No time for culture shock
Mark Few was understandably concerned. Jeremy Pargo, his prized basketball recruit from Chicago’s South Side, had flown into Spokane and checked into his dorm room at Gonzaga University just a couple of days earlier. Few was anxious to see how the 19-year-old freshman was dealing with the culture shock.
So the Bulldogs coach took his wife, Marcy, and their two sons to visit Pargo in his dorm room – admittedly, not knowing what to expect.
“I wanted to just look in on him that first weekend, before school even started, to see how he was doing,” Few recalled. “Marcy and I and the boys were walking across campus to his room, and we looked over and there’s Jeremy. He’s got a flag football game going, and he’s the full-time quarterback, directing people around and throwing bombs.
“He was having a great time, and just kind of running the show.”
So much for the brooding, homesick teenager Few thought he might encounter.
“It looked to me like he kind of had that Ronny (Turiaf) personality going for him,” Few said of the 6-foot-2 Pargo, who has since emerged as a key contributor for the 10th-ranked Bulldogs (6-2), who face Virginia (3-3) in the McCarthey Athletic Center at 5 p.m. on Saturday. “He’s a really, really positive kid who people seem to enjoy being around.”
Still, Pargo admits he has struggled, at times, with adapting to the dramatic cultural differences between Chicago and Spokane. Growing up, he explained, nearly all of his friends were black. He’s had little interaction with people of other backgrounds.
And suddenly he finds himself in a community that, according to the latest United States census, is 87.88 percent white.
“It’s been tough, because it’s not what I’m used to,” said Pargo, who added he spends little time off campus other than to travel to games with his teammates. “But it’s something you’ve got to deal with when you have a goal in mind.”
Pargo’s goal is to play in the NBA, like his older brother, Jannero Pargo, a fourth-year pro in his second season with the Chicago Bulls. Pargo figured the best way to reach that goal was to sign with Gonzaga, one of the few Division-I universities to stick with him through difficult academic times in high school.
And now that he’s traveled halfway across the country for college, he is not about to let a little case of culture shock stand in his way.
“Sure I miss my family and friends,” said Pargo, who was raised primarily by his mother, Charlie Mae Pargo, after his father, Jannero Brown, died of cancer 11 years ago. “But my teammates are my family now. I’m not looking for anyone else to be my family. This is my nucleus. This is what I need right now.”
It helps that Pargo speaks on the phone with his mother and older brother almost daily. He has been able to develop a strong bond, as well, with freshman teammate Larry Gurganious, who lives in the room next to his.
According to Pargo, he and Gurganious spend much of their spare time watching NBA highlights on ESPN, playing video games and “joking around.”
“That’s basically it,” Pargo chuckled, “because there’s not much to do here. It’s been pretty much basketball and school.”
When asked if he ever ventures downtown, Pargo laughed again and said, “Yeah, to Taco Bell, if that’s downtown.”
Pargo said the death of his father, while unexpected, was hardly a defining moment in his life.
“My father wasn’t always around,” he explained. “My mother had been taking care of me, my brother and my older sister (Kizzy) since I was about 4 years old, and it was never a burden on her or anyone else that he died, because he wasn’t always there.
“A lot of people might use that as an excuse to maybe make some bad decisions and do some bad things, but you can’t do that. You’ve got to just turn to your mother and the rest of your family and deal with things the best you can.”
It’s the love and respect he feels for his family, Pargo said, that kept him from getting involved with the gangs and drugs that were so much a part of the landscape in his South Chicago neighborhood.
“Watching my brother – he’s seven years older than me – as he grew up helped,” Pargo explained. “It was like he was laying the path for me to do right, so there was no way I could come behind him and do wrong. I couldn’t be looked at as my mom’s only child that failed. I had to keep my mind on the straight and narrow and just do the things I knew were right.”
One of those things involved leaving the city and those he loves most to coming to Spokane to pursue his goal of joining his brother in the NBA. It is a decision that seems to be paying off.
The former prep standout at Robeson High School has played in all eight of GU’s games this season, starting the last two in place of injured point guard Derek Raivio. He is averaging 28.9 minutes, 4.9 points and a team-high 3.63 assists.
“When a true freshman just gets thrown into duty like he has, it’s pretty amazing,” Few said of Pargo. “He’s playing a lot of minutes against a schedule the likes of which we’ve never seen. Against Oklahoma State (last Saturday) for instance. As a true freshman, you’d hope to only have to play him five to 10 minutes in a game like that, but instead he’s out there carrying the load as far as our ball-handling and play-making is concerned.”
Few also likes Pargo’s personality.
“He’s very gregarious, and that’s been a welcomed addition, too, because some of our guys are pretty stoic,” he explained. “When you lose a personality like Ronny, you worry about the personality makeup of your team. But you add Jeremy, and you get this guy with non-stop chatter, who’s excited to play the games and excited to live life.
“You can beat him up pretty good in a film session or practice and he still walks off with a smile – and shows back up with one, too.”
There is a good chance Pargo will keep smiling, because despite the cultural change he has been forced to deal with, he seems convinced he is in the right place at the right time.
“There are times when a guy will see another college team on TV playing and wonder how it would be to be at their place,” he said. “But I never do that, because I feel this is the right place for me.
“I can’t see myself anywhere else.”