Feb. 3, 2005

Getting The Point

South Carolina’s coaches have a formula that calculates the score with a particular player in the game.

With Lea Fabbri on the floor against Tennessee, the Gamecocks won by 3. South Carolina lost 68-53.

Foul trouble prevented the New Zagreb, Croatia, native from playing a more prominent role in the Gamecocks’ upset bid. Saddled on the bench after picking up her fourth foul midway through the second half, Carolina’s deficit ballooned from two to 13.

Paper victories will hardly satisfy anyone. Yet it magnifies the importance of the sophomore point guard, whom head coach Susan Walvius acknowledges as the key to her team’s success.

“What we’ve needed this year is strong leadership from the point position. She did a great job of that against Tennessee, and because we had better poise from her position, we had probably had one of our fewest turnover games against maybe the best defensive team in the country,” Walvius said.

Croatian adulation, indeed.

Point guard is an unforgiving position, especially for young players. In the rough-and-tumble SEC, confidence doesn’t come easily. Fabbri admits as much.

“Last year I didn’t have a lot of minutes, and I kind of lost my confidence. So it took me a while to get my confidence back. I think it’s getting better every game,” she said.

“She really pushes herself, and sometimes presses herself,” adds Walvius.

For Fabbri, running the point is also the family business. Her father, Fabio, was an all-star point guard in Yugoslavia’s top pro league.

“He’s the best coach you can have. He understands the game better than everybody,” Fabbri said. After games, he’ll regularly give counsel to his daughter, even though he has no more than an Internet radio broadcast to guide him.

Being the offspring of a famous player also gave Fabbri another trait invaluable to a point guard: how to handle expectations.

She remembers the time she tried out for a club team in Zagreb. The tryout attracted the best players from around the city. She had only been playing basketball for a year.

During roll call, the team’s coach spotted her name on his list.

“Are you Fabbri’s daughter?” he asked.

“Yeah,” the 13-year-old Fabbri replied.

“Okay, come in the middle and stretch everybody,” the coach said.

So much for anonymity.

At South Carolina, Lea Fabbri is hoping to make a name for herself, all over again.

Tip Drill

Heard: The sound of engines growling, as the players waited for their elevator at the Lexington Hyatt. It turns out that Rupp Arena, which adjoins the hotel, was holding a monster truck rally that Saturday. Excuse me, that Saturday-Saturday-Saturday.

Stowed: Into coach Linda Hill MacDonald’s travel bag, several canisters of Play-Doh. The artistic assistant – she makes stained-glass artwork in her spare time – used the Play-Doh as part of an old motivational tactic. Before breakfast on Sunday, Hill-MacDonald handed her players clumps of the clay, then told them to sculpt something that represents a strength of a Kentucky player.

Hill-MacDonald says the exercise allows players to hone in on their scouting report, without such a stuffy atmosphere.

Extra credit to Ebony Jones, who made boxing gloves to symbolize the need to box a player out.

Extra credit to each player for not eating their Play-Doh at breakfast.