THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270745
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 105 lines
He isn't an All-American. His next selection to The Virginian-Pilot's All-Tidewater team would be his first. Heck, he hasn't even been named first-team All-Beach District.
So why are men like Kentucky's Rick Pitino, North Carolina's Dean Smith and Georgia Tech's Bobby Cremins parading into town intent on securing the basketball services of Kempsville's Brian Bersticker?
``Well, he's athletic, he's 6-10, he's got good grades and he's a good kid,'' said area basketball maven Boo Williams. ``That's a real attractive combination.''
So attractive that 125 college programs actively have sought Bersticker's name on a letter-of-intent, including one, the University of Southern California, which sent 96 letters to the Bersticker home - on one day.
``That was scary,'' Bersticker said.
Thanks to a neatly controlled recruiting process, the Chiefs' senior winnowed his list down to three schools Wednesday - North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida State. Bersticker will make official visits to those schools in the coming weeks - including a stop in Lexington on the night the Wildcats raise their 1995-96 NCAA championship banner - and plans to announce his decision Nov. 13, the first day of the early signing period.
Only then will the raw-boned kid with the toothy grin and a flat top a la Eric Montross reflect on what's been a whirlwind courtship by the nation's college basketball elite. It's a wooing that in many respects has caught even Bersticker off guard.
``If you'd asked me if I thought I'd be looking at a major Division I scholarship a couple of years ago, I'd have said, `No way,' '' Bersticker said.
South Hampton Roads has had more than its share of blue-chip basketball recruits in recent years, but one would be hard-pressed to find one with as inauspicious a high school resume as Bersticker. He played mostly on the junior varsity as a freshman, averaged a modest 7.5 points a game as a sophomore and missed 13 games the following year with a broken bone in his hand.
But despite a lack of media attention, summer camps and AAU basketball have become increasing important stops along the recruiting trail. In these settings, Bersticker has shone. This past summer, his status as one of Boo Williams' AAU All-Stars landed him in Paris, Las Vegas, Indianapolis twice (once for the prestigious Nike ABCD camp) and Augusta, Ga., among other stops.
``I think in the month of July, I was home maybe three or four days,'' Bersticker said.
Coaches may be prohibited from talking to recruits in these settings, but they can watch the action until they're bleary-eyed. And while all-star formats typically become guard-oriented affairs, the uptempo nature of these summer games provided a perfect showcase for what, aside from his height, of course, tickles Division I coaches most about Bersticker - his athleticism. He has the ability to run up and down the floor and the willingness to mix it up underneath with his still-too-lean, 205-pound frame.
They're the same qualities Kempsville coach Vernon King noticed when a raw Bersticker, a growth spurt having shot him up to 6-4, first walked into his gym as a freshman three years ago.
``He had all these intangibles,'' King said. ``Like when he grabbed a rebound, he didn't bring it down below his chin. Little things that made you realize he was going to be a real player someday.''
Kempsville, which has had plenty of experience with blue-chip athletes in the past, immediately set out to prepare the Bersticker family for the potential recruiting morass that lay ahead. At a meeting with King, the school's athletic director, guidance counselor, assistant principal and the Berstickers, the Chiefs' brass outlined NCAA regulations, grade requirements and various recruiting scenarios.
Bersticker admits that at the time, he didn't think all that was necessary. But that meeting has helped the Berstickers avoid getting swept up in recruiting swirl and actually become enlightened players in the process. When Bersticker trimmed his choice of schools to 10, a special phone was installed and the number given only to the schools on the Bersticker short list. When the special phone rang, Bersticker knew that if it was Tuesday, it must be either Kentucky or Nebraska.
``The things that (Kempsville's committee) talked helped a great deal,'' Anita Bersticker, Brian's mother.
Though school officials and King may have seen Bersticker's emergence coming, the player said he didn't really see himself among the nation's elite until he was flipping through a scouting magazine prior to his junior year and saw himself ranked No. 88.
``That's the first time I really started thinking I could play with the top guys in the country,'' Bersticker said.
But will he actually play at one of the top programs in the country? Kentucky assistant coach Delray Brooks said the Wildcats only go after players they feel can make an impact as freshmen, and even Boo Williams admits Bersticker probably needs a year of seasoning. And Dean Smith's last local recruit also was a big guy thought to be long on potential.
That would be Ed Geth, a former Granby star who had a pleasant four-year experience at UNC, but received virtually no playing time and finished with a year's eligibility remaining.
``Brian's no Ed Geth,'' Williams said. ``There are no guarantees, but he's going to get bigger, stronger and better. . . . I think he's going to be the type of player that when he gets to college, people are going to be like, `Where'd he come from?' '' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
MIKE HEFFNER
The Virginian-Pilot
Brian Bersticker has been recruited by some of the biggets schools
in the country, despite his modest high school career. What's teh
lure? "He's athletic, he's 6-10, he's got good grades and he's a
good kid," says basketball maven Boo Williams.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE INTERVIEW by CNB