Be Like Ike Prep Tennis Dropout Nears Pinnacle Of WSU Basketball Productivity

Something you probably didn’t know about Washington State University basketball star Isaac Fontaine: In selecting a private high school, as his parents had wished, young Isaac chose one that assured him it wouldn’t cut him from the tennis team.

There was just one problem.

“I didn’t know tennis was during baseball season,” Fontaine explains. “So I just went out for baseball. Then I stopped playing baseball and just concentrated on playing basketball.”

The rest is almost history.

Nearly four years after graduating from Jesuit High School near his native Sacramento, Calif., Isaac Henry Sedric Fontaine IV is within 35 points of supplanting the late Steve Puidokas as the most prolific scorer in WSU men’s basketball history.

In fact, since Fontaine enrolled here in 1994, no other Pacific-10 Conference player has scored as many points (1,860).

The senior guard will probably pass Puidokas this week at Friel Court, either tonight against Stanford, or when Cal visits on Saturday afternoon.

Tennis, anyone?

“Not too many people knew I wanted to play high school tennis,” Fontaine says. “I asked, ‘Do you guys have a tennis team?’ And they go, ‘Uh, yeah, we have one and we don’t cut, either.’ So I definitely wanted to go out, in case I wasn’t real good.”

Not that he had any real way of measuring his tennis acumen, being self-taught and having played mostly at his mother’s apartment complex, against the same junior-high friend.

“We’d just play for sodas, every game for a soda,” Fontaine says. “So we played every weekend and I really started to like it. I thought I was pretty good.”

On the basketball court, there was never any doubt. An excellent student, Fontaine led Jesuit to its first NorCal Championship since 1975. And he’s had an eye on the WSU scoring record almost since he arrived, when …

“Right when the media guide first came out,” he says.

Upon reading that he’d need 1,865 points to break the record, Fontaine started letting it fly.

He scored 33 points in just his second college game, an 86-81 victory over Michigan State in the San Juan Shootout. Afterward, he couldn’t get to a phone fast enough. “He calls me and says, ‘Hey, pop’ - a freshman, he’s young, he called me after every game - and he says, ‘Yeah, I got 33!”’ recalls 49-year-old Isaac III, himself a former semipro player. “And I said, ‘Sure you did.”’

Young Isaac was less surprised, even if his debut had been a six-point, 2-for-11 showing in a 57-55 win over Coppin State. The MSU game was all it took for Fontaine to make a bold prediction to teammate Eddie Hill, then a senior.

“He told me he was going to be the all-time leading scorer,” concedes Hill, now an assistant at Cal State Northridge. “He did tell me that - as much as I hate to admit it, he did.

“I said, ‘Yeah, right. You’re going to have to pass me to get there.”

Hill, who ranks 10th on the WSU scoring list, might have considered Fontaine foolish had he not witnessed the freshman in practice.

“We had been playing all fall and he’s just a tremendous talent,” Hill said. “He scored 33 and he tells me he’s going to be the leading scorer. And to be honest with you, I didn’t doubt him at the time because he had the confidence to get enough shots to do it.

“It takes a lot of confidence to put up as many shots as he has in his career (1,324). And obviously, to make ‘em, it takes a lot of talent.”

That’s where Dad comes in.

Isaac III starred at Sacramento’s Grant High before playing at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and in the semipro Western Basketball Association.

His oldest son, 28-year-old Elgin - hey, it’s a basketball family - made all-city at Grant in football, basketball and baseball. Isaac IV went to private school for academic reasons; he’s on schedule to graduate from WSU with a degree in business.

Sports remain a thread. Even now, it’s never wise to leave Isaac III uncovered on the driveway.

“He always could shoot,” young Isaac attests. “We always used to play H-O-R-S-E. I never beat him until I got in college.”

They’ve played one-on-one only once, several years ago, with sobering results. In a game to 12, straight up by ones, Isaac III spotted his precocious son 11 points - then proceeded to score 12 straight.

“Elgin had told me about him playing one-on-one, and he did that to him,” Isaac IV recalls. “And I said, ‘No, that ain’t gonna happen to me.’

“And the exact same thing happened. Because we played if you make it, you take it. He gave me the ball first, stopped me and just made the rest of them.”

Fontaine considers himself more scorer than pure shooter, preferring to take his 6-foot-4, 210-pound frame toward the basket. If overplayed on the perimeter, he likes to fake the drive, only to step back for a suddenly uncontested 3-pointer.

That combination has been at times unstoppable, allowing Fontaine to lead the Cougars in scoring during each of the last three seasons. He’s averaging a career-best 21.4 points per game this season, second only to Cal’s Ed Gray among Pac-10 players.

How good is Fontaine?

Consider last Saturday night: Washington guard Jamie Booker, an excellent defender, gloated after “holding” Fontaine to 17 points on 7-for-15 shooting.

