Aztecs’ Barefield Grows Up Despite Being Under Weather : SDSU: Prop. 48 casualty comes through after teammates injured.

No way he was going to sit this one out.

Ray Barefield had worked hard to earn a college basketball scholarship. Then, he endured a forced absence from the game last season when he didn’t meet the NCAA’s Proposition 48 requirements.

And last Saturday afternoon at the San Diego State pregame meal, with a steak on his plate and Cal Poly Pomona on the SDSU schedule that night, the thought occurred to Barefield that he might not be able to play.

He had caught the flu after the previous Thursday’s game against Midwestern State, and he felt so bad that he left practice the next day after only 15 minutes.

But two of his fellow guards were already hurting. Arthur Massey had a badly sprained ankle. Chris McKinney’s back was acting up. And Barefield was sick. . . .

Wait a minute, he told himself. He had to play.

He started slowly, but as things moved along, he quietly took charge of the SDSU backcourt. He played fairly good defense, finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals. It was his second start in a row--thanks to Massey’s ankle--and by far his best game of the season.

“Ray Barefield should not have been playing basketball Saturday night,” SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg said. “He was sicker than a dog. We had three guys who should not have been on the court--Massey, McKinney and Barefield. And he went out and played unbelieveably for the condition he was in.”

Perhaps that was because Brandenburg was thinking of the sophomore’s physical condition. But for Barefield, basketball is not just about dribbling and passing and playing defense. It is about heart.

This is a guy who, when he didn’t have his good tennis shoes last year, went out and ran a 4:57 mile on the track--in his socks--during SDSU’s conditioning program.

This is a guy who is just 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds and yet is second on the team in the bench press. He can press 255 pounds.

And now he had the flu?

“I knew Art was out,” Barefield said. “I knew I had to play because we only had two other guards--Chris and James (Lewis). For two guards to play the whole game, that’s a lot of work.”

Then came McKinney’s back spasms.

“That’s when I realized, ‘Hey, not only are you going to have to play tonight, but you’re going to have to lead in the true sense,’ ” Barefield said.

Granted, Cal Poly Pomona was a Division II opponent, but it still was a night of growing up for Barefield, who didn’t get much of a chance to mature as a player last year.

He was in San Jose, visiting a brother in the summer of 1989, when his Scholastic Aptitude Test results came back. He called his home in Fresno and asked another brother’s girlfriend to check the mail. He asked her to open the test results. She spoke the words he never wanted to hear. He realized he would be sidelined for a year.

“I sat there basically in amazement,” he said. “It really hurt. I felt like I’dbe an outcast.

“Coach Brandenburg, when he received the news, really made me feel better. He let me know he still cared about me as a person.”

Besides, no matter what others thought, Barefield knew he could do the schoolwork. He found that out when he was in eighth grade in San Jose. He played organized ball on Saturdays until a supervisor told him one day he would have to quit and attend Saturday school because of poor grades.

“I never went to Saturday school,” Barefield said, smiling. “The next report card, I got three A’s, two B’s and one C.

“That’s when I knew I could do it.”

Heart.

“He needs a little bit more of it, but it’s growing,” Richard Barefield Sr., Ray’s father, said. “He’s so nice. He’s like a gentleman.

“The heart we’re speaking about is aggressiveness. Take charge.”

Richard Sr., a hairdresser in Fresno, saw every game Ray played throughout high school but has yet to see Ray play at SDSU. He said he wants to give Ray a little time to establish himself first.

“I’m so much pressure on him,” Richard Sr. said. “I tell him, ‘Come into your manhood, and then I’ll check it out.’ ”

Richard Sr. saw Ray’s talent early. What he wanted to make sure of was that his son had the right mental toughness.

“If I see him not putting out, I get on him,” Richard said. “I explain what he is capable of doing.

“At the beginning of his junior year, I was explaining to him he had everything it took, but do you have the courage to step forward?”

Before each season, they would have a short conversation.

“How’s your mind?” Richard Sr. would ask.

