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Sports

UH defensive stopper ready for next season

Lafayette cites better scoring potential, return of stalwart defense

by Chris Elliott
The Daily Cougar

With literally no room to breathe, a frustrated guard attempts to advance the ball up court. He's seen a full-court press before, but the man-to-man intensity of this one is starting to get to him. 

With all the passing lanes blocked, he goes for the crossover. Anticipating this move, junior guard Oliver Lafayette strips the ball away, sparks a fast break and shifts the momentum of the game, all of which translates to a UH win.

This scenario became a familiar and welcome reality to the fans who attended last season's men's basketball home games. Beginning the day he put on a UH uniform, Lafayette has taken the challenge of guarding other squads' best scorers and has rarely failed to hold them below their season averages. 

Even though last season was Lafayette's first chance to play Division I ball, his accomplishments did not start and will not end there.

"The best game I've ever played in would have to be when we won the national championship in (junior college),"Lafayette said. "We played (Kirkwood) for the national championship when I was at Brown Mackie. That was the best game I've ever played in."

With the help of Lafayette, Brown Mackie won the National Junior College Athletics Association Division II championship 77-65 over Kirkwood. 

After his role in the championship game and leading the team in nearly all statistical categories, Lafayette was selected as the NJCAA Division II player of the year. 

After leaving Brown Mackie as the team's leading scorer, he shocked the college basketball world by combining for a total of 60 points in back-to-back games against Louisiana State and Arizona last season while becoming the Cougars' leading scorer with 15.7 points per contest. 

His 27 point second half explosion against LSU rides shotgun in Lafayette's favorite basketball moments. The Baton Rouge native still has a slight grudge against the purple and gold Tigers.

"Playing against my home town at LSU — you know, proving to them that I was one of the best players in the Louisiana area,'Lafayette said. "It's not that they didn't want to take me. It was that they didn't recruit me hard enough."

With a little motivation, Lafayette accounted for more than one-third of Houston's points in an 84-83 victory over the NCAA Tournament runner-up. This marked the second year Houston had beaten the Tigers and was enough to scare them away from scheduling another game against UH for 2006-07. 

Lafayette also likes to keep up with things in the professional basketball world. 

He's already made some of his predictions about the teams to watch out for in the coming NBA season.

"I think Phoenix is going to make a major comeback with the return of (Amare) Stoudamire. That's the team to watch. Chicago will be good with Tyrus Thomas and all those other young guys, especially Ben Gordon — he's been stepping up. They'll be good."

As far as favorite players go, his past and present are Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

"Growing up it was always MJ. Right now I like Kobe Bryant's game," Lafayette said. 

"I like Dwayne Wade's game. But Kobe Bryant has the full package. He's got the shot. He defends the best player every night. He's just the total package," he said.

The Cougars are a team that knows how to play solid fundamental basketball and distribute the ball, as they had three scorers, including Lafayette, average more than 10 points per game. Last year the team thrived off of fast breaks forced by defensive pressure. 

It also relied heavily on the three pointer, which occasionally got them into trouble. 

However, Lafayette said he the Cougars will be a better all around team this season.

"I feel good. I feel good about the team. We've got a big squad. We've got more scorers on the team,"Lafayette said. 

"We just got to keep up the defense and we'll do good this year. We've got to do what we did last year. We've got to stay in the passing lanes, pick up the loose balls, and box-out. We did all that stuff last year. Now we've just got to get up on our scoring this year," he said.

"Yeah, I'll get more 30-point games this year than I had last year. I've been working out everyday. 

"I've been working on my ball handling so I can start bringing the ball up the court. Then I've been working out in the gym so I can start shooting the ball better."

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