Changeover : Turning From Tennis--and Notre Dame--Marcaccini No. 3 Starts Anew at Crespi

Gianandrea Marcaccini poured in 22 points last week to help the Crespi High basketball team bury Notre Dame--the team his older brothers put on the map. Ironic? Yes, but consider how easily things might have been different.

What if Gianandrea’s promising tennis career hadn’t been ended by a rare and painful disorder in his elbow? Or what if the fastest way to get from Encino to Notre Dame didn’t involve a freeway?

Or, and this is the big one, what if Notre Dame Coach Pete Cassidy hadn’t cut Gianandrea from his basketball team in November?

Cut a Marcaccini? At Notre Dame?

Last season Monte Marcaccini carried the Knights to the Southern Section Division III-A championship. G.C. starred there a couple of years earlier. Both are now playing basketball in Italy, G.C. professionally and Monte for a junior team.

When they returned home for Christmas, they were shocked to find a practice jersey of archrival Crespi in their little brother’s bag.

Just last spring, Gianandrea was two counties away, helping the Santa Barbara High tennis team to its fifth consecutive Southern Section Division I championship.

A highly ranked junior player, Gianandrea played tennis at Notre Dame as a freshman, but he spent his sophomore year living with his grandparents in Santa Barbara because his father Giancarlo, an international businessman, was spending the year in Italy and his mother Alicia planned to spend a couple of months there too.

Alicia Marcaccini said it would have been too difficult to transport Gianandrea to Notre Dame while she and her husband were out of the country, and Monte couldn’t drive him because, as a basketball player, he had a different schedule than Gianandrea, a tennis player.

She also asserts it is “purely coincidental” that her parents live in the school district that features Southern California’s top boys’ high school tennis program. Sending him to Santa Barbara was a last resort, she said.

“What kid wants to leave his friends and live with his grandparents?” Alicia said.

But Gianandrea’s tennis career ended because of an elbow problem that required surgery in December, 1992. The surgery was unsuccessful and the pain became unbearable as the high school season progressed last spring.

Gianandrea moved back home to Encino over the summer and re-enrolled at Notre Dame in the fall.

A 6-foot-3 junior, Marcaccini had played basketball with his brothers for years but never took it seriously until he had to give up tennis.

He tried out for the team at Notre Dame, but Cassidy cut him, saying later it was because of problems of attitude, not talent. “A difference in philosophy,” he said.

“I guess Coach thought (Marcaccini) was more of a detriment to the team,” Notre Dame co-captain Rich Igou said.

Cassidy said if Marcaccini had approached him or one of the captains about the problems, he might have reinstated him, but Marcaccini instead transferred to Crespi within a week of being cut.

Ostensibly, Marcaccini transferred because his mother didn’t want him driving on the freeway from Encino to school in neighboring Sherman Oaks while she was out of the country. Crespi is just blocks from the Marcaccini’s home.

The Southern Section, presented with 14 pages of documentation, granted Marcaccini a hardship waiver in early December, giving him immediate eligibility.

The waiver was based on his move from Santa Barbara. Because he never actually played a game at Notre Dame, no waiver was needed for the transfer from Notre Dame to Crespi, Southern Section Commissioner Dean Crowley said.

Marcaccini and his mother acknowledge that one of the factors in the transfer was Marcaccini’s basketball experience at Notre Dame.

“I did have some problems with the coach at Notre Dame,” Marcaccini said.

Marcaccini’s mother does not understand why Gianandrea was cut.

“What . . . was the hidden agenda?” she said. “If this was an objective decision by the coaching staff, then fine, but it seems pretty strange that the previous coaching staff used to badger (Gianandrea) to get him in the gym.”

Alicia also said when Gianandrea was cut “it did a huge favor for me,” because she could persuade Gianandrea to transfer to Crespi, where he wouldn’t have to drive as far anyway.

Marcaccini has been practicing with the Celts since late November and playing in games since his waiver was granted in early December.

“We could tell right away he was a scorer,” Crespi Coach Paul Muff said, “but he really lacked a lot of the other fundamentals in basketball.”

Marcaccini learned most of his basketball on playgrounds with his brothers, in dunking contests. Needless to say, they spent little time on fundamentals.

“The first few times we did passing drills, he didn’t even know how to hold the ball,” Muff said. “But once we showed him, he picked it up.”

Marcaccini, who plays small forward, spent most of December near the end of the Celt bench, trying to pick up things such as how a real basketball team runs an offense and how to make a bounce pass.

“It was frustrating,” Marcaccini said, “but if I went in I didn’t really know what to do.”

But on Dec. 30, after the Celts had lost five consecutive games, scoring fewer than 53 points in the last four, Muff decided he would put Marcaccini in the starting lineup.

“We felt, geez, he’s doing as good a job as anyone else and we knew he could score, and that’s what we weren’t really doing well,” Muff said.

Marcaccini scored 20. The Celts beat Channel Islands, 59-51. He started the next game against St. Bernard. He scored 21 and led Crespi to a 77-65 upset.

Then came Notre Dame.

Marcaccini scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half and the Celts won, 72-62. Igou said he didn’t hear any trash talking from Marcaccini during the game. Perhaps Marcaccini was too busy being a “detriment” to Notre Dame.

“He’s got a lot of talent,” Cassidy said this week. “He would have helped us a lot. I wish it could have worked out, but apparently he is happier at Crespi.”

So far Muff has seen none of the attitude problems that prompted Cassidy to cut Marcaccini. He pointed out how well Marcaccini accepted his role on the bench during his early weeks at Crespi.

“What transpired at Notre Dame doesn’t really involve us,” Muff said.

Besides, no one else is scoring for the Celts (7-8, 3-2 in Mission League play), who defeated Alemany, 50-41, Wednesday night.

“He really has a nose for offensive basketball,” Muff said. “He really has a nice shot and some skills for the game. He’s probably our best offensive rebounder.

“What has really surprised me is the way he’s come along in such a short time. It’s nice that he’s a junior. We can have him back next year too.”