Sunday, November 19, 2000
XU's Sato provides peek into potential
He's working on his English, the way he's working on everything else. Earnestly and without attitude. The difference is, basketball comes easier to him than the language. Basketball requires a different sort of fluency. It translates directly.
“Impossible,” Romain Sato said.
The question was: If five years ago someone had said you'd be playing in front of 10,250 people in the first game of a new gym, at an American university, what would you have thought?
Impossible.
Refreshing attitude
But there he was in the first half of the first game at Cintas Center, pogoing up and down the court, six feet, four inches of elastic youth. Romain Sato can dunk from a standing position, can make shots from 20 feet and is still so new to the ways of America, he's actually receptive to constructive criticism.
“The first time I yelled at him,” recalled Xavier coach Skip Prosser, “he said, "Thank you, Coach.'”
Sato scored the Musketeers first points in their new gym, a 3-pointer from the left wing. By halftime of Xavier's easy win over Miami, the freshman had scored more points than anyone, taken more shots and turned more heads.
You people in the luxury suites: Put down your cheese and crackers long enough to check this kid out.
Once in the first half, Sato dribbled down the left side and checked his feet to make sure they were behind the line. Should I throw up the 3? Not this time.
Sato drove the lane. Sato driving the lane already looks like a leaf down a waterfall. He hung in the air one second, then two, before arching a shot off the backboard. It missed. But the notion of Sato's big potential did not.
“Scary,” said Xavier assistant Jeff Battle, who works with the guards.
Sato's coaches don't know what it's like where he's from. They have not been to the Central African Republic, where he lived until last January. They've met his guardians — Tom and Tiffany Thompson of Dayton — but not his parents.
They'd never seen him play before last year. Ask Battle a good thing about Sato, Battle says, “No bad habits.”
They've started him from scratch. Sato is a lump of clay. A lump of clay with a 38-inch vertical leap. “He's playing off of feel,” Battle said.
When Sato starts knowing what he's doing, he will fit perfectly into XU's break-your-neck style. When he begins to take defenders off the dribble, when he learns to play in the open court, when he realizes it's all right to be a little selfish, to take a lot of shots ...
“He'll really take off,” Battle says.
For now, “he's a nice, polite, naive guy,” says XU center David West. “There's a peace about him. He's never mad. I'm mad all the time, especially on the court.
“He's gotten tougher since he got here. But he doesn't know how good he is. He doesn't know how physically imposing he can be.”
Sato doesn't know. But everyone says he's learning quickly.
Helpful hints
For now, his teammates pull Sato to the side during practice, to explain what Prosser wants. West warns him about the girls that will come knocking at his dorm room door. During timeouts, Battle puts an arm on him. “Romain,” he'll say. “Shoot the ball.”
Everyone helps Sato, because he has no ego and wants to learn.
“In the second half, I don't play like I'm supposed to play” was Sato's view of his performance Saturday.
But in the first half, you played very well, someone said.
“Thank you,” said Sato. “Thank you very much.”
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at (513) 768-8454.
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DAUGHERTY: XU's Sato provides peek into potential
