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Monday, February 25, 2008
Fayetteville's Dr. G
Western Arkansas, AR
By: Mike Capshaw
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Photo(s) By: submitted
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Fred Gulley is not only the leading scorer in the 7A West, but the Division I prospect also is an excellent student.
Division I basketball recruits usually tell you what their crib will be like when they’re in the “league”, how many schools are blowing up their phone or that they’re going to put up 30 points in the next game.
Fred Gulley III talks about putting up 30 on his next ACT.
Now, the Fayetteville junior isn’t what his peers would call a “geek” or a “nerd,” but dude dominates his Advanced Placement classes just as he does the hardwood. Gulley’s complete package is why he’s attracted high-profile scholarship offers from schools like Arkansas, Missouri, Baylor and Tulsa.
“All I hear are good things from his teachers. They say he’s a pleasure to have in class,” said Bulldogs coach Barry Gebhart. “I’ve had him in my class. He’s a good student academically, but he’s more than that. He’s personable and he takes part in discussions. All the kids love him and respect him as a student.
Even administrators adore the always smiling 16-year old.
“A principal who had Fred in his office working on some stuff told me, “It wouldn’t bother me to have a school full of kids like him, even if he wasn’t sogood in basketball.’”
But he is good ... Really good.
Gulleyis so good in fact that the 6-2 point guard is the only boys basketball player in our coverage area with a Division I scholarship offer. Anyone who watches a game can see he already handles the rock like a college player, zips passes with the best of them and drives to the hole with authority. He plays point guard, but he’s so athletic that he even jumps for the tipoff at the start of each game.
Last season, he averaged 18 points and seven rebounds per game. He missed nine ofthe first 11 games this season while rehabilitating what has been described asa groin injury. He rejoined the team at the start of conference play last month and is just now returning to full strength as far as conditioning.
With so much time on the training table lately, it’s no wonder Gulley has been thinking about what life will be like after leaving basketball behind. He plans to be a professional in the health care arena, specifically sports medicine.
“Academics have always been important to me,” Gulley said. “It’s important because one day the ball is going to stop bouncing and that will be the only thing you have to fall back on.”
Sounds like Gulley must have disciplined parents. That kind of attitude has to be instilled at an early age if it’s going to become habit later in life. It certainly runs in the family as his sister, LaToya Gulley, graduated in December after only three and a half years of playing basketball at Texas A&M.
“Fred works as hard in the classroom as he does in basketball,” said Fred’s mom, Verlyn Gulley. “He wants to be No. 1 in class as well as on the basketball floor.
“We just started when he was little so we don’t have to push him now.”
Both Verlyn Gulley and Fred’s dad, Fred Gulley Jr., are Ashdown natives who graduated college. Verlyn is vice president of a bank branch while Fred Jr. owns an insurance company.
“We don’t have to get after him at all,” said Fred Gulley Jr., who Salutatorian at Ashdown before earning a degree in electrical engineering at Arkansas. “He comes in after school and watches television for a little bit and then goes up to his room and studies on his own. He’s self-motivated.”
Fayetteville has been fortunate to have its last two Division I boys basketball players cut from the same cloth as Gulley. Ronnie Brewer (Arkansas) is holding his own in his second season with the Utah Jazz while Nick Bradford (Kansas) is among the leaders in several statistical categories in a French professional league.
Brewer is Gulley’s cousin, but Gebhart said that’s not the only correlation. He said all three of his former players knew what it took to succeed in the classroom and on the court.
“When you find a guy who understands that, that’s their makeup. They’re not slackers,” Gebhart said. “When you get guys who don’t work hard in the classroom, my guess is they’re not very good on the court. You just can’t turn it on and off like that.”
Another similarity between Gulley, Brewer and Bradford is that each come from strong families. Gebhart said when it starts at home, his job is made easier by the time he gets them as teenagers.
“The guys who are self-starters and are motivated to succeed at whatever they do,you don’t have to worry about them,” Gebhart said. “They know how to motivate themselves and get it done.
“Those are the kids who go on and become extremely successful, in basketball and in life.”
After wrapping up the high school season, Fred Gulley III will begin evaluating colleges between AAU games. He’ll take several official and unofficial visits and the plan is to have the decision locked down by this fall.
Thanks to Gulley’s skills both on and off the court, there are plenty of qualityschools to choose from.
“One of the coolest things about it is Stanford is one of the hardest schools recruiting me,” Gulley said. “I’m getting letters from five or six Ivy league schools. Yale is recruiting me hard. It’s great to have the options to look at a school like that.
“With Stanford, they’re a top 25 basketball program with great academics, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be taking a visit there this year.”
Like Gulley, Stanford believes basketball and academics are equally important.
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