Darryl Gaines Ignored Others to Play for SDSU

Darryl Gaines had a choice. He didn’t have to play basketball at San Diego State, where he is known as the son of Coach Smokey Gaines. But Darryl wanted it that way.

“When I got involved with basketball, all I wanted to do was play for my father,” he said. “Maybe I just wanted to see how it was or prove to my father that I could play.”

A few college recruiters thought Darryl might be able to play after watching him at Patrick Henry High School last season. He had feelers from UC Santa Barbara, Western Kentucky and LeMoyne of Tennessee, his father’s alma mater.

It didn’t matter. Since the day Darryl joined the Little Aztecs youth program in seventh grade, he has dreamed of one day becoming a Big Aztec.

“I definitely wanted him to visit other places,” Smokey said. “He really didn’t want to. How are you going to turn down your son when he comes to you?”

Against Colorado State last Saturday, Darryl came on strong for the first time at SDSU. After coming off the bench late in the first half, he finished with season highs of 14 points and 5 rebounds in 21 minutes as the Aztecs won, 72-56.

Before that game, Darryl pretty much sat on the bench. Gaines, a 6-foot 3-inch swingman, had a total of two points and three rebounds through the first 10 games.

After Darryl’s senior season in high school, there was some question whether he was a major-college prospect. He was a second-team All-City Eastern League player at Patrick Henry, averaging 10.5 points a game.

“I don’t think he was considered a major-college prospect,” said Fritz Ziegenfuss, Patrick Henry coach. “I was glad (he got a scholarship). I was surprised.”

Recruiters primarily dealt with Smokey and his wife, Joanne, when they pursued Darryl.

“We talked to his mom quite a bit,” said Clem Haskins, Western Kentucky coach. “We didn’t get actively involved in recruiting him because we figured he’d play for his dad. I never saw him play, but I heard a lot of fine things about him. There’s no doubt he is a major-college player.”

When Smokey Gaines is asked about his son, he responds in two ways. Sometimes he attempts to act as if Darryl is another kid on his team. But, at other times, Smokey is sensitive and introspective.

“I think I should give him the opportunity everyone else has,” Gaines said. “Why should he have been cheated out of a scholarship if he was eligible for one? Right there, it would have shown I was unfair to him. He’s not a great player, but he’s a good little player. The good thing about him is that he has improved a lot.

“I’ve given scholarships to some players who weren’t great players. With Darryl, I don’t have to worry about him. I know what time his curfew is, and I know he’s always going to be at study hall. If all kids realized the importance of these things like he does, we’d be right there with the top schools. Darryl is well-attuned to what is going on.”

Since Darryl was a child, Smokey has made sure of that. Smokey often talks of how he has provided his four children (Darryl has three sisters) with many of the luxuries he did not have as a child.

Darryl and his sisters have frequently been told that their father slept six to a bed as a child in inner-city Detroit and lived in a house infested with bugs.

“All the kids in my house have heard about it, but that’s the way it was,” Smokey said. “My wife and I provide a lot for our kids. We spoil ‘em. We don’t want them to have it like I did. We want them to understand it’s not easy to get where I am.”

On the other hand, life is not easy for Darryl at times. He must follow in the footsteps of his father, who played four years for the Harlem Globetrotters and one year in the American Basketball Assn.

Family friends and teammates have made it difficult for Darryl by referring to him as “Little Smoke.”

“At the beginning of this season, everybody really got on me about being the coach’s son. Maybe they accept me more now for being Darryl and not the coach’s son. They haven’t said much about it to me lately.”

John Martens, SDSU’s starting center, said he used to play for his father in youth basketball leagues. As the coach’s son, Martens said, he always tried harder to prove he could play.

Fathers are known to go one of two ways while coaching their sons. Some favor their sons and some are tougher on their sons than on other players.

“Smokey treats Darryl like he treats anybody else,” Martens said. “If Darryl does something bad, he points it out as if it was someone else. If Darryl does something good, he points it out as if it was someone else. He uses a different tone of voice when he is upset. He uses the same tone with Darryl that he uses with everyone else.”

Said Smokey: “I haven’t found it difficult to coach Darryl. If he messes up, I get on his behind. If he keeps playing like he did the other night against Colorado State, it won’t be difficult to coach him, to tell you the truth.”

Darryl has found it enlightening to play for his father.

“I never knew how he handled players,” Darryl said. “Sometimes, it’s kind of funny to me. He’ll just kid around sometimes. He doesn’t do that much at home. He used to do it when we were little.”

Darryl did not become involved in basketball until seventh grade, the year his father was named head coach at SDSU. He played at Lewis Junior High School and, later, at Patrick Henry.

Smokey always stayed in the background as his son pursued sports. Darryl said his father was more concerned with his education than his interest in sports. Smokey now talks proudly of how Darryl passed 17 units in his first semester at SDSU.

“I always wanted to make sure he went to good schools,” Smokey said. “He went to a private school until we came out here. In athletics, I guess I was the kind of coach who wouldn’t push him. I know a lot of high school and college coaches who have pushed their sons so much to be successful, and they’re not successful. I wanted Darryl to play when he felt he was ready. I didn’t want to tell him to play this or that.”

When Darryl accepted a scholarship to SDSU, he feared what his father might start telling him at the dinner table.

“He doesn’t really say much at home,” Darryl said. “That was the only thing I was worried about. I wondered what he might say if I had a lousy practice. He doesn’t say anything.”

“I try to think of him as another player,” Smokey said. “When we sit down and eat at home, it’s a little different. I try not to talk too much about it at home. I try to make him feel like one of the boys on the team.”

Even if Darryl is the coach’s son.