The look of a winner: Marquette's Travis Diener appears more sidekick than star, but on the court there are few better leading men

Sporting News, The, Jan 19, 2004 by Mike DeCourcy

You must want to hear about the beard. Of course, the beard. Those tiny sand-colored hairs protruding from his chin? Right. The beard has become an essential of Travis Diener's look. It is there as a challenge, an admonition to take him seriously. It is designed to make him appear less like an altar boy, though mostly he resembles an altar boy trying hard not in.

It has to start there with Diener. He does not fit the part of college basketball star. When casting an action hero, they don't search for pale, thin, callow. They want muscles. They want a strong chin that does not require adornment to convey masculinity. But here he is, going on three years now at Marquette, defying the limitations others project on him. He is a star not because he is clever, fast and skilled, though he is all of those. He is a star because he is tough--tougher than he looks, by far.

This is most evident when there is a game on the line. Any game, it turns out. As the Golden Eagles went 9-2 through their preconference schedule, he battled periodic knee pain to average 17.1 points and 6.5 assists. He outdueled Wisconsin's Devin Harris, Notre Dame's Chris Thomas and Arizona's Mustafa Shakur. They accumulated 35 points and 17 assists against Marquette; Diener had 52 points and 20 assists against them.

But perusing box scores doesn't capture the essence of Diener that much better than a glance at Iris measurements: 6-1, 165 pounds, numbers that seem like a fudge even though they're accurate. It's necessary to see Diener compete to appreciate his desire to win, though it's not necessary that he be performing in a Marquette uniform. He could be playing video games in his dorm room, where he sometimes pulls an all-nighter trying to record a high score. "If he loses two or three games in a row," says Todd Townsend, Diener's teammate and roommate, "we might have to go out and buy new controllers."

Or Diener could be participating in a routine practice session. One early October afternoon as Marquette was preparing for a preseason trip to Costa Rica, Diener engaged 6-4 shooting guard Joe Chapman as part of a 2-on-2 blockout drill. The exercise does not conclude until one player has the rebound, and there are no boundaries to the court. When the ball bounced away from the rim, Diener and Chapman became tangled. They wound up tumbling over each other, wrestling to reach the ball, until they'd rolled more than 10 feet past the baseline and Diener finally squeezed loose an arm and grabbed hold of the ball.

Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson visited that practice and watched this spectacle develop directly in front of him. He was amazed but not surprised.

"Travis is a star, but he has a walk-on's mentality," Sampson says. "He plays the game like he's appreciative that he had the opportunity to come to the gym today."

With the shot clock ready to sound its alarm with 1:35 left against rival Wisconsin, Diener arches his back and cuts loose a 25-foot 3-pointer from just in front of his team's bench. It slams through the goal, trimming the Golden Eagles' deficit to a single point. This is the kind of pressure shot he hits often, the kind that should make headlines, but it seems some of his best moments have been overshadowed. Similar to how Louisville's Reece Gaines trumped what should have been a decisive 3-pointer by Diener last season with a game-winning jumper in the final seconds for the Cardinals, Wisconsin forward Alando Tucker works free for a layup that becomes the most important basket in the Badgers' victory.

Now, Diener sits near the front of the Marquette team bus, staring ahead as it rapidly grows darker along the nondescript 1-94 corridor toward Milwaukee. "It just stings," he says. "It's just so difficult when you lose." After watching some videotape at Marquette's offices to prepare for the next game, he will return to his room, call his family, turn on the TV. For the rest of the night, "I really try to avoid everyone."

Defeat is not a casual experience for Diener. He hasn't lost enough to grow accustomed to it. Playing club basketball in the summer of 2000 he led the Wisconsin Playground Warriors to three national tournament championships. At Fond du Lac Goodrich High, an hour north of Milwaukee, Diener played for teams that compiled a 70-9 record. Marquette has won 81 percent of its games with him in the rotation and last season advanced to the Final Four. In the three seasons before Diener arrived, the Golden Eagles were one game over .500.

It is easy to look at Carmelo Anthony and explain why his Syracuse team won. He was bigger than the guys he laced, more agile and graceful and talented. Diener's magic is harder to define. His shooting touch is obvious; he's hitting 46.8 percent of his 3-pointers this season. But as small as he is, it shouldn't be so difficult to take away his opportunities to shoot. He is not a dazzling passer, not a creator on the order of T.J. Ford, but he is aware enough of his teammates to rank among Division 1's top dozen in assists.