Beyond the Sun
The quarter smacks the courtside table like a cymbal. Dave Bollwinkel says he wants Curtis Terry. Game on. My turn. Wink Adams, I respond.
A college hoops analyst, Bollwinkel drops in to Las Vegas to work UNLV television games. The pregame routine doesn’t vary.
Who’s gonna score the first basket? Then comes the quarter, timed perfectly with a serious stare and his pick.
The ritual started almost 20 years ago, when Bollwinkel coached the Cal Poly Pomona basketball team. We first met after a tough Broncos’ defeat.
What happened, coach? He said, “What happened?!?” A few words followed that would require asterisks, ampersands, number signs and other symbols to represent them in the family newspaper.
It might have been my first real college basketball postgame interview after graduation. Later, Bollwinkel apologized.
Since then, as Bollwinkel watches or scouts prospects at high schools and camps everywhere, I haven’t approached him with a simple hello and he hasn’t just walked up to me and said hey.
One of us has a quarter, and a name, at the ready.
Bollwinkel went on to assist at Dayton and Wisconsin, and he ran the St. Mary’s program in California. He is in demand as a national speaker on leadership, and he’s a scout for the Chicago Bulls.
Bollwinkel is an effective analyst because of his experience and his human touch. In an industry rife with giddiness and loudmouths, he is refreshing.
“Mistakes are sent to Pluto,” he said of his broadcast philosophy.
When Utah recently played at San Diego State, Bollwinkel marveled over Las Vegas native and Aztecs freshman forward Billy White’s long arms.
“He needs a second elbow,” Bollwinkel said on the air. Before Wyoming played UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center, Bollwinkel fessed up; he had borrowed that term from NBA analyst Fred “Mad Dog” Carter.
“Got to give credit where credit’s due,” Bollwinkel said with a smile.
He relished a line he would use on that night’s broadcast; UNLV’s defense is so good the Rebels also lead the nation in free-throw percentage defense.
Fortunately, for me, Adams started that night’s scoring by sinking a 3-point shot. In an occurrence as rare as a solar eclipse, I got to keep one of Bollwinkel’s quarters.
Thanks, Wink. And thanks, coach.
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