“I’m ready,” Ray would answer.

He usually was. He was good enough that he visited both UCLA and SDSU. He said DePaul, USC and Arizona were also interested in him.

“I chose the school I thought I could contribute immediately to,” Barefield said. “I felt very confident with Coach Brandenburg and his staff.”

Besides, Barefield spent his younger years in San Diego, and started playing basketball at La Mesa Junior High, before moving to San Jose and then Fresno.

Family is important to Barefield. He has four brothers and a sister. In the SDSU media guide, he lists one of his brothers, Richard Jr., as his favorite athlete. Richard Jr., 23, won the U.S. Middleweight Karate championship in New York on the same night SDSU opened its season at North Carolina.

“He was always proud of me whether I did good or bad,” Barefield said of Richard Jr. “I admire him for his consistency toward me.

“He has it all. The biggest thing he has is heart. He has a heart made of steel.”

Barefield thinks he has a little of each of his brothers inside of him. He leaned on his family during difficult times. As he sat out last year, he decided he had to make the best of it. He had learned early that you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.

“Honestly, I do believe sitting out helped me,” Barefield said. “It gave me a chance to sit back and look at basketball for what it is really worth.”

And?

“There are going to be times like these. They are going to be rough.”

Said redshirt freshman Terrence Hamilton, who has been his roommate for two years: “(Last year) was real hard on him. He was surrounded by other players, but that shows how much character he has. Every day while we practiced, he was in the upstairs gym. . . . A lot of guys would have said ‘I don’t have to practice.’ ”

Meanwhile, there was the stigma attached to being a Proposition 48 case.

“Some people tend to take Proposition 48 like you’re not smart enough to pass,” he said. “If you judge someone by their test score, you’ve got a lot to think about yourself.

“You judge people by their heart. And inner strengths.”

Barefield’s have gotten stronger even though the season is only a month old. He thought he would be able to walk right onto the floor as practice began and pick up where he left off in high school. He was wrong.

His explosive speed sometimes kicked into gear too soon. He tried to play on instincts; Brandenburg wanted him to think first. His passes came a second too slow. At North Carolina, he played seven minutes and didn’t do much. No points, no assists, no rebounds . . . his statistical summary consisted of one zero after another.

“It’s very difficult for a first-year player to come in and make so many quick adjustments,” Brandenburg said. “You take a look from the first time he stepped on the floor competitively against High Five (in an exhibition game Nov. 12) to now, he’s made a lot of adjustments.”

His defense has been good, particularly against USC’s Harold Miner. SDSU held Miner, gaining recognition as one of the nation’s best players, to 14 points last week. But Brandenburg said Barefield still needs to work on his passing, shooting and leadership.

Barefield just hopes he can continue to perform the way he has been playing lately.

“I can’t expect to be great, because I know I’m not that,” he said.

He calls his father both before and after every game. How’s your mind? It’s fine. I’m ready.

“After the North Carolina game, he was very depressed,” Richard Sr. said. “Two days later, he called me back and said, ‘It’s all right.’ ”

Then the telephone rang in Richard Sr.’s house after the Cal Poly Pomona game Saturday night.

“He called me then, and he was so hysterical I really kind of hated I missed it,” Richard Sr. said. “I know what it’s about.”

It’s about heart, and guts, and ignoring the flu. The intangibles that make one player tougher than the next.

“Who’s to say the struggle is over?” Barefield said the other day. “There are going to be a lot more struggles. I have to know that and keep going, keep fighting.”

There is a picture on the fireplace in Richard Barefield Sr.’s house in Fresno. In it, Ray’s sister, Kieshia--7 at the time--is holding a book, and Ray, 8, a basketball.

It’s one of Richard Barefield Sr.’s favorite pictures. The way he figures it, books and an education are what Kieshia always wanted, and basketball has always been Ray’s love.

Kieshia, in pre-law at UC Davis, informed her father this week that she was selected for an internship in the Woodland District Attorney’s office. Her dreams continue.

Now, maybe, it’s Ray’s turn.