When Mel Counts stilts up the stairs of Gill Coliseum, someone always tells him, “Mel, we need you back here.”
The former Oregon State star responds the same way every time.
“I say I am a little to old for that,” said the 66 year old. “In fact, I ruptured my Achilles tendon three months ago playing basketball with my grandkids.”
But, quite frankly, Counts doesn’t think the Beavers basketball team really needs as much help as some may think.
Counts, a 6-foot-11 real estate agent, won two NBA championships in 1965 and 1966 with the Celtics during his 12-year NBA career. He was a member of the 1964 Olympics squad that took gold in Tokyo. He substituted into games for Wilt Chamberlain as a Laker and took mental note in Boston when Bill Russell blocked a shot to gain possession of the ball.
So clearly, Counts is an optimistic Beavers fan who knows the score. He believes OSU, which finished 11-21 last season, isn’t too much farther behind the rest of the pack.
And the Pacific-10 Conference is separating itself in a sprint as the best conference in college basketball. Teams that aren’t in top 25 preseason rankings are the exceptions. In the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, six Pac-10 squads were tabbed, including UCLA (No. 2), Washington State (No. 10), Oregon (No. 13), Arizona (No. 17), Southern California (No. 18) and Stanford (No. 21).
The rest of the Pac-10 teams aren’t slouches either. Arizona State returns a beast of a forward in junior Jeff Pendergraph. California has heralded sophomore forward Ryan Anderson and senior center DeVon Hardin, an NBA prospect for several years. Washington is very young, lacks depth and misses Spencer Hawes, but nevertheless returns starters Jon Brockman, Justin Dentmon, Quincy Pondexter and Ryan Appleby (once his thumb heals).
And then there’s Oregon State, which Counts said needs only tap into one of legendary OSU coach “Slats” Gill’s mentalities to be successful.
“If you are the ninth or 10th guy on the team, don’t be talking about the player in front of you,” said Counts, who grew up in Eastside, Ore., and went to Marshfield High School. “In practice, dive for balls and make things happen because when you are called on, you have to be ready to play.”
Some questioned whether the Beavers were ready to play last year, or if coach Jay John – who owns a 66-85 record in five seasons at OSU – knows what he’s doing. After a forgettable season last year, campus star turned malcontent Sasa Cuic left and others followed suit.
Fans in Corvallis are getting impatient because former coaches Gill and Ralph Miller set the bar so high.
Like the program, Counts has also had to clear some hurdles – and he’s no stranger to playing role of underdog. Before the 1964 U.S. team ever defeated the Soviets, Counts said newsmen had already written them off. “They doubted us even before we got our uniforms on,” he said.
But the team didn’t care.
“Our players went over to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and worked out 2 1/2 hours in morning and 2 1/2 hours in evenings,” said Counts, who now lives 12 miles southwest of Woodburn and about 50 minutes away from Corvallis. “We believed.”
Counts, the ninth pick in the 1964 draft (ahead of Willis Reed) carried the mentality to the NBA, where he gladly accepted a new occupational title: Role player.
Even doing the small things in games took loads of training in practice.
“My last couple of years in pros, I wouldn’t leave practice until I hit 50 foul shots in a row,” Counts said. “That’s what it takes.”
As long as he sees real dedication from the Beavers, Counts – who goes to a handful of games each year – will be satisfied.
And Counts isn’t being too unreasonable about his estimate of the team either – he’s been in the real estate business for 31 years after all.
“I hope we will at least be in the middle of Pac-10,” he said. “All it takes is commitment.”
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