The road's been neither straight nor easy for senior basketball players Andres Rodriguez and Jernavis Draughn. Both members of the twosome have graced other programs than the Eagles during their four years of eligibility. And despite senior status, their first year playing together was last season.
But they are the Eagles' senior leaders this year, and for perhaps the first time in their careers, the duo are on the same road and headed in the same direction, hopefully toward the Patriot League title that's eluded the Eagles the past two seasons.
"It's a burden on our shoulders to be leaders," Rodriguez said, "because everyone is still expecting our first championship."
"Basically, we have to be role models," Draughn said. "Every day we come to practice we have to be focused, and we have to play with intensity in every game. If we're not having a good day, everyone on the team suffers in my opinion, physically and mentally."
"Like Jernavis said, you can't take a day off," Rodriguez continued. "It's not like when you're a sophomore. For us it is a change in our approach to every day."
If anything is going for these two, it's that they've had to change approaches before.
Rodriguez started his career in Louisville as a walk-on after he was advised to try out by a coach that knew former head coach Denny Crumm, he said. After playing his entire freshman year at Louisville, he left midway through his sophomore season because a teammate and friend, Cardinal star Reece Gaines, had decided he would stay in school for four years instead of jumping to the pros early.
With Gaines unexpectedly in the picture for two more years, Rodriguez said his playing time in his junior and senior seasons would have been severely reduced, so he decided to look at other options. The same coach who advised him to go to Louisville also knew Jeff Jones, who was starting his coaching tenure at AU, and told him Jones was looking for a point guard. Rodriguez made the 2001-02 AU team and has been here ever since.
"It turned out to be the right move," Rodriguez said. "I wanted to be here as soon as possible so Coach could see what I could do."
One thing that may have helped the transition was the similarity, according to Rodriguez, of coaches Crumm and Jones.
"It's been great being coached by them," Rodriguez said. "They're both kind of old school and will make you learn the proper way of doing things. And they were both point guards, so I've been learning a lot."
Unlike Rodriguez, Draughn started his career at AU in the 2000-01 season but was forced to play his sophomore year at Hagerstown Community College because of academic issues. While the year in junior college wasn't planned, Draughn says it may have been a blessing in disguise.
"I think it was a good learning experience," Draughn said. "Sometimes it felt like high school again, like you were going in reverse. With my experience I was thrown in and expected to be a leader from the start. But it helped me work on my game and work on my grades."
Surprisingly, Draughn said the transition into junior college was tougher than the transition back into NCAA basketball, partly because of the talent level at Hagerstown.
"I thought in junior college, the talent level was just as good as here, but players maybe didn't think as well on the court," he said. "We were in the top teams in the country, and we lost in the final."
Draughn returned to AU for the 2002-03 season, where he and Rodriguez became the defensive specialists on the team en route to its PL title challenge. Back then, guards Glenn Stokes and Steven Miles were the star seniors who combined for about 32 points per game, while Rodriguez and Draughn were starters but not stars.
Now, it will be Rodriguez and Draughn playing leading roles on the court. But they insist that to be successful, they must not try to stray from their logistical on-court roles for the sake of scoring more.
"We don't go out thinking we need to have a 20-point game," Rodriguez said. "I think Jernavis will have more of those games than people think he will. But we're defensive players."
With Saturday's clash at ACC giant Maryland marking the beginning of the regular season, both Rodriguez and Draughn are optimistic. But as the players everyone will look to for consistency, they're not about to get ahead of themselves.
"Last year, we lived by the three -[pointer] and died by the three- [pointer]," Rodriguez said. "This year, our offense will be more versatile, we can go inside and outside."
"We can win the conference," Draughn said confidently. "This year, I feel it will be much more about getting a team effort and not so much about individual play. We just have to come out every night and try to win ball games"
