Feb 10, 2006
By Chris Wagner
Staff writer
When Dan Cromwell walks into a room, he always makes an immediate impact - sometimes to his own detriment.
More than once the 7-foot backup center for Le Moyne's basketball team has smacked his head into the top frame of a doorway. Without a doubt, he said rubbing his forehead, it hurts - a lot. But to Cromwell, it's just part of the bad that comes with all the good of being a giant.
The positive includes having always been the first one picked to play in basketball games and learning to be comfortable standing out in a crowd. The negative involves having to have custom-made everything - clothes, beds, school desks, driver's seats in cars - and, yes, having to always keep an eye out for door frames.
"On a normal doorway if I'm wearing shoes I have to duck," said Cromwell, one of only 16 7-footers on Division II rosters this season. "But it's difficult because the home where I grew up is an old country house that has huge ceilings and huge doorways. The transition from there to here at school means I have to adjust and keep my eye out for them. But when I'm goofing around with the guys, sometimes I'll get distracted and run into them (door frames). It really hurts."
Cromwell, who grew up in the Rochester suburb of Victor, is not only the tallest player in Le Moyne history, he's the team's first-ever 7-footer. He reached the magical mark over the summer when he grew an inch. And he may not be done. His father, Richard Cromwell, who tops out at 6-foot-5, grew six inches during his college years.
"I think I may be starting to stop growing, but 7-1 or 7-2 would be my goal," the sophomore said. "But 7-1 may be a stretch."
Cromwell and Le Moyne coach Steve Evans said the player's adjustment to the college game has been steady, helped by Cromwell's large but light feet, good hands and deft shooting touch; hurt by his thin frame and soft-spoken nature.
"If you look at a picture of him today, he looks like a dressed-up pencil," Evans said. "But last year as a freshman he looked like a dressed-up twig. He's added 20 pounds to his frame (he's now up to 220 pounds), and if he can add 15 or 20 more pounds he can develop into a dominant force at this level."
At times, the backup center to senior Sid Pond (Watertown) has already played large. His height and length - he has an 86-inch arm span - allow him to touch halfway up the net without jumping, giv-
ing him an instant edge in rebounding and shot-blocking. Playing only 14.6 minutes per game, he averages 5.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.04 blocks. He has career highs at Le Moyne of 22 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks.
Unlike many men his size, he runs well on his other-worldly size 19 feet. He also possesses a soft touch that allowed him to make three straight 17-footers during a Feb. 1 game against St. Anselm, and to make a potential buzzer-beating "tip-in" from 6 feet on an inbounds play that was disallowed because it happened with less than three-tenths of a second remaining.
"Our digital editing equipment shows that Dan had the ball in and out of his hands in 0.2 seconds," Evans said of the shot that came during a 3-point loss to Southern New Hampshire on Jan. 7. "That was an amazing play that only Dan could have made with his volleyball skills. He never caught the ball, he just set it like in a volleyball game."
Volleyball? Yes, volleyball. Cromwell is an ace at the net game, having come within an eye-blink of playing the sport at the Division I level for such national powers as UC-Santa Barbara, the University of Southern California and Penn State. But the half-scholarships offered in that sport were difficult to accept when measured against the full rides offered by Division II basketball programs like Le Moyne and mid-major Division I programs including Siena, Canisius and Buffalo.
"It was a tough decision," said Cromwell, who played for a national travel team in volleyball out of Rochester for three years. "If I had gotten a full scholarship in volleyball, I probably would have said yes after my junior year, when the Santa Barbara coach offered me a spot on the team. But the half-scholarship would have cost me a lot at a school that costs $50,000 or $45,000 a year. Plus, I had a younger brother, Tim, who was a year behind me and my parents had to pay for his college, too."
Cromwell, however, doesn't regret choosing basketball, which he calls his first love, over volleyball.
"I picked Le Moyne because of the coaches, and players were nice and the school is good. The whole package kind of fit," he said.
Evans said he recruited Cromwell for his potential, noting the obvious basketball truism: "You can't teach height."
"There's a lot of kids out there who are 6-foot-6 or 6-foot-5 who can play inside at the Division II level," Evans said. "But Dan adds another dimension. When you look at recruiting a 7-footer as opposed to a 6-6 kid, those 6 inches aren't just on top of his head. There's the wingspan and everything else."
With the graduation of the 6-foot-7 Pond this year, the Dolphins will be looking to Cromwell to take over in the middle in the next two seasons. It's a challenge Cromwell welcomes.
"The position (center) so far hasn't been to be one of the top scorers on the team," Cromwell said. "But it's definitely where I want to be. I want to contribute the most to the team that I can. If that means getting 13 rebounds a game, that's what I'll do. But I think once everything comes together for me next year and the year after, I hope to be scoring in the high teens, maybe in the 20s."
Evans said Cromwell has the potential to be a "double-double guy," scoring in the mid-teens and grabbing eight to 10 rebounds per game. But he said Cromwell's gentle-giant nature will have to become more aggressive for it to happen.
"What we're going to miss from Sid next year is his inside presence, the way he plays tough and goes after rebounds," Evans said. "Dan's personality is going to have to take on the role of wanting to dominate more.
"When Dan leaves here, I want him to be able to say that he wasn't just the tallest player to ever play for Le Moyne and the first 7-footer, but one of the best big men to ever play for Le Moyne, too. He can do it if he wants."
