle there.

"I went to public elementary school, and then to Archbishop Molloy High School, because in New York City, the Catholic schools have the best basketball league. And Archbishop Molloy was a very good school.

"I would never have to come to Stanford, if it had not been for my official visit. I was not entirely comfortable with my impression of California and Stanford before I came out here. But when we came in from the airport and drove up to the campus on Palm Drive, my jaw dropped. I'd never seen anyplace like this, and I knew right away that Stanford was something special. What a difference from my home town! There's some culture shock involved, but it didn't take me long to get comfortable with the place and the people."

I asked why Rosalyn took a Science Management class during the summer. "Well basically, I came here with interests in both medicine and business, and I got a taste of both in this class."

Speaking of medicine, I asked Rosalyn to give the real story about her high school injury, which had been reported in the media to be so serious that she might have to sit our her freshman year at Stanford.

"The injury happened on December 15, 2004. That was the last time I was on a basketball floor until September, 2005. I missed my entire senior season at high school, and could not even run very hard for about eight months.

"Basically, I tore my miniscus (a cartilage pad between the thigh and the tibia bones) in my leg. That would normally mean a three-month rehab, but I also damaged my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the same leg. I didn't tear it exactly, but I did some damage to the fibers. The ACL is still there. The doctors couldn't agree on how serious all this was to my basketball future. I heard so many different things. I went to one doctor, and he told me that I had just sprained my knee and would be back on the court in two weeks. A second doctor told me that I had completely torn my ACL, and my basketball career might be over. A third doctor said it was just a partial tear.

"Finally, we contacted the surgeon with the New York Nets basketball team. He went in with an arthroscopic camera, thinking he was going to do a full ACL reconstruction. I didn't like the sound of that, so I asked him to look very carefully before doing any cutting. On closer inspection, he determined that the ligament was still 90 percent there, and told me that a graft or replacement might not be better than what I had right then.

"So he left my ACL alone and cut out 20 per cent of my miniscus. Then I started right away on rehab for both the miniscus and the minor ACL damage, without major reconstruction.

"Right now, I am playing on an ACL that is about 90 per cent effective. I did rehab all spring at home at a professional therapy facility, and then when I came to Stanford in the summer, I started putting in extra work with the conditioning coach.

Roz makes no bones about the value of her summer experience. "Coming out here helped a lot, even though I resisted the idea at first. After all, the summer after high school is your last big vacation time. So I didn't know whether I wanted go to summer school and play basketball. But the coaches kept telling me that Jillian and Morgan were going to do it, and maybe I should consider joining them.

"And really, if I hadn't come, I would be so far behind everyone else, I might not catch up all season. The coaches might have asked for my scholarship back," she adds jokingly. "I would have had no idea about the school, the team, the practice routines, the conditioning. It would have been a disaster.

"At the start of the summer program, I didn't jump in with both feet. While the other players were doing full workouts, I was doing modified workouts. While they were running a mile, I was running a lap. But finally, I got up to speed, and when September 26 came around, I was ready to go.

I mentioned to Roz that I thought she was playing very effective defense in the full-court scrimmages. She laughed. "Yes, I am working really hard on my defense. I really get excited about it. And let me tell you, that is something entirely new for me. In high school, it was 'Give me the ball.' It was all offense. But things are a lot different here. It's not easy to put up big scoring numbers, and I have to find other ways to motivate myself. When I'm fresh, I can play good defense. What I have to work on is maintaining my intensity when I'm tired.

"On offense, I'm most comfortable as a point guard. I like the ball in my hands. I played a lot of shooting guard when I was younger, and I could score. But now I really feel good if I can set up someone else for a shot."

So what does she expect to do in her first games at Stanford? "I want to be a leader. I want to be strong for the team, and get things started. Coach told me to just take care of the ball, and get everybody going. No turnovers!"

Rosalyn echoed Jillian Harmon's opinion on Clare Bodensteiner (see below). "She is so vocal, and so positive, and so encouraging. There would be a lot of times in practice when I didn't know what I was doing, and Clare was right there, helping me and telling me I'd get it right the next time.

"Candice of course is another leader. We all want to follow Candice. And you know who else is really inspirational? Markesha Coleman. She's small, but she is very quick. Sometimes I can get a big passive with my moves, but not Markesha. When she drives, she gets to the paint and gets off her shot, regardless of what is going on around her. She makes me want to get to the hoop every time. I'm 5'10", which makes me big enough to shoot over smaller guards or take the ball on a drive. I just have to finish with a good shot.

"All of the juniors and seniors are so supportive. We're competing for playing time, but they want you to play well. If you mess up, they'll help you figure out how to make it work the next time."

Jillian Harmon

"I was born in New York, but moved to Lake Oswego, Oregon, when I was six years old, and stayed there right up through high school. I was always interested in basketball, right from the get-go. No one else in my family ever played the sport, but I've always loved it. I can remember playing in a Lake Oswego rec league when I was in the third grade. Actually, there are two high schools in Lake Oswego. Former Stanford player Katy Steding played at Lake Oswego High School, and Chandra Benton played at Lakeridge, so our area has a long history with Stanford.

"One of the reasons I really liked Stanford is because I used to go to Katy's camps when I was a kid.

"I played four sports in high school. I ran cross country for two years, ran track for a year and played tennis for two years."

Like Roz, Jillian really values the time she spent on campus during the summer. "The coaches couldn't be in the gym with us, but the trainer was always available. We worked out at 6:30 in the morning, went to class, and then came back to play pick-up basketball four nights a week. Other players from San Francisco and Santa Clara would come in, and some of the guys would join us.

