TRAVELS OF MARCO BALDI : From Irvine to New York, Italian Prep Star Goes Where Action Is

If one criticism could have been made of Marco Baldi last season, it was that he was too nice on the basketball court.

At 6-feet 11-inches and 250 pounds, Baldi towered over most opponents as the center for Woodbridge High School in Irvine, but he didn’t always use his size to his advantage. Smaller players beat him to rebounds and often pushed him around with no fear of retaliation.

And that’s why the Italian exchange student is playing his senior year here at Long Island Lutheran High School. His Italian club team, Simac Milano, which directs his career and pays his tuition and expenses, wanted Baldi to progress faster--and get tougher--at a school where several Italian exchange student-athletes have done just that in recent years.

So, instead of sending Baldi back to Orange County and another season at Woodbridge, Simac Milano enrolled him at Long Island Lutheran, a perennial East Coast prep basketball power that, because of its private school status, plays a freelance schedule that includes teams not only from nearby New York City but up and down the East Coast. Simac Milano didn’t think Woodbridge’s opponents were providing Baldi with enough of a challenge.

The high caliber of competition already has had the desired effect on Baldi’s play. Going against some of the most talented and highly recruited prep basketball players in the nation has raised his intensity level and lowered his boiling point. Even at practice, when teammates throw a push or an elbow, it is returned immediately in retribution.

In fact, Baldi has become almost what you would describe as fiery. It’s hard for his new coach, Bob McKillop, to believe his center ever lacked intensity.

“You saw him in practice today,” McKillop said. “He bounced a couple of kids off the floor. He has no problem with his intensity or aggressiveness now.”

Baldi initially wanted to return to Woodbridge because he had so many friends there and was very close to his Orange County hosts, the Bryan family of Irvine. But it’s clear that he is happy where he’s at.

“I like everything here except the snow,” he said. “It’s a whole different game at my new school. The guys we play against are a lot better, they’re tougher and they’re bigger.

“I’d have to say that the best team I played against while I was at Woodbridge last year was Sonora, and Sonora would just be an average team out here. Playing better teams is making me better.”

Even though he’s more than 3,000 miles away, Baldi is still a popular topic of conversation at Woodbridge games, and that’s understandable. When you’re as big as Baldi is, you’re conspicuous by your absence.

No one has missed Baldi more than Warrior Coach Bill Shannon. Last year, Woodbridge became an instant South Coast League contender with Baldi averaging 23.1 points per game, second in Orange County to Mater Dei’s Tom Lewis. This year, Woodbridge’s first in the Sea View League, Shannon has been force to used a young team and the Warriors have gotten off to a 2-9 start, 4-13 overall.

But Shannon understands the logic behind Baldi’s transfer to Long Island Lutheran.

“There is no doubt that a player is going to get better faster playing against the very best schools in the East than in the Garden Grove Tournament,” he said. “It’s a good thing for Marco to be playing there.”

It didn’t take Baldi, 18, long to get used to his new environment. But then, getting used to new environments is something he’s had a lot of practice at over the years.

Ever since he was 14, Baldi has lived away from his family in a succession of cities to play the sport that is ignored by Italian public schools.

At first, the cities were close to his hometown of Aosta, Italy. Then, last year, he came to the United States for the first time. That transition was difficult because he still was learning English. But he speaks fluently and is also more relaxed because he has another Italian exchange student, Giancarlo Mordenti, as a teammate and roommate.

Baldi and Mordenti, a junior forward, live together in the home of a childless, middle-aged Italian couple near Brookville, and this has allowed them to better deal with the problems of living so far away from home.

A good example of this occurred several weeks ago when Baldi first arrived here after playing for the Italian junior national team this summer.

Because of a paperwork mixup by the Italian government, Baldi did not obtain a visa until October and did not get to New York until classes at Long Island Lutheran had been going for about five weeks. But Baldi, a good student, was helped with his missed classwork by Mordenti and quickly caught up.

“Staying with Giancarlo and living with an Italian family has really helped Marco adjust,” McKillop said. “When he gets a letter from home, he has others he can share it with, and this enhances his feeling of being at home.”

Baldi’s hope, and really the hope of any Italian exchange student who comes here to play basketball, is to become the next Agusto Binelli. Three years ago, the 7-foot Bellini came to Long Island Lutheran with a lot of raw talent and McKillop helped him develop into one of the top prep players in the nation. Binelli led Long Island Lutheran to two state championships and in his senior year, attracted the attention of most major colleges by averaging 26 points per game.

Binelli, however, did not play college ball in the United States because his club team, Virtus Granarolo, wanted him to return to Italy and play professional basketball there.

Baldi wants to play collegiate ball, though, and Simac Milano has indicated to McKillop that it would be willing to let Baldi stay if Baldi gets a scholarship from a big-time school.

“I’ve set three criteria for Marco’s choice of a college,” McKillop said. “We want, first of all, for him to go to a school with a good record of teaching and developing big men. Second, it has to be a high-visibility school with a national reputation.

“Finally, it has to be a school where Marco would have the opportunity to play right away, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to keep on learning and improving.”

It doesn’t appear that Baldi will have any trouble finding a school that will meet McKillop’s standards. Coaches from top schools are flocking to the gym at tiny Long Lutheran, surrounded by old-money estates and country clubs, to watch Baldi, who has helped lead the Crusaders to a 11-2 record by averaging 18 points and 15 rebounds a game.

Early this month, USC’s Stan Morrison paid Baldi a visit, and Baldi has made plans to make a recruiting trip to USC next month.

This week, St. John’s Lou Carnesecca and Georgetown’s John Thompson are scheduled to come by. Notre Dame, Duke, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Georgia are other schools that have recently expressed interest in Baldi.

Most of these colleges knew about Baldi last year when he played at Woodbridge, but their enthusiasm was dampened because Baldi didn’t appear to be tough enough to survive the rigors of college basketball. Now, of course, Baldi has changed his style of play, and the recruiters have changed their minds about him.

McKillop, though, is not about to allow Baldi to let up. He watches his center intently every minute of his grueling practice sessions to make sure he’s hustling and playing his role, the role of intimidator.

“Marco is still inconsistent,” McKillop said. “He sometimes still has the tendency to play like he’s 6-5 and 190 instead of 6-11 and 250.

“But in the short time he’s been playing here, he’s improved and he’s going to improve even more.”