THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 25, 1995 TAG: 9501250563
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
The basketball hangs in the air seemingly forever, a perfect arc like a rainbow in the sky.
At the end of that Kent Culuko rainbow last March was an NCAA tournament berth for James Madison. The shot of a lifetime, Culuko said then. The best moment of his young life, he says now.
James Madison and Old Dominion renew the Colonial Athletic Association's hottest rivalry tonight at Scope (7 p.m., HTS), with the league lead on the line. The irony for Culuko: the 3-point shot that has always come so easily for him - the shot that provided his apex of glory - has eluded him.
Culuko suddenly cannot shoot the 3. Can't get that arc to find the end of the rainbow.
He is 30 percent from 3-point range this season and is averaging 2.1 treys a game. Last season he made 45 percent and ranked 11th nationally with 3.4 per game. Through 13 games last season he had 56 3-pointers; through 13 games this season, just 28.
Culuko's confidence, never before in short supply, has shriveled. He was held out of the starting lineup one game. In another, he failed to score for the first time in his college career. And in one stretch he went three games without a 3-pointer.
Basketball hasn't been fun this season, a new experience for Culuko.
``It's such a bad feeling - `What am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong?' '' said Culuko, a senior. ``I go back to my room and say, `Damn, I know I'm a better player than that.' ''
Cliff Culuko - a prototype proud father - knows it, too.
Cliff played Division I basketball in the 1960s at Long Island University and was a high school head coach in Bergenfield, N.J., for 14 years. When his two sons began playing at Mahwah (N.J.) High School, Cliff became an assistant so he could coach them.
But actually, Cliff Culuko has been coaching them since they could walk.
When Kent got a college scholarship, Cliff Culuko quit coaching so he could follow his son's career.
He bought a satellite dish to pick up televised games. When the Dukes are home and not on TV, Cliff drives six hours one way to see Kent play. When he can't make a road game, he'll pay $40 to hear the radio broadcast over the telephone.
``I don't miss much, I know exactly what's going on,'' said Cliff, a high school physical education teacher.
Kent knows his dad has opinions. So does anyone who has ever sat near Cliff Culuko at a JMU game.
``If you sit around him, bring your earplugs,'' Kent said.
Hey, Lefty, get your earplugs.
Cliff said his son's problems are partly Kent's, partly coach Lefty Driesell's.
``I really can't wait until this year's over,'' Cliff said Tuesday. ``Kent's struggling, and I know it has to come from someplace, because he never struggled with me. Lefty is a very, very tough coach to play for. I don't think Lefty ever had a shooter like Kent.''
Cliff said the Dukes do not set picks to free a shooter, and that Driesell has undermined Kent's confidence by telling him not to shoot after a couple of misses.
``Kent shouldn't be struggling and thinking what's a good shot and what's a bad shot,'' Cliff said. ``If you're a shooter, you should be shooting the basketball. It's like taking a home run hitter and telling him to bunt because he strikes out a few times.''
Driesell has explored a multitude of theories about Culuko's slump. He's called it ``senioritis,'' said Culuko is pressing and attributed it in part to the loss of an excellent penetrator in Dennis Leonard. Last year Leonard could draw defenses to him and kick the ball to Culuko on the perimeter. Leonard was lost for the season, an academic casualty.
``(Culuko) is still not playing like I need him to play,'' Driesell said. ``He needs to have a couple of big games to get his confidence back.''
Culuko is averaging 13.6 points, three fewer than last season. After being held scoreless by UNC Wilmington, he had 22 against George Mason and 24 against East Carolina, including a game-winning tip-in at the buzzer.
But in his last two outings, he's totaled 24 points and gone 2 of 14 from beyond the arc.
``I'm a first-team all-CAA player, and I'm not playing like it,'' Culuko said.
He's had other things on his mind, however. Culuko has been preoccupied by the illness of his maternal grandfather, who is dying of cancer and is ``just hanging in there,'' according to Culuko.
After getting shut out by UNC Wilmington, Culuko went to Florida to visit his grandfather.
``He was pretty upset because I didn't score a point and we almost lost a game,'' Culuko said. ``He said, `The only thing that's going to make me feel better is if you're playing well, so just go out there and relax.' ''
Culuko said he has felt better since the visit, but has not shaken the worst slump of his life.
When he's really down, Culuko has a certain pick-me-up. He pops in a VCR tape of last year's CAA championship game.
But he doesn't really need the tape to remember it.
With 1.1 seconds left, ODU's Odell Hodge blocks a shot out of bounds. ODU is up by two, but calls time to set its defense. In the huddle, JMU coaches discuss a lob pass near the basket. Then Kareem Robinson speaks up: ``Coach, man, forget about two, let's go for three.''
``As soon as they said that, my heart started racing and for about two seconds I was a little nervous,'' Culuko said. ``Then I said, `Nah, I'm making this damn thing.' ''
Clayton Ritter in-bounds the ball to Culuko as two ODU defenders run into a wall of screens. The pass is perfect, and Culuko launches the shot as Hodge runs toward him.
``It seemed like the ball was in the air so long,'' Culuko said. ``It felt really good leaving my hand. I'd missed four in a row before that, but this one felt so good.''
The horn sounds and the ball falls through the Richmond Coliseum net. JMU, down by 19 with 13 minutes to play, is headed for its first NCAA tournament since 1983. Cliff Culuko and another son jump over the scorer's table to join the swarm of people on top of Kent.
Culuko has seen the shot, which was the CNN Play-of-the-Day, about 100 times.
``It was like a dream,'' he said. ``I felt like crying, but I was so happy. It's hard to explain it. You just feel like all the bad moments in your life in basketball and the things you've done bad that stick in your mind all disappear.''
Culuko hopes those perfect arcs of his reappear soon. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Courtesy of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY
Through 13 games last season, Kent Culuko had 56 3-pointers for
James Madison. Through 13 games this season, he has just 28.
by CNB