If you have ever wondered what it is like to live your life on the hardwood, just ask Virginia's Keith Friel.
After all, the senior guard from Durham, N.H., has always lived and breathed basketball. With a father that played for SUNY-Oswego and coached men's basketball at New Hampshire for 20 seasons, Friel grew up seeing Dad coach and tagging along with Dad's teams. Soon enough, the child who watched from the sidelines began to pick up the ball and shoot it himself.
"Growing up in a basketball family was key to my development as a player," Friel said. "I've never known anything else but basketball. Everyone's always asking me what it's like to grow up immersed in basketball, but I can't answer because I don't know what it's not like. I don't even know if there was a time I didn't play."
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That is not necessarily a bad thing. At Oyster River High, Friel became the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,140 points and led his team to two straight state championships. He then began his collegiate career at Notre Dame, where he established himself as a deadly force from behind the arc. Friel set a Fighting Irish record for most three-pointers in a game when he drained eight treys against No. 15 Syracuse in his sophomore season.
But even after lettering twice, averaging 8.9 points, and shooting 46.4 percent from the three-point line at Notre Dame, Friel was not happy. Soon after his second season ended, the 6-foot-4, 195-pound sharpshooter made the decision to transfer.
"At the time, it was basically between me and the head coach, coach [John] MacLeod," Friel said. "I was looking for more of a players' coach. But he came straight from the NBA - 18 years in the NBA and then to college. It was like being an 18-year-old kid with him trying to run it like a professional atmosphere. It just wasn't very personal to the players."
After leaving the Fighting Irish, Friel found himself at Virginia under the tutelage of Pete Gillen. Gillen stresses not only teamwork but also the overriding sense of family that should exist among players and coaches. It seemed like a perfect match between the player who came from a basketball family and the coaches that put one together.
"We have a great coaching staff here," Friel said. "I feel like we're a tight knit team, and the same goes for the coaches."
As a Cavalier, Friel has established himself as Virginia's most potent player coming off the bench by averaging 8.9 points and shooting 44.9 percent on three-pointers. Against Florida State on Jan. 16, he scored 22 points - his most in a Cav uniform - on 7-for-11 shooting, 5-for-9 from beyond the arc.
"Keith is a very valuable player," Gillen said. "He's one of the best shooters in the country. He can also do a lot of other things. He can play without the ball pretty well and he's a better defender than he gets credit for. He also stretches out the defense because you have to play him. This is because Keith gives us a dimension of scoring where he can turn around a game at any time."
Although Friel, currently a graduate student in his last year of NCAA eligibility, has more free time to sleep, browse through digital cable or watch college hoops, his days remain very similar to those of his New Hampshire youth. If you talk to the 23-year-old, you will find that he still leads a basketball life.
"It's a lot different playing as a grad student, but I'm still doing the same things everyday. Basketball is obviously a huge aspect of my life. When I'm not participating on the floor or in practice, I'm always thinking about it, watching [game] film and thinking about what I'm going to do tomorrow. Even if I'm not working physically, then mentally I'm always thinking about it"
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