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Posted Dec. 13, 2007

Unpronounceable
but unstoppable

The common “un” phrase in sports is “untouchable”, and that’s a label given out to an athlete whose value to a team is of such great significance that there isn’t a circumstance by which you’d like to see that player depart.

Photo by Pat Coleman, D3sports.com Uche Ndibizu, left, and Jonathan Onyiriuka can make life difficult for all opponents, whether on the floor or at the scorer's table.

The No. 1 ranked Rochester men’s basketball team has its own version of “untouchable” players, though there is a better “un” to describe two of them. So we’ll dub the senior forward/center tandem of Uche Ndubizu and Jonathan Onyiriuka as “The Unpronouncables.”

“It’s like listening to them announce a Czechoslovakian train schedule,” said Rochester head coach Mike Neer, describing the butcherings he’s heard of those two names by opposing public address announcers and broadcasters.

Both Ndubizu and Onyiriuka are of Nigerian descent (Ndubizu is from New Jersey, Onyiriuka is from upstate New York), but the point is well made. For the record, the proper pronunciations are “OOO-chay  doo-BEE-zoo” and “Jonathan on-yah-ROOK-kah,” and while we’re playing it up for laughs in this venue, the two are all business when it comes to basketball, as the team’s second and third leading scorers. Ndubizu is averaging 14.0 points on 69 percent shooting from the field, and Onyiriuka is just behind him scoringwise at 13.3. Both have made a significant mark on the program, as members of Rochester’s Final Four team as freshmen, and they hope to close out their careers by getting back to Salem, Va.

“They’re bright, they’re quick, and they respond well to coaching,” Neer said.

Ndubizu actually goes by his middle name, though his given first name (Gordain, also his father’s name) is easier to say (like “Gordon”). He entered Rochester a bit out of shape, but now measures a comfortable 6-6, 245 pounds. Ndubizu played only 46 minutes as a freshman but had a talk with some players and coaches when the season ended, encouraging him to approach athletics with the same work ethic he brought to academics (Ndubizu, whose father is a professor at Drexel, wants to be a cardiologist and has hopes of going to medical school at Penn). Ndubizu took that advice to heart, losing 20 pounds over the summer.

“I remember people were asking me when we got back to school ‘Have you seen Uche?” Neer said. “He had the body of a marathon runner. He was every bit as strong, but now he could move better.”

That turned Ndubizu into a starter and eventually, a high-impact player. Ndubizu doesn’t shoot from afar, but establishes the position necessary to get 10 shots per game from in close, and what he takes, he makes.

“That talk lit a fire under me,” Ndubizu said. “When I got on the court, it was like I had a motor on me. I could just run, and run and run.”

Photo by Pat Coleman, D3sports.com Jonathan Onyiriuka and Mike Neer stand at opposite ends of the pronunciation scale.

He could keep up with Onriyiuka that way. Onyiriuka, a well-built 6-7, 230 pounds, was a high-impact player, pretty much from the get-go, who averaged 9.8 points and 7.2 rebounds, playing alongside All-American Seth Hauben as a freshman. He’s kept his scoring average pretty consistent since than at 12-13 points per game, though the one area in which he’s struggled is at the foul line. He also has high aspirations (one page promoting majors/minors at the school notes his as the eclectic mix of engineering, economics and English) both on and off the court.

“We can’t let this No. 1 ranking get to our heads,” Onyiriuka said, acknowledging he knows when the ratings are most important. “You want to be No. 1 at the end of the season. We’ve realized what we need to do.”

Both Onyiriuka and Ndubizu are captains this season, along with three other senior teammates (the much more easily spoken guards Jeff Juron and Rob Dominiak, and the dynamic duo’s frontcourt mate, Daniel Milbrand, whom both spoke of as being quite underrated).

“Jon is the captain in that he’s very vocal and emotional,” Ndubizu said. “I’m the captain in that I’m trying as hard as I can on every single play. When things go wrong, Jeff is our leader. Rob is the offensive captain. He can score from anywhere and he keeps things pretty relaxed. Dan is the captain who brings a different perspective.”

