SDSU Center Has Rebounded From Injury With a Vengeance : Basketball: Marty Dow feared he would never play again. But this year, he’s better than ever.
It’s 8 a.m., midweek, and in the physical education equipment room at San Diego State, the coffee is black and the laughs come quickly.
Marty Dow, center on the SDSU basketball team, drinks from his mug and hangs out. The morning calm, the gentle sips . . . it’s a far cry from nights and the banging underneath the basket, the roar of the crowd.
He had a class in this room last semester and, now, a new semester under way, he keeps coming back. Even at 8 a.m., in the middle of basketball season. He enjoys the company of Bill Smelko, 64, who has worked at SDSU for the past 30 years and has run the equipment room for longer than he cares to remember. Dow figures Smelko can use the help.
Look at Dow out on the court and you might have a hard time believing he smiles and volunteers to do much of anything. He usually has a couple days’ growth on his face, the glare of his eyes could turn water into ice, and then there is that Tasmanian devil tattoo on his lower left leg.
“He’s a good kid,” Smelko says. “Wish we had more like him.”
Bonner Montler, a center on the SDSU football team and another volunteer helper, walks in, holding a racquetball racket. Smelko pounces.
Smelko: “Did a girl beat you?”
Montler: “It took two of them this time.”
They laugh. Dow laughs. He’s a good kid. Wish we had more like him. So, too, does SDSU basketball Coach Jim Brandenburg.
Nearly one year after undergoing surgery for a torn tendon in his right foot, and two years into his SDSU basketball career, Dow, a 7-foot-1 senior, is relaxed, playing well and having the time of his life.
“I am having a lot of fun,” he said. “It hurts inside when you (lose), but there’s no sense in playing when you’re not having fun.”
Dow leads the Aztecs (9-11, 4-6 in the Western Athletic Conference) in scoring (17.8 points a game) and rebounding (8.8). He is the only Aztec to start every game.
It hasn’t been an easy season--he has dropped about 25 pounds since it began. Most of it vanished because of simple, hard work, says Brandenburg. But Dow’s scoring average has increased over last year’s by five points a game, and Brandenburg says he is the most improved player, from one year to the next, that the coach has ever worked with.
“I think he’s better offensively, rebounding-wise, defensively,” Brandenburg said. “His passing is improved. We had a goal for him to step out and become more of a perimeter shooter; he’s done that. In all areas, he’s improved.”
He has battled New Mexico center Luc Longley, a probable first-round NBA draft choice this summer, twice. The first time, Dow hit five shots from about 15 feet--the first time this season he unveiled his long jumper--and outplayed Longley. They both had 18 points, but Dow out-rebounded Longley, 8-5, and led SDSU to victory.
The second time, Longley outscored him but Dow held the rebounding edge. New Mexico won.
Former UCLA and NBA standout Bill Walton has broadcast several SDSU games on Prime Ticket and is impressed with Dow.
“He plays his best against the best opponents, which is a real good sign for an up-and-coming player,” Walton said.
“I think he needs to be a little more aggressive and assertive. He has all of the physical skills.”
Dow added the 15-foot jumper to his game last autumn. It was kind of a bonus because, once, he wondered whether his basketball career would even see the autumn.
The tendon in his foot had been bothering him last winter and finally gave way Feb. 3 at Utah. Two weeks later, he had surgery and missed the rest of the season. The Aztecs went 1-8 in his absence.
“The doctor said I would be fine, but there was doubt in my mind,” Dow said. “Am I going to play again? Am I going to be effective?”
It all hit him on the night of his surgery, when he woke up about midnight with a throbbing foot. The painkillers had worn off, and he simply sat there in the darkness. This is it, he thought. I’m done for the season. Maybe forever. He tossed and turned for hours.
The cast stayed on six weeks; three more weeks passed before he could put pressure on the foot.
Then came the toe-raises. Dow’s physical therapist told him he couldn’t resume play until he could do 300 toe-raises. That is, while standing up, rise up on his toes and back down again, 300 times.
So, in class, he would tap the toes on his right foot on the ground over and over, working to build the strength for the toe-raises.
It was early summer before he could play ball again. He started with pickup games three or four nights a week. It turned out to be a good summer. He came back to school engaged--he will be married in July--in shape and ready for a new season.
He was slowed before the season by a groin injury that caused him to miss 10 days of practice. But, on his second day back--Oct. 30--he practiced with a vengeance. Brandenburg calls it “Black Tuesday.”
“He got into it and dominated,” Brandenburg said.
So, Brandenburg refers to Black Tuesday whenever Dow’s level of play slips in practice, or whenever he says he can’t do something.
Dow has scored in double figures in all but two games this season.
It’s all pretty heady stuff for a guy from Aurora, Colo., who originally entered the University of Cincinnati but left in frustration when he felt lost in the shuffle. He transferred to Northeastern Oklahoma A & M Community College in Miami, Okla. After the school won a national community college championship in 1989, Dow went in search of a Tasmanian devil tattoo and signed on with SDSU.
“I wanted to be like he is on the cartoon,” Dow said, “and just kind of tear into everybody.”
Sometimes, on those mornings in the equipment room, he thinks about the twists and turns and tears his career has taken, and wonders what’s next. If the NBA won’t give him a chance, he is thinking of playing overseas. His brother Mike, 32 and 6-11 1/2, has played in Sweden for nine years and is spreading the word about Marty.
“I’d love to do that,” Dow said. “It would be a great opportunity. . . .”
Walton thinks Dow may have a chance to play in the NBA. “He’s obviously a hard worker--he’s the first one out (before games). I’d like to sit down with him and have a nice, long conversation.”
Said Dow: “I’d love to do that with Bill. He’s told me to keep working hard, keep plugging along and good things will happen for me.”
Which is all right for a guy who doesn’t consider himself particularly gifted on the court. The most difficult part of basketball for Dow?
“Truthfully, I think my whole game,” he said. “I’ve never thought of myself as a talented basketball player. Working hard is what’s gotten me where I am.”