By Paul Perillo

Ten minutes into a Miami Christian School practice, basketball coach Ron Everhart knew high school senior Jose Juan Barea was the one.

“I could just see the work ethic shining through,” says Everhart, now in his third season overseeing the Husky men’s team. “He made the game happen. He was the guy I wanted to hand the keys to for the next four years.”

The coach has been glad he did. Everhart’s high-tempo style requires a special type of athlete at point guard, and this nineteen-year-old matches all the requirements. Generously listed at 6 feet, 173 pounds, Barea has lightning speed and nonstop hustle, perfect attributes for running the show. He not only distributes the ball to teammates, he scores with proficiency, making him a rarity among point guards.

“He has a tremendous motor, both offensively and defensively,” says Everhart. “With his ability to pass and score, he’s the ideal guy to have the ball in his hands, and he’s a very tough man-up defender.”

But in a bit of bad luck for the Huskies early last month, Barea went down with a cartilage tear in his left knee. Before the injury, which sidelined the sophomore for four games, he had already averaged 35.5 minutes and 17 points in each of his first four starts.

Last season, Barea also averaged 17 points per game (third in America East), along with 3.9 assists (also third), earning a spot on the America East All-Rookie team. Only the late Reggie Lewis averaged more points (17.8) in his freshman year.

And Barea was the only player in the conference to finish within the top ten for scoring, assists, and steals. With that kind of pedal-to-the-metal, the Huskies were able to put together their first winning season since 1994, posting a 16-15 mark.

So how did the Huskies get their best freshman since Lewis? With a little help from an unlikely source: former Celtics coach Rick Pitino.

Barea, who was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, had moved to the United States during high school, settling in South Florida. He enjoyed a successful three-year career at Miami Christian, with his team finishing 38-2 in his final season. But, new to the United States and absent from the summer Amateur Athletic Union tournament circuit, Barea was outside the sightlines of most college recruiters.

Meanwhile, back in Boston, Northeastern assistant coach Frank Martin, who used to coach at Miami Senior High School and maintains strong ties to the South Florida area, had heard about Barea from the Miami Christian coach. The Huskies’ interest was piqued, and they were keeping tabs on Barea from afar.

That’s when Pitino, now head coach at the University of Louisville, stepped in. He called Everhart to tell him Barea was a terrific player who might be a bit too small for Louisville’s needs. The endorsement mobilized the NU coaching staff.

“I really respect Coach Pitino for doing that,” Everhart says. “Maybe he knew we were already recruiting [Barea], but, for whatever reason, he let me know he was a player. Frank was already scheduled to go see him, but it upped the urgency a little.”

After Barea made a favorable impression from the practice floor, Northeastern, for its part, was persuasive. Despite some interest from sizable programs such as Marquette, Oregon State, and North Carolina State, Barea chose to venture to Boston.

The fact that the Huskies boast eight other players from South Florida probably made his transition a little easier. The bitter New England weather, however, proved a bit of an obstacle.

“I didn’t like it at all,” Barea says with a laugh. “It was cold, and I missed the beach. But it never got to the point where I thought about leaving or anything. We have a chance to win some games this year, and I want to be part of that.”

By late last month, without Barea for nearly half of their games, the Huskies had racked up a 5-4 record. Fortunately, Barea was able to make a strong return for the December 19 win against Harvard, putting up 14 points and 8 assists.

If the team goes to the NCAAs (for the first time since 1991), Barea will draw on last summer’s postseason experience, when he played for Puerto Rico at the FIBA Men’s Junior World Championship in Greece. There he was the tournament’s second-leading scorer (27 points per game) and leader in assists (5.9).

Who does he look to as his on-court model? “I try to pattern myself after [New Jersey Nets star] Jason Kidd,” Barea says. “He can move the ball and score, and does all the little things, too. My goal is to make the team better.”

Early in his collegiate career, Barea has shown the basketball world he reaches his destinations. Quickly.

Diving into America, Nailing Her Entry

In the competitive world of collegiate sports, coaches scour the country, and sometimes beyond, to find their next star. So imagine the skepticism of head swimming and diving coach Roy Coates and diving coach Brad Snodgrass when they began getting inquiries from a young woman in Romania looking to compete at the college level in the United States.

“We get a lot of e-mails like that,” Snodgrass says. “But, mostly, you know it’s not going to happen. There are too many obstacles like language and money, and the logistics are just too tough. Adela was able to overcome all that.”

That’s Adela Gavozdea, who arrived at NU from Romania in fall 2001. And she didn’t just overcome; she’s thrived. Last year—after sitting out her first season, per NCAA requirements—she qualified for the NCAA Championship, where she placed sixteenth in the platform dive, thirty-third in the 1-meter, and thirty-sixth in the 3-meter.

But detailing her exploits as a diver tells only part of her story. The very fact that Gavozdea is competing here at all is nothing short of miraculous. A national champion diver in her home country, she had attended Romania’s Lucian Blaga University but couldn’t afford to complete her studies there. So she began e-mailing U.S. universities, hoping to parlay her diving talents into a scholarship.

As Snodgrass says, those hopes aren’t uncommon among foreign students. But few student-athletes possess her skills and pedigree. Gavozdea’s father, Andrei, was a diver, and her mother, Zita, was a gymnast; they served as her coaches.

“My mom taught me the basics, like entries and hurdles, while my dad showed me some of the professional aspects, like somersaults,” says Gavozdea.

Even after the Northeastern coaches realized she was worth pursuing, there were NCAA requirements to fulfill, and the matter of getting to the United States in September 2001. Gavozdea’s flight was originally scheduled for September 11.

“We barely managed to get her NCAA credentials in place, just before the deadline,” Snodgrass says. “She flew from Romania to Budapest, Hungary, and from there was supposed to come here, but all flights were canceled on 9/11. Eventually, she got in. And she was worth the wait.”

Actually, Gavozdea’s biggest challenge would come later that first year. The NCAA forced her to sit out the season because she had taken her SATs after taking college classes. “All I could do was train,” she recalls. “It was the hardest part by far. I really didn’t know anyone, and I couldn’t travel with my teammates and get to know them.”

Once the delay was finally over, her anticipation was high. “I remember how much pressure I felt at my first meet,” Gavozdea says.

She needn’t have worried. She finished second and third in the 1- and 3-meters, respectively. And her performances only got better. Gavozdea finished first in seventeen of the twenty events she entered, qualifying for the Zone A meet, where she finished second in the platform dive, fifth in the 3-meter, and eleventh in the 1-meter—thereby qualifying for nationals, the only America East diver to do so.

This season, Gavozdea, a junior majoring in journalism, picked up where she left off at nationals. By the end of last month, she had already won two first-place medals in the 3-meter and one in the 1-meter.

With Gavozdea nailing dives, perhaps heading for another championship appearance, Coates and Snodgrass feel lucky she landed in their laps—and thankful they live in the computer age.