Onyiriuka and Ndubizu may stand out a bit more though, particularly to media members carefully spell-checking their stories or broadcasters trying to fight through the pronunciation guide.  These are two players whose names are well known in the UAA and East Region, even if they can’t be said or spelled properly. The most common mistake Ndubizu encounters is that people do a Charo impersonation and call him “Oochie.” Onyiriuka says his name has gotten said in many ways, and he laughs when they try to go through it slowly, one syllable at a time.

“Once you don’t let the name intimidate you, it’s easier,” Onyiriuka said.

Ndubizu noted that it’s harder to spell Onyiriuka’s name than to say it.

“I didn’t know how to spell it until fifth grade,” Onyiriuka said with a laugh. “I would take spelling tests and get most of the words right, but I’d get my name wrong.”

The unspellables, or whatever you wanna call them by this point, will add another to the mix next semester when junior guard Mike Chmielowiec (“shuh-MELL-low-wick”) returns from a broken hand. He was the leading scorer on last year’s team, the one whose season ended in crushing fashion when Plattsburgh State knocked Rochester from the NCAA Tournament with a 40-foot buzzer-beater.

“We’ve done alright without him, but we’re a better team with him,” Onyiriuka said.

Better and probably tougher too. Both for opponents to say and to play against.

‘KNEE’D to SUCCEED: Some talk on the message boards about knee injuries, and the recent injuries to Washington University’s Sean Wallis and Jaimie McFarlin piqued our interest in the subject, and this week, we decided to learn a little more about the rehab process related to a torn ACL (McFarlin’s injury).

For expertise, we drew upon a former Division III player who now helps in the rehab process. Sonya Comins is the head athletic trainer at Cortland State where she previously played and tore her ACL. We also talked to a pair of women’s basketball players at Calvin, Marcia Harris and Kristi Brummell, who shared their stories of rehab after suffering the injury just minutes apart at the end of last year’s MIAA title game.

The anterior cruciate ligament is the main stabilizer for the knee and when it’s torn, it usually needs to be surgically repaired. Surgery involves rebuilding the ligament, through different techniques. In some cases, the patella tendon may be grafted and made into the new ACL. Sometimes the replacement ligament comes from the hamstring tendons. In other instances, it may come from a cadaver.

“Doctors are a little bit more aggressive than have been in past,” Comins said. “Now the scars are a lot smaller. The athlete gets immobilized for less time. The rehab becomes a little more aggressive, stages are quicker, but they still protect the grafts. Rehab has changed to be more sport-specific at earlier time, while still protecting graft.”

The rehab process is still lengthy (anywhere from 4-12 months. Harris and Brummell were both back playing in games in nine months), the reason being that the new ligament needs time to heal and become strong. It has to be protected from being re-injured, so thus the like is immobilized. The initial work is on reducing swelling, getting motion back in the knee, and pain control. The goal is to get the player to walk without the limp, to be able to jog and do weight work. Than comes the functional work, which is sport-specific.

“The muscles are weak, because you can’t use the leg,” said Comins. “The muscle wastes away. So we have to build the muscle back to where it can fire again. We use an exercise bike, not just for motion, but so that we can get the quadriceps to fire.

Arduous would probably be the best word to describe the process.

“I was a little more driven this time because I knew what to expect. I knew it was going to be painful” said Brummell, who tore the ACL in her right knee. She had previously torn the ACL in her left knee in high school. “The first time it was a lot more mentally difficult, because I hadn’t done it before.”

“It hurt a lot,” said Harris, Calvin’s leading scorer, who knew what she had done as soon as she crumpled to the floor in agony against Hope, screaming ‘It’s my ACL! (She had also done damage to her meniscus, cartilage in the knee.)’ “You just have to get through it and think about getting back to playing.”

Some of the exercises are simple weightlifting to increase the size of the muscle, or riding an exercise bike to increase range of motion. Others are a little tougher. In one, you hold yourself up on your elbows along a treadmill, and walk backwards up an incline. Another involves stretching the leg as far as it can go, and then trying to stretch it even farther.

“That was just torture,” said Harris, who did that one regularly for four months. “You just have to bury your head and try not to let anyone see you cry.”

For an athlete to be allowed to return, they must get cleared by the surgeon, who checks to see that there is full range of motion in the knee, normal/near-normal muscle tone, and good strength, according to Comins, and there may be testing done on the knee to check. They also consider whether the athlete is mentally confident to return to playing.

