Out of the Bus, Into the Friars

The bus ride of Ruben Garces fascinated me. I do not remember the longest time I ever spent on a bus, but after Ruben completed summer school in Compton and left for college to play basketball, his bus took quite a while to reach its destination.

He rode it to Rhode Island.

“It was a little hard for me, yes,” recalls Garces, who is originally from Panama, “since I am, you know, 6-9.”

For nearly four days and 3,000 miles, Providence College’s starting center twisted in his seat like a contortionist. There had been a mix-up with his plane ticket. As an NCAA athlete, Garces wasn’t sure which way to turn. So, he bought a bus ticket in Los Angeles to make his way across the land.

He says, “I went to Las Vegas, then to Colorado, then to Chicago, then to New York,” rattling them off as though discussing a commute from Santa Monica, to Long Beach, to Anaheim.

“I got to see parts of the country. I got to meet people I never would have met.”

At Providence, teammates and coaches were waiting for Garces to arrive. Among them were the Friars’ 6-foot-9 All-American candidate, Austin Croshere, an NBA prospect who has come a long, long way himself--literally and figuratively--from his days at the private Crossroads School in Santa Monica, as well as 6-6 Derrick “Flight” Brown, who once played for L.A. City College.

Togetherness is a theme with this team.

The coach, Pete Gillen, prints the word “Family” across each player’s practice shorts.

I doubt the Friars felt like such a family that Croshere and Brown would have gladly joined Garces on his 3,000-mile bus trip. But they did quickly become a unit.

Providence is 19-10, and hoping for one of the Big East’s bids to the NCAA tournament. Croshere and Brown do the scoring, Garces the rebounding, and a 6-foot sophomore guard with the otherworldly name of God Shammgod runs the offense. In New England’s dialect, he is the “point god.”

They are as tightly knit an outfit as a team can be.

Gillen invites his players to his house for dinner, as often as possible, for “nothing fancy, just macaroni or burgers.” He requires the teammates to eat breakfast together.

Last season, the Friars began to come into their own. They went 18-12, and were ranked in the preseason top 20 by many magazines.

Six nights a week, during the summer, Croshere sneaked through a window in the closed campus gym, simply to work out. Back in his Santa Monica summer league days, everybody knew he had talent, but few knew how far his dedication would go.

He scaled a five-foot fence to get to the Providence gym. He squeezed his 6-9, 230-pound torso through a tiny window that he left unlocked the night before. He shot 500 jump shots and 200 free throws each night. He pantomimed moves on the court, without using a ball, for hours.

Gillen joked that Croshere was focused “like a Cyclops” on one thing . . . becoming a better player.

And once this season began, when anyone wondered whether Croshere was still sneaking into the gym before or after practice to work out, the answer not only was yes, but it turned out he had company.

Garces was doing it with him.

Their games showed the improvement. Croshere scored 30 points against Rhode Island, 27 against Villanova, 27 at Wisconsin, 28 against Canisius. Garces excelled on defense, and grabbed 18 rebounds at Seton Hall.

A few days after Christmas, the team came cross-country again to play Loyola Marymount.

“Flight” Brown, the Brooklyn native who played JC ball here, had his number retired by LACC, a first for that program. He then rang up Loyola for 25 points, with five three-point baskets.

Croshere added his first double-double of the season.

And Garces, well, he enjoyed the trip home . . . because the team took a plane.

“When I was 18, when I left Panama, I did not speak much English,” Garces remembered recently, on the phone from Rhode Island. “I did not know how my life in United States would be. I go to junior college. Then I take my summer exams in Compton. After that, I cannot wait to get to Providence.”

Yes, but on a bus?

Garces said, “Is OK. If no other way, I would walk.”