Making it right If the devil is in the details, as they say, Satan has dogged Ryan Abrahams throughout his basketball career.
After missing a shot at D-I,
Division II Notebook
Abrahams is making
the best of thingsBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.com
Coming off a high-school career that earned him McDonald's All-American consideration and a California state championship in his junior year, Abrahams had it all. Everything he had worked for, all those days of practice were paying off. He signed a scholarship to play NCAA Division I ball for Loyola Marymount. Then he learned that there is more to study than playbooks if you want to play college basketball. To him it was just the first of many minor details that would make the talented guard a basketball vagabond.
COURTESY HAWAII-HILO ATHLETICS
Ryan Abrahams is leading Hawaii-Hilo in minutes played and is the only Vulcan to put up more than 10 shots per game.
"I was high on a cloud," Abrahams said. "Then I found out I messed up on two classes, it hurt. But it was my fault."
After showing up with his name inked at the bottom of a scholarship form, Abrahams was told that, although his SAT score qualified him for college ball, he needed two high school courses to bring his grade-point average up to acceptable. They recommended he enroll in a junior college and get his situation in order, and he would be welcome back to the club the following year.
"Ryan is a very bright kid," Hawaii Hilo coach Jeff Law said. "I can't tell you how many kids don't get through the NCAA Clearinghouse for some reason or another. Sometimes their guidance counselors don't know, sometimes it is something else."
Having never even considered junior-college ball -- the only basketball in Abrahams' world was Division I -- Abrahams looked through the phone book and made a cold call to Glendale Community College. He was accepted on the spot and played for a year while getting his grades in order. But the coach at Loyola Marymount was fired, and everything changed. He was a Division I player without a home.
"My dad tells me to this day, 'You are a DI player, they spoke highly of you' " Abrahams said. "It still bothers me sometimes, but not a lot anymore. It was always a dream of mine."
Seeing his playing time dwindle and having to face teammates who knew that he was on his way to DI after the season, Abrahams bolted. He wanted to leave the whole mess behind, but not entirely. He went across town to Los Angeles Valley College, where he met a coach, Doug Michelson, who said that if Abrahams would stick with him, he would get him where he wanted to go.
"I wanted to make it right," Abrahams said. "I already messed up and it became a matter of packing that hole -- I had already dug it -- and put cement in there and raise me back to life."
There was just one minor detail that he didn't tell Abrahams until he had already committed. Because he transferred, Abrahams would have to redshirt and sit out a year before he could play. But Abrahams believed in Michelson and bought into what he was teaching. He started the year on the scout team as the opponent's top shooter in practice, then began practicing with the first team even though he was not eligible for the games. Michelson would call it preparing for the next season.
"I did everything I could for them that year," Abrahams said. "If they needed a ride somewhere, I had a car, so I'd give them a ride. If they needed someone to practice with individually, I was always their man."
Plus, it gave him an extra year to get used to the offense. That allowed him to lead the team to its conference championship the following year, and punched his ticket to Hilo. Vulcans coach Jeff Law had only seen Abrahams play a couple of times, but trusted the word of his colleague. His colleague delivered.
Abrahams knew he had started out behind everyone else, and knew that he didn't have time to sit and pay his dues at a bigger school. So he took a trip to Hilo and sold his father, Guy, on a place where he got along with the guys and could focus on basketball and school, where there were no distractions.
"My dad always plays a part in every decision I make," Abrahams said. "He thought it would be a good place for me, a place to get away from home that wasn't too big or too small and I wouldn't have to sit around waiting to play. This is the best place for me to focus on basketball and school."
But there was one minor detail that he learned when he started practicing for Law. Law told him that he would get a chance to compete for a starting spot but warned him that he had some talent on his team and it wouldn't be easy. Every coach says that, but Law meant it.
Abrahams has to split minutes with the rest of the guys while Law decides who has earned more and who needs to do more to get those precious pieces of time. Abrahams started out with a workload equal to his teammates, but has since sliced off a bigger chunk of the pie every time out.
He still isn't in the game enough to suit him -- how many players are happy with their playing time? -- because Abrahams is going to need every minute available to him if he is going to take the next step, to fill the void left by not playing Division I with an even higher level of competition. Like nearly every flashy scorer in the land, Abrahams would like to play for pay.
"Plan B is to become an investment banker," Abrahams said. "I'd like to go overseas and play ball though, just get a look. I'd like that to happen."
Law says that Abrahams has a lot of things to improve on to get to that level -- the overseas market has long been open to only point guards and big men -- but that it wouldn't be "too far out of the realm of possibility."
Although setting himself up for the future remains the reason Abrahams is in Hilo, it is hard to look at the future through the present. He knows he will need to reach certain statistical plateaus to be considered overseas, but is too busy trying to win to make it his top priority. Hilo lost its first conference game at home to Chaminade on Tuesday, and it immediately became the only thing Abrahams wanted to talk about. Abrahams is a true student of the game, and believes he knows where his team went wrong. And it is not as simple as giving him the ball and letting the shots fly.
"My dad always told me to handle the ball more," Abrahams said. "He wants me to take the game over, but I like to share the wealth. I don't like to play out of the offense. This is not like the playground, this stuff counts. This is my job, and I've got to get it done."
UH-Hilo Athletics