There is a great feeling of satisfaction once the player is cleared to resume playing, but the full battle hasn’t completely been fought. Getting back on the court becomes a mental challenge.

There’s a feeling of broken trust between a player and his/her leg and regaining that trust takes time, particularly when the player still has to continue applying ice regularly after practice and games.

“A person may get cleared to play and not be 100 percent,” Comins said. “They say it’s usually 10 to 12 months before you’re 100 percent. When I had mine, it took a full year before I felt confident in my knee and didn’t think about it.

Harris is currently dealing with these issues, but doing so while averaging 16.9 points and 7 rebounds per game.

“It feels alright most of the time, but a few times a game, or any time I fall, I say ‘O my gosh, I hope I didn’t hurt it again’,” Harris said. “It was frustrating at first. I would move on defense and it would be slow, even now still, a little. I’m still not as quick as I was, but I’m getting better. You have to keep reminding yourself that it will get better from here.”

And it will, though there’s always the possibility that the injury could happen again, as Brummell, now starting and averaging 7.4 points, well knows. She does note though that the return is not as draining the second time around.

“I don’t think about it at all when I’m on the court,” said Brummell, who went through an accelerated rehab process for the one she suffered in high school, which got her back to playing, albeit at a slower speed, after four months. The second rehab was significantly lengthier.

“I wouldn’t recommend ever doing it,” Brummell said, with a laugh. “Just be patient. It is a long recovery, and it’s going to be hard, but it’s really common. I know maybe 15 people who have had one.”

“If you’re ever going to tear your ACL, I suggest you go home if at all possible,” Harris said. “There was no way I could have gotten thru this without my family's support and my moms constant care. You have to just take the rehab one day at a time. Just keep focusing on getting back to playing and not on all the bad things that are happening to your knee.”

WILMINGTON'S LEADERSHIP: Coach Jerry Scheve has created a culture of success at Wilmington. Under his direction, the Quakers have won 331 games, including the memorable run to the 2004 national championship. Achieving that level of consistency has allowed Scheve to continue reloading an already full arsenal with talented players.

Following the completion of the 2003-04 season, Wilmington landed a big recruit in forward Katie Streck. Now, as a senior, Streck finds herself mentioned in the same sentence as other great Wilmington women’s basketball players. The 5-9 forward has helped the Quakers to a 7-1 start. In Ohio Athletic Conference play, Wilmington is 3-0.

“We’ve been pretty successful the years I’ve been here,” Streck said. “My freshman year, we made it to the OAC championship game. The best year so far has been last year. We were 25-5 and made it to the NCAA tournament. We just had a real good team and we all worked hard together.

“We’re on our way to another successful year,” she added. “[A national championship] is a high goal for some people, but for Wilmington, it’s not. A lot of seniors can’t say that they won their last game. I’d love to say that I won my last-ever basketball game.”

Individually, Streck is the fourth leading scorer in the OAC with 16.1 points per game. She leads the league in field goal percentage (.603) and free throw shooting (.903). For Streck, the statistics are a by-product of what her teammates do when they have the basketball.

“The last couple games that we’ve had, I have not been the leading scorer, which is awesome because we can count on other people,” said Streck. “We have a sophomore post and a sophomore point guard who are starting for us who have been doing real well.

“Our sophomore post had the first double-double last game with 20 points and 12 rebounds,” she continued. “It’s just awesome that if a team focuses on me or somebody else, then we have other people that can step up and make a big shot.”

Last Saturday, sophomore forward Kortney Kin hit eight of 11 shots with two blocks in 19 minutes of action. Kin and Streck combined to score 35 of Wilmington’s 88 points in a lopsided victory over Marietta.

“Last year, they didn’t really double me as much because we had Kelly Peters,” Streck said. “We had other people who could score. Coming into this year, teams thought I would be the go-to player, but that’s not the case because we have other people stepping up and scoring.

“It’s just different for me and the other three seniors that are on the team because now, we’re the leaders,” she added. “We’re the ones who have to step up and play. So far, we’ve had a lot of people already step up in big games. As we grow as a team together and as everybody plays together, we’ll be a really, really good team. I know we lost a lot last year [and] people aren’t expecting us to do as well, but I think we’ll do just as well.”

