A Perfect Fit
Gonzaga’s basketball coaches love Ronny Turiaf like a son. A 6-foot-10, 249-pound son who would probably eat them out of house and home, but a son just the same.
Thus, when Turiaf’s coaches mention his occasional lapses in intensity, they do so gently.
“He’s just such a good person,” assistant coach Bill Grier says.
Head Coach Mark Few says, “Everyone knows him on campus, and not just because he’s a basketball person, but because he’s a genuine person.”
Turiaf, told of Few’s remarks, practically blushes. Of course, that doesn’t prevent him from feigning anger over Few’s contention that his intensity wanes at times.
“Coach Few is right ... but Coach Few is crazy!” Turiaf says, shaking with laughter.
Turiaf, an honorable mention All-American last season, may have the most recognized face in the Spokane area. After all, this is not a region bursting with enormous men from the Caribbean who wear their hair in cornrows and speak with Creole accents.
Even his name is unique around these parts. ROW-nee Tirr-EE-off rolls off the tongue as easily as Turiaf scores 20 points, grabs 10 rebounds, swats a handful of shots and unleashes gym-rattling dunks.
Despite being slowed in recent games by ankle problems, Turiaf leads the West Coast Conference with 8.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots a game. He’s fifth in scoring at 16.4.
It’s his outgoing personality, though, that sets him apart.
“He just has an amazing ability socially to reach out to people to make them feel comfortable and special,” Few says.
Turiaf says that’s how Gonzaga coaches and players made him feel on his recruiting visit four years ago. That factored heavily into his decision to turn down big-time basketball powers all over the country to play at Gonzaga.
“I didn’t want to go to a big school like Georgia,” Turiaf says.
Gonzaga discovered Turiaf playing in Paris at a high school for France’s top young athletes. When he was 15, he left his family in Le Robert, a fishing haven of 18,000 on the east coast of the tiny island of Martinique, to move to Paris. Martinique is a colony of France.
“I don’t think people really understand the sacrifices he’s gone through over the years,” Grier says. “He’s 15 years old and leaving home and a sunny beach in the Caribbean to go to school in Paris. And then from there to here and being thousands of miles away from his family, who he’s so close to. That’s really hard on him, because he’s really tight with his family.
“He gets emotional when it’s his sister’s birthday or his mom’s birthday, or it’s around Christmas.... I think in the back of his mind, he just tries to keep a focus, like, ‘The reason I’m over here is when I’m done, I’ll be able to take care of my family.’ ”
Turiaf could have already begun that, but he turned down potential NBA riches to return to Gonzaga for his senior year. Turiaf says it really wasn’t all that difficult a decision, even though he was projected to be drafted in the lower first round.
“I just love the program, first of all,” he says. “I love the coaching staff and my teammates and the community.”
Besides, Turiaf has been turning down big-money contracts from French and Spanish pro teams since he started at Gonzaga.
“Life shouldn’t be about money,” he says. “It should be about your experiences in life, the people you meet.”
Turiaf, who speaks Creole, French and English fluently and “a little” Spanish and Italian, had marginal English skills when he arrived in Spokane. That initially presented problems in the classroom, but Turiaf now boasts a 2.8 cumulative grade-point average, and he’ll need only one class next summer to earn his degree in sports management.
“He ought to be on a poster for the NCAA,” says Few, whose team plays host to Loyola Marymount on Thursday and Pepperdine on Saturday. “He should, because he values and understands being a student-athlete. It’s not a token word for him. He really enjoys the college experience.”
Turiaf makes the college experience more enjoyable for his fellow students pretty much every time he takes the floor. The power forward led the 28-3 Bulldogs with 15.5 points a game last season, but his coaches have stepped up efforts to get him to shoot more.
“There’s such a warm heart, such an unselfish person in there, that he would rather pass it out to the true freshman who he wants to make feel good by hitting a jump shot,” Few says.
WCC rivals are quite pleased that he doesn’t shoot more.
“He’s certainly one of the best players in the college game,” Michael Holton, University of Portland coach and a former NBA player, says. “He creates problems for every team he faces.”
Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal, a former NBA player and coach, says, “The pros like him because he has size and mobility. He can play power forward in the pros, and maybe a little center. You can tell he likes to play a lot.”
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They Are Experienced
In an age when some of the best prospects never make it to their freshman season before going to the NBA, dominant seniors such as Gonzaga’s Ronny Turiaf are few and far between. A look at how 10 other of the nation’s top fourth-year players have performed this season:
Travis Diener, Marquette
G * 6-1 * Leads Conference USA with 6.6 assists, second with 20.9 points, for 13-1 Golden Eagles.
Daniel Ewing, Duke
G * 6-3 * Career-high averages of 16.8 points, 4.3 rebounds have helped injury-depleted Blue Devils stay unbeaten (11-0).
Channing Frye, Arizona
C * 6-11 * Scoring (14.4) is down over last year, and 49% shooting from the field is a career low, but rebounding (8.6) is at a career high.
Ryan Gomes, Providence
F * 6-7 * At 245 pounds, has a pro body to go along with averages of 20.4 points, 9.2 rebounds, first and second, respectively, in Big East.
Julius Hodge, North Carolina St.
G/F * 6-6 * Only member of Wolfpack in double figures in scoring (18.8), and leads team in rebounds (7.2) and assists (4.7).
Keith Langford, Kansas
G * 6-4 * Averaging 14.5 points to help Kansas (11-0) to No. 2 ranking, along with classmates Aaron Miles and the injured Wayne Simien.
John Lucas, Oklahoma St.
G * 6-1 * With 18.9 points and 4.2 assists, gives Cowboys their perimeter game; classmate Joey Graham (18.4 points, 6.8 rebounds) is a force inside.
Lawrence Roberts, Miss. State
F/C * 6-9 * Career-high averages of 18.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, are second and first, respectively, in Southeastern Conference.
Chris Thomas, Notre Dame
G * 6-1 * Playmaking (6.8 assists) is up, but scoring (14.7) and shooting (35%) are career lows.
Hakim Warrick, Syracuse
F * 6-8 * Tops 16-1 Orange with 19.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, while making better than 50% from field for fourth season in a row.