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GDC
2/24/2006, 08:52 AM
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Successful obsession
By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
2/24/2006

Everett weaves his talent throughout OU's court
NORMAN -- As February turns to March and Oklahoma's season reaches a crescendo, Terrell Everett has the basketball in his hands.

He bobs around the perimeter or weaves through the lane, until he can serve Taj Gray for a jam, spot Michael Neal for a 3, or summon a shot of his own. The means may change by the dribble, but the end doesn't.

"Terrell knows as he goes we go," said OU assistant Ray McCallum.

Texas, victimized by Everett's 25-point, eight-assist, seven-rebound gem on Jan. 28, knows it, too. So does Oklahoma State, beaten for Everett's 23 points Feb. 8. And Baylor, who witnessed Everett's 15 assists Feb. 11. And Texas A&M, who stood by as Everett decided a game, and maybe a season, with a closing-seconds 3-pointer Jan. 14. If Everett doesn't make that shot, the Sooners are 0-3 in the Big 12 Conference.

Now they're 9-4. They're 18-6 overall, ranked No. 20, and up for a friendly seed in the NCAA Tournament.

You think Everett is important to OU basketball? Well, it's about half as important as basketball is to him.

"The most important thing in my life? I'd say so," he said. "Because I wouldn't be here. I'd probably be home right now

doing nothing. Probably wouldn't be in school or nothing like that.

"I got a chance at a different life."


Finding a focus


"You've got to understand where Terrell is from," said OU coach Kelvin Sampson.

Charleston, S.C. Just not the coastal, antebellum "Where history lives" Charleston you see polished in the tourist pamphlets.

Everett missed that scene.

"Where I live, there's so much crazy stuff going on out there," he said. "When I go home, I just go to the park or to the gym and play ball. Sometimes I just stay in the house and play video games all day. I don't try to get out much."

Said Ronnie Dupre, who coached Everett at Charleston's West Ashley High School: "It's not quite the projects, but it's similar. There's violence, and drugs are pretty pervasive."

Said Marty Appel, a Charleston optometrist who coached Everett in youth and AAU ball: "The kids are all hanging in the street."

A dangerous lure for a type-B personality.

"Terrell was a mild-mannered kid," Dupre said. "He wasn't a leader."

A toxic environment for a type-B personality growing up without a father.

"He went to prison when I was real young," Everett said. "He got out, but then he went right back in."

"He ran down one road. I said goodbye, took my babies and went on," said Brenda Everett, who raised sons Terrell and Turmaine on a nurse's assistant salary. "Even when he was around the neighborhood, he never paid (Terrell and Turmaine) any attention."

Brenda Everett lay down some ground rules. She shepherded her boys to church every Sunday and stayed on top of their studies.

But with work and the neighborhood yanking at her good intentions, she needed help.

Fortunately, it arrived.

"Basketball," Brenda Everett said, "was something that Terrell really, really loved. More than anything else."


Obsessed with the game


"Every day I wanted to play," Terrell Everett said. "We used to shoot on crates and buggies. We'd flip a grocery basket that was laying down back over and shoot on it."

The obsession provided Brenda Everett a source of comfort.

"Terrell would always ask me, 'Mama, can you take me to the park?' " she said. "So I'd drop Terrell off down the street, tell him to stay there and I'd be back in a couple hours. And I knew he'd do as I told. He'd play basketball, have a free lunch, then play some more."

What the obsession provided Terrell is barely measurable.

He went from the grocery baskets and the local park to Appel's AAU team, then to Dupre's varsity, then to an enormous stroke of luck before his senior season.

"I was at a tournament featuring the Beach Ball Select team," Appel said of the Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based AAU all-star squad. "Their star player was (future North Carolina Tar Heel) Raymond Felton, and I happened to overhear they were looking for another guard. I said, 'Excuse me, but I've got a kid in Charleston that can really play.' The next week, I drove Terrell to meet the players and coach. I knew if he got on that team, he could showcase his ability.

"Well, that night, I called his mom and said, 'Brenda, your son's life is about to change.' "

Within weeks, Everett and Felton were playing against Duke signees J.J. Redick and Shavlik Randolph in Chapel Hill's Dean Dome. Division I interest followed Everett through a senior year in which he averaged 23 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and then on to West Plains, the Missouri community college Everett chose after missing D-I academic requirements. From West Plains it was on to OU.

The ball may have started in Drew Lavender's hands last year, but it wound up in Everett's as the Sooners captured a Big 12 championship.

He hasn't let go since.


Success on and off the court


"It's been a great fit," Dupre said of Everett and OU.

Everett's statistics and the Sooners' win total deem it so. But they're not alone.

The borderline student at West Ashley High has, in Sampson's words, "done a great job in the classroom." Everett says he can earn his degree next fall. The type-B personality is now a B-plus.

"Terrell doesn't talk a lot, but when he speaks, everybody listens," McCallum said. "He'll make a point, and the staff will believe in it, the players will believe in it and we'll all follow it."

And his mom is so proud.

"It is something to see," Brenda Everett said. "My friends at work are always telling me, 'Your son might go to the NBA.' Well, I'm the type of person that takes it one day at a time. . . . All I know is we always talk after games. I try to encourage him. I tell him, 'You're doing something that you love. It's what makes you tick.' "



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Guerin Emig 581-8355
[email protected].

NormanPride
2/24/2006, 10:36 AM
The borderline student at West Ashley High has, in Sampson's words, "done a great job in the classroom." Everett says he can earn his degree next fall. The type-B personality is now a B-plus.

I think, along with his finding something he loves, that this is what makes me the most happy. Good luck Terrell!