Taking advantage of the opportunities she is given and helping others succeed are two things Streck has come to appreciate during her time at Wilmington. Since her second year as a Quaker, Streck has been heavily involved with the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. She is currently the President of Wilmington’s SAAC chapter.

“After my sophomore year, I went to the NCAA National Leadership Conference in Orlando,” said Streck, a sport management major with a concentration in business administration. “Next semester, I have an internship with our athletic director. Being at a small school where you’re able to do that has enabled me to really focus on athletics.

“We try to do a lot of community service and a lot of getting people involved in our athletics around campus,” she added. “We basically try to do different contests and different things to get people at our games. I just like getting people involved in athletics. I like playing in front of a lot of people, so we try to get as many people there as possible.”

Her time working with SAAC and being an active member of the athletic community at Wilmington has helped Streck build on her love of sports. Following her graduation from Wilmington, she is hoping to start a career as an athletic director, possibly at one of the country’s most prestigious basketball schools.

“I’ve applied for an internship at the NCAA for next year,” she said. “I also like event management. I had an internship with the Miami Valley Golf Association last summer. I really liked not only golf administration, but just tournament administration for basketball.

“I’ve always loved sports. It’s what I’ve done all my life pretty much,” added Streck. “My dream probably would be an athletic director at a big college. Duke is my favorite team. I’ve always liked them. I played in a basketball tournament down there once and really fell in love with the university.”

As she prepares for life after Wilmington, Streck is looking to leave a legacy of love for the Quaker program and the community.

“I just want to be remembered as someone who was a part of a successful team,” Streck said. “Awards are nice, but they’re not everything to me. I wouldn’t have gotten any of them without my teammates.”

WORTH WATCHING: Interesting matchups in Division III this weekend.

Friday
St. John Fisher at No. 1 Rochester
First of two straight for St. John Fisher against fellow NCAA Tournament teams from last season (they get WPI next in two weeks), and possibly the first of two meetings with Rochester, since they could clash again at the Chase Tournament. The Cardinals are 4-3, but may be better than that, with a pair of four-point losses.

No. 25 Rhode Island College at Springfield
Springfield with a chance to knock a Top 25 team out of the poll for the second time, having already done so against Trinity (in fact, both teams have won at Trinity). The two teams met a month ago with Rhode Island College pulling out a 71-62 win. Despite a 2-5 record, Springfield has played some good teams tough, losing by only five apiece to No. 7 Williams and 2007 ECAC champ Western New England.

Saturday
Augustana at UW-Oshkosh
Augustana added UW-Oshkosh and UW-La Crosse this season, toughening up its schedule even more (The Vikings were already playing Wash U and UW-Stevens Point). We’ll see if there’s a payoff down the line for the Vikings, whose only blemish on a 6-1 mark was a loss to La Crosse. UW-Oshkosh has shown its legit with its 7-0 start.

UW Stevens Point at Ripon
Ripon is better than its 1-4 record and lost by only one point at UW-La Crosse earlier this season, so this may be a tougher game for UW Stevens-Point than it would look, upon first glance.

Sunday
Women’s
Manchester at Carthage
Carthage has opened up some eyes with a 5-2 start, which includes wins over Calvin and Lake Forest, when both were rated in the top 15. Manchester is still knocking at the door, strong in the HCAC (back-to-back 20-win seasons), but still unable to beat an upper-echelon opponent from outside its league (came real close against Wash U in 2007 NCAAs). It’ll get an even better test two days later when it hosts Illinois Wesleyan.

If you have a tip or note, send it to atn@d3hoops.com.

2008-09 columns
Feb. 20: York (Pa.), no cliche
Feb. 13: St. Thomas writing history
Feb. 6: George Fox on hunt
Jan. 30: Brother, brother
Jan. 23: Growing a program
Jan. 16: Dudek's rare feat
Jan. 9: Ravin' about Anderson
Dec. 18: Chicago marooned at 0-9
Dec. 12: De Luca back on track
Dec. 4: Ithaca surprises
Nov. 21: Augie gets some delp
Nov. 13: Is repeat possible?

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