Dec. 5, 2000

By Kelly Lyell
The Coloradoan

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - For nearly two years, Ron Grady felt like an outsider looking in on the Colorado State University men's basketball team.

Sure, the 6-foot-4, 205-pound guard was a member of the team, but he never really felt right. Grady, now the Rams' leading scorer at 17.5 points a game, spent his first year in Fort Collins practicing but not playing because of NCAA rules following his transfer from Oregon State in December 1998. Then, when he finally did get to play last December, he never really found a niche on a team that played two exhibitions and its first six games without him.

"It was hard for him coming into a team that already had seven or eight games under its belt," CSU coach Dale Layer said Monday. "It don't think he ever really got his groove and felt comfortable. Ron's got to have a comfort level to play consistently, and I don't think he ever got that last year."

In his first game as a Ram, Grady scored 11 points and pulled down a team-high six rebounds to help the Rams to an 85-51 victory Dec. 18 at the University of Denver. The game was the first in two years for Grady, who suffered a lacerated kidney while playing for Oregon State in a January 1998 game at Washington. But he showed few signs of the layoff in that first game back and three days later scored 18 points in a 90-42 win over Florida A&M.

Trouble was, he figured every game would be like that one or better. Some were, some weren't.

"I think I pressed a little too hard, I wanted it a little too quick," Grady said. "I wanted to be the player that I am right now."

The player he is now is precisely what the Rams need, a slashing guard who isn't afraid to mix it up in the paint, battles for every rebound and is shooting at a remarkable 65.0 percent clip (26 of 40) for a 5-0 CSU team that leads the nation in field-goal percentage at 60.5 percent.

Grady missed the Rams' 83-47 win Thursday night over Yale at a tournament in Hartford, Conn., after aggravating an injury to the big toe of his left foot two nights earlier in a 73-46 home win over Sacramento State. Friday night, Grady returned to the lineup despite lingering pain from a bone chip that has been floating around the toe since his senior year of high school and scored 18 points in the Rams 86-76 win over Central Connecticut State in the title game of the Phoenix Classic.

"Had he not been able to play against Central Connecticut, we would have come out with a loss," Layer said. "I think he was very instrumental in our success . . .

"He's a tough competitor. He likes to mix it up. He likes to stick his nose down there under the basket. That's part of his makeup and part of his personality, and he gets a lot done for us down there."

Grady did all those things last season as well but not consistently.

"I think last year, there were times when he was just settling for jump shots, and when he does that, I don't think he's nearly as effective," Layer said.

Grady wound up averaging 9.2 points and 3.2 rebounds a game last season while starting 17 of the 24 games in which he was eligible. Not a bad season by any means, but well below the expectations Grady had set for himself.

"I was frustrated all year and never got out of my funk," said Grady, who shot 43.2 percent from the floor this past season. "I couldn't get over the hump, and it just kept getting harder and harder and harder. I just kept getting more and more frustrated. It got to the point where it felt like I was never going to get out of it, and I never really did."

Then, to add insult to injury, coach Ritchie McKay - the primary reason Grady transferred to CSU - left at the end of the season to become coach of, at all places, Oregon State.

"I just thought that was a sign that basketball was going to be over for me, that maybe I was just going to finish out my career, get another year in under another coach, play and get on with my life."

But Grady found new life as soon as Layer, an assistant to McKay during his two seasons at CSU, was named head coach 18 days after McKay's departure.

"Coach Layer getting the head job is probably the best thing that ever happened to me," Grady said. "I'm in a better situation now than if I had never left Oregon State. If I had to do it all over again, even if I knew how everything was going to turn out and the kind of season I was going to have last year, I'd still do the same thing."

Hindsight has allowed Grady to appreciate his surroundings, his teammates, his success on the court and his relationships off of it.

"I come home sometimes, and I take a big, deep breath, and I say, 'It's about time you caught up with yourself,' " Grady said. "It has to do with being comfortable with your teammates, being comfortable with your coaches. When you have that comfort zone, it makes things so much easier."

Off the court, that comfort has been provided in his relationship with Jennifer Jodoin, the fiancée he shares a house with and plans to marry sometime next fall or winter.

"I'm really content," said Grady, who admits turmoil in his personal life played a major role in his decision to leave Oregon State for CSU two years ago. "I feel like I'm married already. I work hard, come home from practice, go to bed early, get up early. I take really good care of my body.

"My life is a lot more calm now, and I have a lot less to worry about . . . That's allowed me to focus on my schoolwork and my basketball."