Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503090065
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
In his first 17 years at life's big poker table, Ace Custis drew nothing but bad cards.
Growing up in Eastville, a poverty-ridden, rural town on Virginia's Eastern Shore, young Adrian - ``just call me Ace'' - Custis was dealt one tragic hand after another.
His beloved brother, Antonio, died at age 17 in an automobile accident. Shortly thereafter, his half-brother, Anthony, was shot to death in a neighborhood dispute.
The dead man's hand. On back-to-back deals.
Four years later, only two months after signing a ``full-boat'' scholarship to play basketball at Virginia Tech, Custis nearly saw aces and 8s again.
Driving home from his girlfriend's house in the wee hours of Jan.25, 1992, Custis fell asleep at the wheel of his 1980 Mustang. The car flipped and landed on its side on the bank of a ditch off U.S. 13, the same highway that had taken his brother's life.
Unlike Antonio, Ace survived, escaping with a broken jaw and nose.
``God spared me,'' Custis says. ``For some reason or another, he took care of me.
``You see, I didn't have my seat belt on that night. I had laid down in the seat. Later on, the officer told me that if I had had my seat belt on that I wouldn't be here today. He said the car's steering wheel was pressed all the way back to the seat and would have smashed my stomach and lungs. When I laid down, it saved my life.''
`God brought me here'
Ace Custis is sitting alone at Tech's Cassell Coliseum. The building that lives with excitement again, thanks to his huge assist, is empty on this Tuesday afternoon.
Custis peers up at the coliseum's roof and can't help but wonder out loud.
``When I look back at my life, it's just like a little puzzle,'' Custis says. ``It's complicated, hard to figure out.
``But for some reason, God brought me here. He could have taken my life ... he could have guided me in another direction ... I easily could have been in trouble somewhere today.''
Instead, the 6-foot-7 youngster who incredibly was a virtual unknown to all the major colleges but Tech and George Mason, is one of college basketball's prime-time players for a 20-9 team.
In this, his sophomore season, Custis has averaged 16.3 points and 10.4 rebounds for the first Tech team to win 20 games since 1985-86. Custis is the first Hokies player to average a double-double since Allan Bristow did it for the NIT championship team in 1972-73.
This week, Custis became the first Hokie since Bimbo Coles in 1989-90 to be named first-team All-Metro Conference.
``Ace was one who slipped through the cracks,'' says Bill Foster, Tech's coach. ``He played at a small school in an isolated area and not many people knew about him.''
Tech uncovered its Ace on the bottom of the deck one day during an AAU tournament in Jonesboro, Ark., in the summer of of 1991.
Hoping to finally attract some recruiting interest, Custis accepted an invitation to play for Norfolk's Boo Williams, who runs one of the most successful AAU programs in the nation.
``Everybody was watching the starters,'' Foster says. ``But we saw this kid in practice and he could do it all - shoot it, rebound it, pass it. We decided then we wanted him.''
Custis took only one recruiting visit - to Tech. He signed shortly thereafter.
``They got a good one,'' Williams says. ``First, he's a great kid. Ace had to pay $18 every time he came to practice because he had to come over the Chesapeake-Bay Bridge to get to Norfolk from the Eastern Shore.
``Shoot, some kids can't make practice from two blocks away. Then you've got some like Ace. That's the difference between those who make it and those who don't.''
Custis says it was a twist of fate that he was in Arkansas the day Tech found him.
``Anthony's funeral was that same Saturday,'' Custis says. ``I wanted to pay my respects and everything, but I had to leave on Friday for Arkansas.
``The other guys there kept asking me, `What's wrong?' Then, I would tell them. They said, `You're a good man. We don't know how you do it.'
``But, hey, those guys were already highly recruited. They knew what they were going to do. I didn't, so I had to do my best to make it. I had to get somebody to notice me. My biggest worry was that I wouldn't be seen playing on the shore. It's sort of isolated over there, you know. There's not much happening.''
To this day, Custis says he can't figure out why Old Dominion, located in nearby Norfolk, showed no interest.
``I wanted to stay close to home,'' he says. ``It would have been a tough decision between ODU and Tech, because ODU is close to home, to my family and friends. If they had recruited me, I don't know where I'd be now.''
`I just wanted to give up'
Ace Custis' excitement about going to Tech was tempered quickly. In his freshman season, he injured a knee in preseason practice. He underwent reconstructive surgery two days later and missed the entire season.
``I just wanted to give up at that point,'' Custis says. ``Here, I had gotten what I had worked so hard for all along - a scholarship - and then this happens. I wanted to quit. I was ready to go home, but my mom told me to stay.''
Mom is Barbara Ruffin. Mom made Ace Custis, he says.
``My Mom is the reason for everything ... she's the reason I'm here today,'' Ace says. ``She always told me to be a leader, not a follower.
``She struggled, working two jobs when I was growing up. She's the one who taught me that hard work pays off. She always told me that if I worked hard enough, that I could have anything I want one of these days.''
So Ace stayed with it. After being redshirted his freshman season, Custis made his Tech debut last season. He didn't disappoint, averaging 10.9 points and a Tech freshman-record 9.1 rebounds. He made the Metro's All-Freshman team.
This season, Custis took his game to a higher level. He's the heart and soul of a Hokies team that is seeking its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1986.
``He's such a smart player,'' Foster said. ``He plays hard all the time and has a very high court IQ. He won't take a bad shot. In fact, we'd like to see him shoot it more at times. He's one of the best rebounders I've ever seen. He's not big [206 pounds], but he has that special knack at anticipating where the ball is coming off the rim. You can't coach that.''
`It's the two of us'
When Ace Custis hits the floor Friday in Louisville, Ky., for the Metro tournament, he will peer up at the roof of Freedom Hall for a couple of seconds before the opening tap.
``I always look up for Antonio,'' says Custis, his eyes starting to well.
``He's the one who made me the basketball player I am. He was 6-4, a heck of an athlete. He taught me the game. He was my idol.
``He never really had the opportunity to play organized basketball growing up. But in the back yard or playing street ball, he would always dominate. He was the man, the one dunking and shooting.
``When I saw the person that I had idolized lying under that sheet [after his accident], I just wanted to give up. It was like I couldn't go on without my big brother. I wish it had been me instead of him. I wanted to go join him.''
Mom told Ace he had to move forward. That's what his big brother would have wanted.
``I told Mom then that from now on it's the two of us,'' Ace says. ``Every time I go out on that court I'm playing for Antonio and myself.
``I want to make it for him, because I know Antonio's up in heaven watching me.''
And smiling, no doubt, because his little brother turned out to be an Ace.
by CNB