By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — On this day the facial hair on Deniz Kilicli is sort of scruffy, a beard in its infancy, much as he is as a basketball player.
Tomorrow, who knows? It won’t be a full beard, but rest assured it will be longer and thicker.
“I’m a Turkish guy, man,” he says, rubbing his fingers through his beard. “It comes in fast. A week and a half and it’s a full beard.”
How it will be tonight, when he makes his long-awaited, highly-anticipated collegiate debut on the Coliseum floor against arch-rival Pitt, no one is sure, for Kilicli is a man of many faces.
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He is a Turkish man, yes, direct from Istanbul with a stop only at the Mountain State Academy in Beckley for a year’s seasoning before he chased his dream of playing college basketball.
He is a student, a tall one at that, standing 6-foot-9, and a healthy specimen, indeed, at 260 pounds and still not wearing the muscles that a year or two in the Bob Huggins’ weight room will give him.
As such, he is just what Huggins has been waiting for as he sat out a 20-game, NCAA-induced suspension for having played on a team in Turkey that unbeknownst to him included a player being paid to play.
“He gives us what we haven’t had — the size and girth and the ability to score around the rim,” Huggins said.
But if you have pictures of this being just a tough guy to pound on the inside, think again.
Deniz Kilicli (pronounced kuh-LEETCH-luh) is an engaging conversationalist, one who can make you laugh and laughs easily at your jokes.
He also may just be the world’s only 6-foot, 9-inch Turkish rock guitarist who specializes in ‘80s and ‘70s rock.
The music of Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi or Eddie Van Halen is a slam dunk for Kilicli.
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In many ways, his guitar has been his best friend over the past couple of months.
He began playing the guitar 12 years ago and now finds that it is harder to find a long enough guitar strap to fit his height and long arms than it is to pick up some of the licks that he now plays without much thinking.
“It is the second side of my life,” is the way he put his relationship with music.
These have not necessarily been easy or pleasant times for Kilicli. He came to play basketball, a game he has played since he was 6 years old, or around the same time he started with the guitar, and hasn’t been able to do it. He couldn’t dress for games, although he did sit on the bench with the team, and he couldn’t travel with the team.
That was the toughest, really, when his teammates, who had become his closest friends, were out of town playing a game. Thanksgiving was probably the worst, with the team in Anaheim, Calif., for the 76 Classic.
He would practice in the gym, often by himself, then return to his room and play the guitar.
“I couldn’t watch the first few games,” he admitted.
How could he? Instead of setting picks, he found himself using them to make his music.
“After a rough practice, I will go play the guitar,” he said.
And practices have been rough. With Huggins getting him ready for games, he’s found himself playing sometimes an hour of the other team’s defense, pounding and being pounded on over and over in the Coliseum with only the sound of the bouncing ball, squeaking sneakers and Huggins filling the room.
“Coach would help keep me motivated,” he said.
Later in that very day that he said that, you happened to look and see him sitting in the end zone seats behind the basket with Huggins alongside him, the two men talking and laughing.
Huggins knows how to handle his players.
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Three months is a long time when you are maybe 19 or 20, waiting to play in a basketball game.
“I’ve been working for that moment,” he said.
It’s been a long time coming. He grew up playing basketball and soccer and says if he were 5-9, not 6-9, he would probably be playing soccer.
He went through the Turkish nation program and, in 2008, averaged 11.1 points and 5.8 rebounds in the European Championships.
Word began to spread about and he began thinking of traveling to America to see if he could cut it here.
He got one bit of advice from his father, Ahmet.
“Follow your dream,” his father said.
And so he did, winding up at the doorstep of Big East basketball tonight and all that goes with it.
He’s seen enough of the Coliseum to know in store. A full house, TV cameras, Pitt.
“I’ll be nervous for sure because there will be a crazy crowd in there,” he readily admits.
He knows he’s seen more physical basketball than they played in Turkey, better basketball than he saw in Turkey.
Still, he feels like he’s experienced it, even though all he has practice and a couple of exhibitions under his basketball shorts drawstring. Against the University of Charleston he scored 18 points with four rebounds and five assists.
“When they play, in my mind I am playing,” he said. “When I watch them play on TV, I am playing then, too.”
He isn’t sure what to expect on that first night when Huggins looks down his bench and yells for Kilicli to get in there.
“You can say anything,” he said. “You can say you will score 60 points or no points. It’s limitless, but to me the best scenario is I go in there and help my team. I don’t care what the stats say.”
He, like Huggins, understands his role. He is to set picks, grab rebounds, score some inside.
“We have to have a big man inside,” he said. “It won’t be easy. We’ll see.”
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