"The conditioning work was no joke. We lifted weights four times a week, and did a lot of running on the track. Everyone on the team who was not injured did the same kind of running. We had to do the famous one-mile team run, and I finished first with a time of 6:08. But Cissy Pierce and Candice Wiggins didn't run it, or I probably wouldn't have won it, because Candice broke six minutes last year.

"Actually, we all ran a mile four or five times during the summer, and we each had individual times that we had to beat in the official run. If we didn't, we had to run it again.

"I'm so glad we had a chance to work together during the summer. It made the transition so much smoother. We got to know the team, we got accustomed to Maples Pavilion and the campus, and really started university life right then, rather than waiting until September."

A lot of observers feel that Jill is good enough to start on a lot of college teams, maybe even this one. So what does she expect to do the first time the coaches call her name? "I'm going to be aggressive, right off the bat. I don't want to come and be timid. I know the coaches expect me to be aggressive from the first minute. I think I play confidently, and I can go out and defend well on the perimeter. And I definitely want to take the ball to the basket. My main offensive strength is slashing and driving to the basket. If I have to improve anything on offense, it's my perimeter game.

A favorite shot? "The jumper, face up or turn around. But I'm 6'1" and a 3 (shooting forward), so I have to develop both the jump shot and the drive."

When I asked Jill if she is a good rebounder, she hemmed and hawed modestly, but both Morgan and Rosalyn nodded enthusiastically. So she finally admitted, "Yeah, I go to the boards hard, and that's something the coaches want me to do and expect me to do, especially on the offensive end."

Where do you look for leadership on the floor? "Definitely, Clare Bodensteiner. I've never seen anyone who loves basketball so much. She works so hard every time she is on the floor. I've never seen Clare ease up for even a single play."

Morgan Clyburn

Morgan was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "My first basketball experience with a real team was in the fifth grade, when my dad was the coach of an Upper St. Clair elementary school traveling team. We had try-outs and everything. It was sort of like a downscaled version of AAU basketball, and I traveled with the team and played some. But I really started playing basketball seriously after I moved to Texas.

I asked Morgan if she was tall at an early age. She laughed, "Oh yes, I was always bigger than everybody else, even with the elementary school team."

So how tall are you now, officially and for the record. "I'm 6'4", and I'm pretty sure I am through growing.

"After we moved to Texas, we lived in Woodlands and actually, I should have gone to Woodlands High School. But instead, I was accepted at a "magnet school," Oak Ridge High, where I was enrolled in an advanced wing of the school called The Academy of Science and Technology. I took special courses in math and science there, and went to the other regular high school courses and played basketball at Oak Ridge. I had extra requirements at the Academy, but I graduated from both schools. There were 465 in my graduating class, so it was a pretty big high school.

"In high school, I was strictly a basketball player. I tried volleyball in the eighth grade, but it didn't work out too well."

"It was great to be able to take classes here during the summer, and meet all the players before official practice started. Everyone was so helpful, including the players on the men's team. We worked out, went to class, played basketball, so we got used to what our regular routine would be like after school officially started."

After her time on campus, Morgan went home to Texas for about a month. "But when I got there in late August, all of my friends were away at college already. I was really bored, so I went and got a job, selling tickets at the local movie theater, until I could return to Stanford for orientation and the start of classes."

What does Morgan hope to bring to the team during her first minutes on the floor? "I don't want to hurt the team when I get in there. I really want to do my job on defense, and if I could shoot a little bit, that would be nice.

I noted that the coaches had been working with Morgan on her footwork and basic moves. Is she comfortable with that? "Oh yeah! Remember that everything is just different here. I mean, I started doing stuff when I was little, and no one really worked with me to improve. I was taller than everyone else, and I could take whatever shots I wanted. But now, I have to pick up little differences here and there that will help out when I'm up against these bigger defenders."

What's your favorite position? "I like to play the 4 (power forward), and that's where I expect to play the first time I go on the floor. I've been learning both the center and forward positions, but forward is my best spot. Hopefully, Brooke Smith and I will be on the floor at the same time, and that will be great. She is such a leader and inspiration to us. She has accomplished so much. I have to guard her a lot in practice, and I must admit, I'm tired of that hook shot going in over my head. I've really learned to respect her."

Are you comfortable with your back to the basket? "Well, yes. I play more of a finesse game, so I have to adjust my moves so I can get some shots off against really strong defensive players. I'm not ambidextrous, but I can go to my left off a drop step. But I like to face up a lot, too.

"My free throw shooting is OK. I know that's a big thing here. We all have to shoot free throws well if we expect to win consistently. My dad is from southern Indiana, which is basketball Heaven, and for a long time, he had me shoot 100 free throws every day. Even with the elementary school team, my Dad was very big on free throws. Most coaches preach the same gospel. It's just been drilled in my head for so long.

Ready for a surprise? Morgan, what's your favorite shot? "The three" she answered, without batting an eye.

Are you a shot blocker? "I try. I hold all the records at my high school. I once blocked about 20 in a single game. But remember, I played against a lot of shorter girls, and sometimes, they just insisted on trying to shoot over me. What could I do, except swat them down? I know it is a lot different at this level, but I hope to get a few blocks and disrupt a lot of shots"

At the end of the interview, I mentioned to Morgan that some of the other Pac-10 teams were starting to load up with some impressive new talent, especially USC and Cal. She just looked me in the eye and flashed that infectious smile. "Let them load up," she said, "I think Stanford will be ready for whatever they have to throw at us."

How's that for freshman confidence!