At Duke, Cherokee Gets Fresh Start

Speaking of Fab Freshmen . . .

Whatever happened to Cherokee Parks?

At a mop-topped 6 feet 11, with a stage name seemingly plucked from the credits of “Dances With Wolves,” Cherokee is a hard man to lose in a shuffle. Ever since eighth grade, when he finally stopped fighting his growth genes and accepted basketball as something more than “the stupidest game ever,” Cherokee was destined for the scene that awaited him here Sunday afternoon--strobe lights, boom microphones and mob interviews on the eve of the NCAA championship game.

Cherokee is here, all right, but not without several asterisks attached.

* He’s in the NCAA final, primarily because he had the good sense last spring to enlist with the best collegiate basketball program (Duke), the best collegiate basketball coach (Mike Krzyzewski) and the best collegiate basketball player (Christian Laettner) in the country.

** He will play in the NCAA final, primarily because senior forward Brian Davis sprained an ankle Saturday and spent Sunday on crutches.

*** He will be a freshman in the NCAA final, but he won’t be alone, unique or even at the top of his class. Cherokee will be out-freshmanned tonight, five-to-one, and has long since been eclipsed by Michigan’s first-class first class. Cherokee has had the kind of season freshmen are supposed to have--12.8 minutes per game, 5.0 points per game, double-digit razzing and hazing per game. Chris Webber, Ray Jackson, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose and Jimmy King have had the kind of season no freshmen have ever had--one starting lineup, 25 victories, 40 minutes shy of a national championship.

Some peer group. Cherokee and the Wolver-teens broke in at the same time, and they have arrived at the same place. But while Michigan’s ride has been all front pages and imagine-thats, Cherokee’s has been seated in sobering reality, seated on the bench.

Is he envious?

Well, yes. “I think it’d be great just to be thrown in there,” Parks says. “Coach Fisher has given them a lot of freedom and the older guys just stepped back and let the five freshmen come in. (The freshmen) didn’t have to adjust to Michigan’s system; Michigan adjusted to them . . . They never have to worry about taking one bad shot and getting taken out of the game.”

Is he envious?

Well, no. “For me, there’s not so much of a need to perform, there’s not so much pressure,” Parks says. “The Fab Five, they don’t have a choice--they are the show. But with me, it’s like, ‘If I don’t do it, Laettner’s always there.’ ”

Spoken like a true freshman.

Actually, a break from the spotlight has been healthy for Parks, who bathed himself in sun-block No. 15 for four years at Marina High School. Instead of carrying a team, he finally got to be a part of one.

The idea was to ease into the college experience, to take a year to get ACC-acclimated, but that was before Parks sprained an ankle and became acquainted with Laettner, whom Parks describes as a pain in another part of the anatomy.

The ankle kept Cherokee out of action for three weeks.

Laettner kept Cherokee out of sorts for half a season.

Part of it was just traditional freshman indoctrination, part of it was senior star-meets-his-successor, but most of it, according to Parks, was “just Christian.”

“When you first meet him,” Parks says, “Christian comes on as the biggest ass in the world. He’s strange. He doesn’t make a good first impression and most people dislike him right away, because he’s so brutally honest. He tells you exactly what he thinks--and a lot of time, it’s negative.

“Everything I did during the first half of the year was to please Christian. I did whatever Christian wanted me to do. It was never enough.

“But I later learned it wasn’t just me. I heard he was twice as bad on Bobby (Hurley) when he was a freshman. He’s like that with everyone. When Christian was a freshman, Danny Ferry and Quin Snyder had a nickname for him because he was so snide.”

Parks was asked to repeat the nickname.

He did.

It can’t be repeated here.

“He was always coming down on my game,” Parks says. “I’d have a good game and he’d tell me, ‘Oh, you just got lucky,’ or ‘Yeah, but their best player fouled out,’ or ‘You’re lucky I got in foul trouble and you got some minutes.’

“It took me time to learn that that’s just Christian. That’s the way he is. He’s really not a bad guy. You just have to know him.”

The relationship has matured and even improved--winning NCAA tournament games cures everything--but the dynamics between the duo remain a tad tense, as evidenced Sunday when Laettner was asked a question about Parks.

“I told him that Monday, we were going to have dinner after the game so I can pass the mantle down to him,” Laettner said with heartfelt sarcasm. “So much has been made of this. It’s not that much of a big deal. It’s one 6-11 white kid after another. Duke seems to get a lot of them.”

Stat line worth clipping and saving: In Saturday’s semifinal victory over Indiana, Laettner was two for eight from the field, Parks was three for five and both finished with eight points. If the mantle isn’t being passed, it is now being shared--tonight probably more than ever. With Davis sidelined and Michigan presenting Duke with significant size problems up front, Krzyzewski has promised Parks more minutes.

Parks has promised to use them the best he can.

“Hopefully, I can step up, clog up the middle and be a presence on the team,” Parks says. “Before, I always felt when I was in there, I was just taking minutes away from other people. I was going through the motions. Now, I’m going to have to produce.”

Too much is at stake not to.

“No one wants to go out and lose to five freshmen,” Parks says. “If that happens, that’s all you’re going to hear--’Duke lost to five freshmen.’ I don’t want there to be any (flak).”

Parks sounded cocky as he said it. He sounded even a little Laettneresque.

So the transition is happening. Christian-to-Cherokee lesson for the day: It’s OK to be fresh, man. Just don’t let five of them beat you.