“I usually hold him to less than 15,” Booker beamed, raising an obvious question: Would that be in a half?

In their last four meetings, Fontaine has averaged 25 points on 57 percent shooting. But by simply keeping him from taking over their latest encounter, Booker had earned the upper hand.

“Everybody remembers the last game,” said Fontaine, who ranks Booker among his toughest matchups, along with Oregon’s Jamar Curry and USC’s Stais Boiseman.

“So he got me on the last game. He’s a good guy, though. I don’t take it personal at all. If you have a good game, you should be able to talk about it.”

Fontaine prefers sign language, at least during games, contorting his face and body to express everything from feelings to opinions. But his trademark smile has been less pervasive lately - the Cougars (11-13) have lost eight of nine games, all but ending their string of three straight postseason appearances.

“I guess it just wasn’t meant to be,” Fontaine said. “I kinda think everything happens for a reason. A lot of players have said they learn stuff from losing seasons more than they would from winning seasons.”

Isaac III, who will join Elgin courtside tonight and Saturday, senses his youngest son’s disappointment.

“It’s definitely worn on him,” Dad said. “Sometimes he’ll hold it in and not let it show, but I know it because I’ve been around him.

“He’s very competitive. He hates to lose if he’s playing Nintendo. This is probably hurting him more than he is letting them know.”

The dismissals of senior teammates Donminic Ellison and Tavares Mack also bother Fontaine, although he concedes each may have been inevitable.

Ellison was let go over the summer after being arrested on a marijuana charge. Mack, who still rooms with Fontaine, simply lost interest in basketball.

“Donminic leaving, that doesn’t sit well with me,” Fontaine said. “I’m glad that he’s all right and everything has pretty much worked out fine for him (after transferring to New Mexico State).

“But I kinda wish he was still here, just because we came in together, we were roommates.”

For Fontaine, it might be the closest thing to a regret.

“He’s graduating, he played in the Pac-10, he had some pretty good years, he likes where he’s at,” Isaac III said. “No, I don’t think he has any regrets.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: Two sidebars appeared with the story: 1. CLOSING IN Isaac Fontaine’s pursuit of WSU’s career scoring mark: Player Years Points 1. Steve Puidokas 1974-77 1,894 2. Isaac Fontaine 1994-97 1,860* 3. Don Collins 1977-80 1,563 4. Mark Hendrickson 1993-96 1,496 5. Jim McKean 1966-68 1,411 * - Six games remaining

2. IKE’S FAB FIVE Isaac Fontaine ranks his five most memorable performances as a Cougar: 1. WSU 76, Michigan State 71 (Nov. 27, 1993, San Juan, Puerto Rico): 33 points, four steals In his second college game, the 18-year-old Fontaine drops 9 of 14 field goals, including 5 of 6 3-pointers, in the San Juan Shootout. “The weird thing about that game, during the whole warmups, I couldn’t make one shot. And my first shot went in and then I just kept shooting.” 2. WSU 94, Texas Tech 82 (March 15, 1995, Friel Court): 32 points, four rebounds Fontaine, a sophomore, hits 11 of 14 from the field and 9 of 10 from the free-throw line in an NIT opener. “That game, I couldn’t miss at all. The whole team couldn’t miss, actually. Everybody was having a good game, the crowd was real loud and it was just the first time I had been in the NIT… . Nobody expected us to really do anything.” 3. (12) Arizona 114, WSU 111, 2OT (March 2, 1995, Friel Court): 38 points, five rebounds, five steals Fontaine connects on 13 of 21 from the field in a scoring duel with Arizona’s Damon Stoudamire (41 points). Fontaine has a chance to win it with two late free throws, but hits only 1 of 2, necessitating the second OT. “We didn’t win, but both teams played real hard. Just a real good game. I enjoyed it a lot… . Sometimes I’ll watch like the first half, and then I’ll never watch the second half. I always stop it.” 4. Texas 86, WSU 81 (Dec. 28, 1994, El Paso, Texas): 33 points, five assists, two blocks Fontaine hits 12 of 16 field goals, including 5 of 6 3-pointers, as the Cougars finish second in the Sun Classic. “That was the style of play I like to play. Texas likes to press and run up and down the court. I just had a lot of fun that game, even though we didn’t come out with the win.” 5. WSU 81, (17) Oregon 76 (Jan. 9, 1997, Spokane Arena): 28 points, five rebounds Fontaine breaks out of a game-long shooting slump with 14 points in the last 5:28, including the back-breaking 3-pointer to stop a frantic Oregon comeback. “I knew I was going to shoot it before I even caught it. And it kinda went in. I didn’t expect it to go in, so that kinda surprised me and shifted the whole momentum. That was probably the best I’ve felt all season.”