Cato Becomes A Whirlwind For Cyclones

Remember the name: Kelvin Cato. He was almost a transient in Georgia as a kid, dragged from town to town by parents who moved so often he never lived in one school district long enough to be eligible to play basketball.

He learned the sport in the little gyms of the South where AAU teams played barely organized basketball, running up and down on rickety floors where few had ever seen a sight as intimidating as Cato’s flailing arms, slapping the ball back into their faces.

He was so good in the AAU that when he got to South Alabama, he thought he had arrived. And he acted it, and before he could get into a single game, he was academically ineligible and in coach Ronnie Arrow’s doghouse.

“Me and Coach Arrow are friends, now,” says Cato, whose 29-point, 12-rebound, eight-block performance Thursday helped Iowa State past Illinois State, 69-57, and into Saturday’s NCAA matchup against Cincinnati at the Palace. “We didn’t used to be; when I got there I wanted to be into things, and he wanted me to be the best person I could be. We didn’t see eye-to-eye, but I’ve grown up now.”

Remember the name: Kelvin Cato.

He will be 23 this summer, but his basketball game is only 3.

He does not seem to like the comparison, because their personalities are not the same, but there is more than a little of Dennis Rodman in Kelvin Cato.

Neither played basketball in high school.

Each abandoned his first college.

Each began by playing offense only when necessary.

In his single season at South Alabama, Cato set the school record for blocked shots with 85. This season he set the Iowa State season record for blocks with 104.

In between, he left South Alabama, showed up at Iowa State as a walk-on and was redshirted for a year, then played his first season for the Cyclones in 1995-96. He developed a reputation as a streaky player who had 15 points and 15 rebounds against Oklahoma and seven points and two rebounds against Kansas two nights later.

But of all the players who were on the floor in Thursday’s opening round of the Midwest Regional, Cato captured the crowd’s imagination with thunderous dunks, soaring rebounds and that swat-away defense that sent weak shots back into the faces of Illinois State players.

He is, it seems, a player who is coming into his own at the very best time, a work in progress with the opportunity to throw dirt on his streaky reputation Saturday, when he will spend much of the afternoon bumping up against Cincinnati’s Danny Fortson, one of the game’s most intimidating players.

But if he was ever the trash-talker, ever the “Me! Me! Me!” sort of guy people say he was, Cato is no longer.

“This isn’t my coming-out party against Danny Fortson,” he says. “It’s Iowa State against Cincinnati.”

If you ask about his offense, he says: “With the opportunities Coach (Tim) Floyd gives me, my game is unlimited right now. And I’ve got to say the guards know where to give me the ball - from 15 feet in, and that really helps.”

Ask about the change from South Alabama to Iowa State and he starts talking and doesn’t know when to stop.

“When I left South Alabama and came to Iowa State, I had never seen guys like Dedric Willoughby, who could shoot like that, and I had never seen guys like Kenny Pratt, who could work it inside like that,” he said.

Sitting at the same table with Cato, seniors Willoughby and Pratt look at each other and double up laughing. Cato has been asked a question and is just trying to give the answer he thinks people want to hear.

Willoughby and Pratt are players. But neither is unique. And neither has what Cato has, the 6-foot-11, 255-pound body that will make him irresistible when the NBA draft comes around.

No one mentions Kelvin Cato’s name when they speak of the best players in this 64-team tournament, though Willoughby insists: “It’s going to be scary to see what he can do in the next couple of years.”

His entire career consists of 77 games - less than one full NBA season - and on most nights, still trying to figure out the intricacies of this game, Cato is only the third- or fourth-best player on his team.

One big game in this tournament, though, changes everything.

Changes perception, if not reality.

Cato came here a curiosity, an erratic player with a lot of potential but little national recognition.

Friday afternoon, while his teammates were getting dressed for practice, Cato was inside a room with three signs posted outside.

One said: Band Storage.

Another said: Cheerleader Warm-up Area.

The third said: NCAA Use Only.

Inside, there were lights and cameras and Kelvin Cato was being interviewed for a spot that CBS plans to use during today’s game.

Kelvin Cato.

Remember the name.