Issue Date: March 6, 2005

Sports

NCAA's VIPs: Jamie Carey and John Lucas III
With March Madness upon us, two of this year's standout college basketball players go one-on-one with USA WEEKEND Magazine.

By Dennis McCafferty

Anyone who knows a pick-and-roll from a give-and-go knows that -- when it comes to March Madness -- point guards fuel a championship team's engine. Once again, as the big tourneys kick off, USA WEEKEND Magazine chats with two of the top players in the game. And this year, we turn to two point guards: Jamie Carey, 23, a senior at the University of Texas, and John Lucas III, 22, a senior at Oklahoma State University. Both have tasted Final Four glory before just missing out on getting to the championship game by only 2 points. Now, they're determined to get back on that stage.

And both have triumphed over adversity. Two years ago, Lucas played at Baylor, which became the subject of scandal after the shooting death of player Patrick Dennehy. Lucas sought to start over at Oklahoma State and took his team to the Final Four last year before losing to Georgia Tech in the semifinals, 67-65. The son of John Lucas Jr., a former NBA star and All-American for the Maryland Terrapins, the younger Lucas is a top contender for the various men's player-of-the-year awards.

Carey also is in the running for player of the year, and her story is a remarkable one: She started out at Stanford, where she was the Pac-10 freshman of the year in 2000. She earned a reputation as a fearless player who'd leap to the floor for a loose ball, or bang it out with opponents. But her fearlessness sidelined her when she suffered a concussion at the start of her sophomore year at Stanford. Suffering from post-concussion symptoms, she retired from basketball for two years. In 2003, still hungry to play after transferring to Texas, Carey got medically cleared to play and led the team to the Final Four that year, losing to eventual champion Connecticut, 71-69.

We recently caught up with Carey and Lucas and discussed everything from adversity to crazy nicknames to steakhouse habits:

Jamie Carey
Height: 5 feet, 6 inches
Academics: Has an undergraduate degree in sociology; now enrolled in a graduate program in sport management
What's in her DVD player: "In America"
What's on her iPod: "Makes Me Happy" by the Matt White Band
Dream one-on-one opponent: "Pistol Pete" Maravich
Favorite pre-game meal: Grilled chicken, salad, noodles and coffee

Jamie on ...
John's game: "I've checked out his game. Who hasn't? You have to admire someone who's a leader."
Where she got her game: "Not my parents! My father was a wrestler. My mom? She didn't even like going to gym class. I grew up playing with the boys, and I always played with people who were older than me. By fourth grade, I was on the seventh-grade team."
Whether she can dunk: "Oh, sure. I just need a trampoline or a hand-up. Don't limit me. There's always a way."
Her biggest steak-eating splurge in Texas: "The most I've had here was a 24-ounce porterhouse that covered the plate. That was all I could eat -- no potato. In Texas, if you order it cooked more than medium, they look at you funny. They want their meat so rare it crawls on the plate."
Her teammates' nickname for her, "Grandma": "Do you know I've been playing ball longer than the freshmen on my team have been alive? Coach recently made a reference to Billie Jean King during a talk to the team. And I was the only one who knew who she was talking about!"

John Lucas III
Height: 5 feet, 11 inches
Academics: Studying sociology/speech communications
What's in his DVD player: "Scarface," "Troy"
What's on his iPod: "Like a Boss" by Slim Thug
Dream one-on-one opponents: Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird
Favorite pre-game meal: Fried chicken, candied yams, and mashed potatoes with gravy

John on ...
Jamie's game: "She's a true point guard, and she plays hard, all the time. I'm amazed she plays like that after the concussion -- that's so big. It shows she has a lot of heart."
Where he got his game: "I've been around NBA players all my life, because of my dad -- like Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman. People say Dennis is crazy, but he was the hardest worker I saw. He was the first one there -- lifting weights -- and he was the last to leave. He got the job done. Nobody gives him credit for what he did."
Whether he can dunk: "I can give you whatever dunk you want. Not in a game, though. I'm scared I'll miss. My dad says, 'Let the big men dunk. Just lay it up and get two."
His biggest steak-eating splurge in Oklahoma: "I love steak, but the most I'm going to have is 12 ounces, medium-well. I order lots of other stuff when I eat it: wings, salad, chicken quesadillas, baked potato skins with all the cheese and chives and other stuff they put on it. But just 12 ounces of steak, because you have to know your limits."
His nicknames: "I have lots of them: JL III, J-Lu, Chrome, Hoss. I like Hoss the best. That's the one my family came up with. Don't ask me why, though. That's just what they called me as a kid."