One day a couple months ago while counting the number of Division I ballers who major in sociology, I found an outlier on UCLA. Tyler Trapani is a history major. He also looks like a doughy bundle of privilege who wouldn’t scare anyone if he walked onto an intramural team as a ringer. Curious, I began to read his bio. The summaries of his two college seasons are identical with the exception of the opponent’s name and date:
Trapani made one appearance without any starts as a walk-on for the Bruins, playing a total of one minute on the season ... he played in the final minute of the John R. Wooden Classic at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., in the Bruins' win over DePaul (Dec. 13) ... missed his only field goal attempt, a three-pointer, against the Blue Demons ... did not record any other statistics.
So he’s not quite good enough for the 30-30 club (the human victory cigars who play when the team is up or down 30 with 30 seconds remaining) and he desperately (I assume) chucked up a three in each of his two appearances. Well, if he walked on, he was probably good in high school right? Nope:
averaged 3.4 ppg, 2.0 rpg and 2.5 apg his senior season in 20 games ... helped lead Simi Valley to a 26-2 record, including a perfect 14-0 mark in Miramonte League play ... shot at a 30.2 percent clip from three-point range, sinking 16-of-53 treys.
Did he really help lead Simi Valley?
How is this guy on UCLA? Did he win a contest or something? Well kind of, here’s the golden ticket, buried near the bottom of his thin bio:
his great-grandfather is the late legendary UCLA head coach, John R. Wooden
On Saturday I was surprised to see Trapani made Sportscenter’s Top Ten and had a feature on ESPN.com because he scored the final basket in Pauley Pavilion before the renovation. He caught an airball right under the basket and promptly regurgitated it with barely enough hangtime to slip a piece of paper under him.
Columnists, the coach, and family have interpreted this happening as an example of divine intervention-- but by a different god, Wooden.
Trapani credits his basketball IQ:
"I didn't think about it at all," he said. "When I got the ball, it was just instinct to put it back up there."
His wide open layup is a win for all the piggybacking descendents of legends, and more importantly, the real student athletes. At the press conference, his teammates snickered when Trapani said, “It’s more about being here for getting an education and going on in life.”
His teammates all had to score more than two points to earn an invite to the press conference.
