Australia’s Long Shot Is a Hit With Seton Hall

Most basketball fans will probably remember that the leading scorer in the Seoul Olympics was Brazil’s radar-equipped Oscar (Any Shot’s A Good Shot As Long As It’s Mine) Schmidt. But how many can name the next leading scorer? It’s Seton Hall’s Andrew Gaze, or, more appropriately Australia’s Andrew Gaze.

Availing himself of what is, in effect, the Big East’s reverse version of the junior-year-abroad program, Gaze has come to play basketball at Seton Hall -- probably for just this one season. Seton Hall has appealed to the NCAA for another, but the 24-year-old Gaze is headed back to Australia to play for his club team in April, and cheerfully admits, “The whole time I’ve been over here I’ve been of the attitude it’ll only be one year.” How fortuitous for everyone concerned that Gaze’s credits in his major, phys ed, are transferable Down Under.

The Big East has a considerable history of mining foreign countries for basketball talent. Twenty-three foreign-born players have competed for Big East teams since 1979, among them Canada’s Leo Rautins, Greece’s Rony Seikaly and Italy’s Marco Baldi. Georgetown’s Rejection Row wouldn’t be as crowded without Zaire’s Dikembe Mutombo. No one disputes their desirability as basketball players, but with the debate over the fairness of Props. 48 and 42 focusing so much attention on the difficulty in reconciling academic and athletic priorities, the propriety of recruiting foreign athletes presents interesting questions. The issue is new to basketball, but for years there have been grumblings about the presence of superstar foreigners on American university track and hockey teams.

Gaze is the first to concede, “In all honesty, the reason I’m here is because of the basketball,” quickly adding, “but I wouldn’t be here if the academics weren’t available.” Seton Hall’s coach, P.J. Carlesimo, appreciative of the sensitivities involved, said, “Any kid we bring in, we bring in because of his basketball. My intent is to identify basketball players. I’m a basketball coach. But Andrew Gaze is no tramp athlete. He’s as legit a student as anyone in this conference. He’s transferred a lot of credits. He’ll graduate either way, here or in Australia.” (About the suggestion that foreigners should be restricted from playing college basketball, Carlesimo said indignantly, “That’s garbage. Tell them to take a walk to Jersey City and take a look at the Statue of Liberty.”)

You can understand why Carlesimo chased after Gaze. The 6-foot-6 Gaze is averaging almost 15 points a game, is second on Seton Hall in assists and, third in rebounds. Most importantly, he’s shooting 43.3 percent from the three-point line -- second highest in the conference. Consequently, he spends most of his time patrolling the perimeter, waiting for a pass he can catch in stride, quickly square up and release at the hoop. Against Connecticut Friday, all eight of Gaze’s field goal attempts were threes. “People asked me if I really thought Gaze could play,” Carlesimo said, dismissing the question as if it came from the moon. “He came here a few years ago on a tour with the Australian national team. They played all the Big East teams. He got 40 three times! Who goes for 40 against the Big East? He got 46 on us.” Carlesimo shook his head incredulously. “Can he play?”

Yet Gaze has had to tailor his usual game to suit Seton Hall’s needs. In Australia, Gaze is a point guard, responsible for penetrating and dishing off. “It’s not as athletic a game there,” Gaze allows, “but there’s more motion. More screening, more cutting. Here it’s less finesse and more of a power game.” Laughing at his narrowly defined role, Gaze says, “I wanted to drive more. But I was setting a career record for charges. So they told me they wanted me to stop and shoot.”

Gaze is good-humored about it. But what a difference a hemisphere makes. In Australia, he is not a star -- he is The Star. The ball is never more than one pass away from his hands. Worldwide, he’s considered a franchise player. At Seton Hall, he’s a supporting player. Not many stars would handle that diminishment as evenly as Gaze. “I was grateful for the chance to come at all. I told them I’d play whatever role they wanted. I was concerned the guys might think I was coming here to take away their limelight,” he explains. “I wanted the experience of college basketball at the highest level I could play. I wanted to learn the game. It would defeat the purpose of coming if I did here what I do there.” And although Gaze’s friends back home wonder how it’s bloody possible he isn’t scoring 30 points a game, Gaze is satisfied that what he’s learned about defense, rebounding and what he calls “the intellect of the game” more than make up for the meager numbers.

Of course, there were cultural compromises to make as well. Gaze has repeatedly explained to people that kangaroos don’t run wild in the streets of Melbourne and that everyone doesn’t own a koala. And although he still hasn’t acquired a taste for it, he has dilligently listened to rap music. When he goes home he may be the only person in Australia who can recite the lyrics of Tone-Loc’s “Wild Thing” with a Joisey accent.

For all the benefit in coming here, it does bother Gaze to be thought of as an interloper. And it disturbs him when it’s suggested foreign basketball players have no business in American colleges. “I could be rude about it, but I won’t,” he says. “To me you learn from other people and other cultures. It amazes me to hear anyone say that foreign players are depriving anyone here of the chance to play college basketball. That’s insane. You have 200 colleges to pick from in Division I alone.”

Striking a conciliatory tone, Gaze says, “We’re grateful for American basketball players in Australia. They’ve helped us tremendously. But for whatever it’s worth, you guys finished third in the Olympic Games. Surely you can see that you, too, can learn from other people.”