Nobody wanted him
TUCSON, Ariz. – Ronald Ross has a great story and Texas Tech associate head coach Pat Knight has a great time telling it, even if it jabs a few needles at several of his closest coaching associates.
Ross came out of Hobbs (N.M.) High with three state titles, which impressed precisely zero Division I schools. Knowing Texas Tech’s scholarships were locked up, Knight offered a glowing referral of Ross to a coaching friend at a Big Sky Conference outpost. His buddy didn’t bite. Neither did a Texas junior college coach who let Ross go after a tryout.
So Ross ended up walking on at Texas Tech, Gonzaga’s opponent this morning in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and making an implausible climb from role player to starter to captain to All-Big 12 Conference first-team.
NBA scouts are now phoning Knight and his dad, Bob, Tech’s head coach, inquiring about the versatile 6-foot-2, 185-pound senior guard.
Ross’ success story puts a wide smile on Pat Knight’s face and clears his vocal cords for lift off.
“When we got in here (four years ago), we kind of cleaned house and we had five guys committed so we had no more scholarships for (prep) seniors,” Knight said. “So I was at a shooting event in Oklahoma – it was actually for unsigned seniors, but I didn’t know it – and I was about to leave but I watched him for a couple hours and he was just killing everybody.”
Meanwhile up in the stands, Knight was killing time with his pal from the Big Sky, who he politely declined to name.
“I said, ‘What do you need?’ ” Knight began. “He said, ‘I need a point guard.’ I said, ‘That’s your point guard right there.’ He said, ‘No, my coach wants a JC point guard.’ So I’m telling him you would get four years instead of two and, plus, he’ll be the Big Sky player of the year. They wouldn’t take him.”
Several months later, after Tech had completed its junior recruiting, Knight called around to check on Ross, only to find out Ross’ luck had slid from bad to worse.
“It wasn’t going too good,” Ross said. “There was nothing that I really wanted. I would have been settling for less and I didn’t want to do that. It finally worked out here.”
Ross jumped at Knight’s invitation to walk-on and he roomed with current Zag and ex-Red Raider Nathan Doudney, who is sidelined with a knee injury. Ross played about 10 minutes per game as a freshman and started 20 games as a sophomore. He became a cornerstone as a junior, averaging 10.1 points, shooting 49.3 percent and handing out a team-high 106 assists.
Then he got better, much better. His scoring average has climbed to 17. After shooting 29 percent on 3-pointers his first three seasons, he’s soared to 45 percent this year. His 76 steals broke Andre Emmett’s school record by 12. Ross has played 1,059 minutes this season, more than 34 per game, counting Thursday’s tourney win over UCLA, and committed just 50 turnovers.
He also made the Big 12 All-Defensive team and his 5.3 rebounding average is second on the team.
“He can get up and down real quick,” said Gonzaga’s Erroll Knight, who will probably defend Ross when the Bulldogs aren’t in their 2-3 zone. “He can rebound and he has a nice midrange jumper. He’s a complete player.”
He was completely overlooked, which Knight notes in an addendum on his Big Sky buddy.
“I actually saw that coach – he’s at a bigger school in California now – at a JC in September,” Knight said. “He came up to me and said, ‘Pat, don’t ever tell anybody about that, I screwed up big time.’ I said, ‘Hey, I told you.’ But a lot of guys missed on him because he didn’t play AAU and no one knew about him. We just lucked out.”
Which is more than Knight can say for Steve Green, coach at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas.
“We made some other calls (on Ross’s behalf),” Knight said. “Our buddy at South Plains, he tried out there and (Green) didn’t keep him. Now Steve comes to all our games, all our practices and it drives him nuts. They had an article about it and they kind of called out (Green), so Ronald autographed it for him: ‘Coach Green, thanks for believing in me, Ronald Ross.’ “
Ross doesn’t like to dwell on his unlikely journey because he feels like there’s more left to achieve.
“It’s humbling, actually,” he said. “You get all this recognition, it’s something you’re grateful for, but it’s something that makes me want to keep working harder.”