Is Alston Getting the Point?

Rafer Alston’s shining moment should be at hand. Doubters coast to coast said he’d never get this far, running the point at Fresno State and bringing a dizzying dose of New York City street ball to national television audiences.

Watch Alston pass for 25 assists in two games this week and even the harshest critics would agree that his bold decision three years ago to bolt from New York--with its playground hoop hierarchy and roiling temptations--for laid-back Ventura College appears to have paid off.

Evident in the marginally controlled mayhem of Fresno State are the confidence and ball-handling skills Alston developed trolling the subways and surfacing for pickup games with Stephon Marbury, Jerry Stackhouse and the like.

Yet, despite trading asphalt for hardwood, Alston hasn’t shaken the street from his shoes.

Sure, he led Ventura to the junior college state championship in 1995, but he was kicked off the team for bashing a sleeping teammate in the groin with a metal weight.

Sure, he proved college classwork isn’t beyond his capabilities by following a shaky academic performance at Ventura with two solid years at Fresno City College, but his violent actions escalated.

Alston, 21, was convicted twice recently on misdemeanor battery charges. In October, 1996, he beat up a neighbor who complained about his loud music and was sentenced to 40 hours of community service. Last month, Alston was convicted of punching his former girlfriend, Rachel Henderson, and knocking her to the ground outside the Fresno State weight room.

The judge in the latter case, Ed Williams, had stern words upon sentencing Alston to three years probation, 100 hours of community service, a $200 fine and a one-year domestic counseling program.

Williams held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart and told Alston: “You came that close to losing the basketball season this year. You came that close to going to jail in the basketball season.”

After the second battery conviction, Coach Jerry Tarkanian suspended Alston for two exhibitions and the opener. Alston, a junior, has been in the lineup since, averaging 10 points and 6.4 assists.

Fresno State Athletic Director Al Bohl, already besieged by complaints that the basketball program has spun out of control since Tarkanian took over in 1995, made it clear that Alston has run out of chances.

“Rafer recognizes he’s made a most dramatic mistake,” Bohl said. “He is at a point where he can’t make any more mistakes.”

Yet, Alston put himself in jeopardy again when he fell asleep and rolled his borrowed 1988 Acura Legend while driving to Los Angeles at 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 14. A California Highway Patrol spokesman said Alston passed a breath test for alcohol.

He slightly injured a knee in the accident, but hasn’t missed a game because of it.

Throughout the turmoil, Tarkanian has stood by Alston. In fact, on a team where problems are so rampant that “60 Minutes” spent last weekend interviewing anyone wearing Bulldog Red and Black, Alston qualifies as a source of stability.

“I have a lot of faith in Rafer,” Tarkanian said. “I think he can put the other stuff behind him and become the kind of player and person we can be proud of. He’ll become a very fine point guard.”

Patience is necessary coaching the sinewy 6-foot-3, 170-pound Alston, who one moment makes a breathtaking assist and the next a careless pass that leads to a layup the other way. During a recent five-game losing streak, Alston averaged four turnovers and four assists.

At a practice this week, Alston stayed afterward to work on properly making simple chest passes. Tarkanian is trying to correct his habit of flinging two-hand passes from below his waist with a flick of his wrists.

“His chest pass is like an underhand pass,” Tarkanian said. “He doesn’t even know how to throw a chest pass.”

But in two victories this week in the Fresno State tournament, Alston had a school-record 17 assists against North Florida and eight more against Long Island, a team filled with Alston’s New York City cronies.

Playing Long Island reinforced to Alston his decision to leave behind the 155th street games he dominated during sweltering summers in Harlem and the “Skip to My Lou” nickname he picked up from the announcer at the Rucker tournament, a well-known showcase for top street talent and college and NBA players wanting off-season action.

“I couldn’t go to Long Island, I couldn’t be in the city,” Alston said, laughing quietly and shaking his head. “I had to escape.”

Escape from New York came courtesy of Philip Mathews, the Ventura coach who built a junior college dynasty by importing troubled players from the nation’s four corners.

“Coach Mathews instilled in me that playing hard is the only way to play,” Alston said. “He turned me into a pure point. I had gone away from that. He taught me to play up-tempo, to push the ball.”

Not until Ventura finished 37-1 and Alston was named most valuable player of the state tournament did the players finally hit the beach.

“I’m a city kid, and Ventura, it was slow,” Alston said. “It was all basketball until we won, then I decided to see the shore.”

The sunshine faded the evening Rafer’s madness surfaced. Alston belted his teammate and friend, guard Shannon Taylor, with a weight when Taylor fell asleep after the two argued.

“Rafer was a guy who beats to his own drummer, he was in another world,” said Jeff Oliver, then a Ventura assistant. “Shannon, he swelled up pretty much. It’s one of those incidents that people still talk about.”

Mathews promptly kicked Alston off the team, then left to become coach at San Francisco.

Taylor played one more season at Ventura, which won another state title, then returned to his hometown of Fresno and attended Fresno City in 1996-97.

It was at Fresno City that Taylor reunited with Alston, who spent the 1995-96 school year taking classes and last season led the Rams to the state semifinals. Alston insists he and Taylor, who did not return calls to a reporter, patched up their differences.

“He’s a great friend, a close friend,” Alston said. “Shannon and I will always be cool.”

Apparently they did some studying. Taylor and Alston both earned enough credits to become eligible for Division I. Taylor transferred to Eastern Washington, where he is a starting guard.

Gaining eligibility was a huge victory for Alston, who did not graduate from Cardozo High in Queens, N.Y., but passed an equivalency test. His most difficult foe, however, is his own raffish behavior.

A continued inability to deal appropriately with anger not only could destroy his career, it could put him behind bars. At this point, Alston’s anger-management counseling is more important to his future than the classroom or basketball court.

He has regular appointments with a counselor off-campus and also has frequent talks with Roscoe Poindexter, an assistant to Bohl who helps players deal with problems off the court.

“Counseling helps out a great deal,” Alston said. “I’m able to handle situations better. When trouble does occur, I can walk away.

“I’m learning to control myself when things are not going well. I’m answering questions in my mind more like a normal individual. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Something else broadening Alston’s perspective is his court-ordered community service spent coaching Fresno youth.

“I’d love to get into coaching, at any level,” he said. “I like helping kids.”

His job now centers around giving on the court, getting his teammates the ball for easy baskets. That’s always been Alston’s best attribute.

“He’s learning how to run a ballclub,” Tarkanian said. “It’s different than playing in the Rucker tournament. He’s made some careless passes, but he’s a worker.

“I told Rafer that for this team to get better, he has to run the ballclub.”

Trying to get Fresno State’s season squared away while controlling his anger is a steep task. Accomplishing it all will put the street in Alston’s rearview mirror.

“Rafer has already beaten odds to come this far,” Bohl said, “but he has a long road ahead of him. And there is no question that whatever he does will be under great public scrutiny.”