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Players’ contrasting styles make for magical middle

By Daily Bruin Staff

April 23, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 24, 1996

Vocal Turner, silent Stillwell comprise dominant Bruin blockBy
Ruben Gutierrez

Daily Bruin Staff

The decision was made a long time ago. Before the letter of
intent signing, before the daily butt-whippings at the hands of
Jeff Nygaard and John Speraw, before either had set foot on the
campus as students, the decision was made.

Tom Stillwell and James Turner would one day team up as the
starting quick hitters for perennial men’s volleyball juggernaut
UCLA.

"James and I played on the same club team in high school, as
middles," Stillwell said. "He was a junior and I was a senior in
high school and we played for the same club, Reebok Palisades. I
remember sitting back in the hotel room ­ he was my roommate
­ and I had already signed with UCLA, but he was only a
junior. He was like, ‘Where are you going?’ and all this stuff. We
were talking about it and he’s like, ‘I’ll be there, we’ll be the
two middle blockers some day.’ It came true and it’ll be true for
two more years."

Though they have much in common, the two middles are a study in
contrasts on the court: Stillwell, focused and silent, and Turner,
exuberant and vocal.

Turner has deep UCLA roots, so his prognostication about his
collegiate future wasn’t far off base. His mother, Colleen, won a
national title with the UCLA women’s team under head coach Andy
Banachowski in 1972. And although Turner’s predictions eventually
rang prophetic, the brash talk, even then, is anything but
surprising to anyone who has played with, or especially, against
the 6-foot-8-inch freshman.

Whether it is challenging Loyola Marymount outside hitter Jon
Tripp to hit past him after roofing him two straight times or
exchanging pleasantries with another freshman phenom, Brigham
Young’s Ryan Millar, almost to the point of blows, it is safe to
say that Gary Payton and Nick Van Exel have nothing on this
guy.

"I think it helps James," said UCLA head coach Al Scates. "Many
of my best middle blockers in this program have been very verbal. I
know going way back to when I was middle blocking on the national
team, I did the same thing. It just gets your adrenaline going and
gets you in competition. I think some of the old-timers just ignore
it and let it go. After all, there is a net separating the players.
The other people know he’s there and if they’re thinking more about
James than about what play is coming up, then that’s fine. I like
it."

Turner, though, isn’t the bad guy his mouth sometimes makes him
out to be. Quite the contrary, he sees it as his responsibility as
a volleyball diplomat to educate his opponents in the finer facets
of the game. Take the Tripp incident, for example. Despite Turner
politely advising Tripp that he couldn’t hit past his block, the
Lion hitter persisted. Since he couldn’t just take the counsel at
face value, Turner saw it as his obligation to "teach" Tripp until
he learned his lesson.

"If a guy on the other team talks to me or says something to me,
then I don’t want to just leave him hanging," Turner said. "I want
to respond, to teach him how to play volleyball. It’s all about
teaching when you’re playing out there and you can teach with both
words and actions."

"Me and Stein (Metzger) were talking Mr. Tripp up and he was
talking us up, and he continued to believe he was going to get it
past us," Turner continued. "I just said, ‘Look man, you’re not
going to get it past us, so you guys might as well just set someone
else.’ I just love telling guys they can’t hit on me, because no
one is going to get by me on the block and no one is going to block
me."

Turner even has a nobler ideal beyond his role as an educator:
world peace. Though it is an overused cliché, along with
someone saying they "want to help people" or "make the world a
better place," Turner has intricately tied together the
trash-talking which stokes the competitive fire to athletic
competition which ultimately unites humanity.

According to Turner, the athletic arena is the last bastion of
true equality, the last place people can bury their differences,
setting them aside long enough to decide who is better under
pressure.

"My main cause in life, what motivates everything I do, is world
peace," Turner said. "The Olympics are a perfect example of world
unification through sports. That’s when we come together and
compete for a common goal, to see who’s the best. But it doesn’t
matter who wins in the Olympics. It’s the whole idea of friendship
between nations that is amazing. I’d love to go to the Olympics in
2000, that’s my dream."

Stillwell has no such aggrandizing visions. Even if he did, he
would probably be the last person to admit it. Stillwell is an
incarnation of humility, quiet and prone to downplay his individual
accomplishments. His humble nature is not false; rather, it
bespeaks a player who is already good ­ the leading blocker in
the nation this season ­ if not great, and who still thirsts
for improvement.

When Scates saw Stillwell play, or rather jump, at Notre Dame
High School during his senior year, he decided to recruit the
converted hoops player as a "project." If volleyball was a science
fair, Scates would own a blue ribbon. With Speraw and two-time
player of the year Nygaard out of Dodge, Stillwell used the
opportunities created by early-season injuries and lineup changes
to latch onto a starting spot he would never relinquish.

"You think you know what you’re doing when you’re in high
school, but you really don’t," Stillwell said. "You’re just jumping
as high as you can, trying to hit the ball wherever. There’s no
technique involved. Coach Scates was basically right, I was just a
basketball player playing volleyball. I wasn’t nearly the player
I’ve learned to become."

Not surprisingly, Stillwell agrees that he has not yet tapped
all of his potential as a blocker, even after his breakthrough
season. In light of the improvements he has made at UCLA, he laughs
when he looks back on his prep career, "when I thought I was good,"
according to him. UCLA’s program opened his eyes up a bit, and the
progress he has made in three years has surpassed everyone’s
expectations.

"I saw him in high school in the CIF playoffs playing middle
blocker," Scates said. "He didn’t know how to middle block, but he
sure could jump high. He elevated better than any high school kid
I’d ever seen. He’s come along a lot faster than I expected,
leading the nation in blocks as a sophomore. He just needed to
play, that’s the bottom line."

Despite being exceptional individual players, the two quick
hitters share views similar to those of the ancient Spartans, who
believed it was the highest duty of an individual to sacrifice for
the good of the state, or, in this case, the team. Both agree that
UCLA holds the key to its own destiny heading into the Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation championship weekend.

The Bruins face Cal State Northridge in the semifinal match, a
squad they have swept twice this season. Should they get past the
Matadors, the Bruins will challenge either UC Santa Barbara or
top-ranked Hawaii in the conference final. The winner of the
tournament will receive an automatic berth to the NCAA final four
next week in Pauley Pavilion. Even then, UCLA is likely to receive
an at-large berth in the final four, regardless of the outcome of
the final.

"If I’m going to be No. 1 in blocking average, but our team is
going to end up second, then I’m not going to be happy with that,"
Stillwell said. "I’d much rather give up my personal statistics to
win the title, to be No. 1.

"We just need to play our own game," he continued. "I think if
we play our own game, then we’ll win it. I truly feel that. We’ve
got a good road ahead of us, so if we just play like we’re capable
of playing, we’ll do it."

Despite the almost omniscient presence of MPSF Player of the
Year and All-American Stein Metzger, along with All-American
opposite Paul Nihipali, Scates still cites the improvement by
Stillwell and Turner as the main reasons UCLA will again be able to
contend for an unprecedented 16th national crown.

"They have really helped to bring our team up," Scates said. "We
were picked to finish fifth in our own conference in the first
poll. We’ve done a little better than the pollsters thought, and I
think it’s due to the development of these two. Metzger and
Nihipali were already All-Americans and everybody knew who they
were. So I think these two have really helped us. They’ve just come
along faster than a lot of people probably thought they could."

The decision was made a long time ago.

ANDREW SCHOLER / Daily Bruin

James Turner (above) and Tom Stillwell (below), teammates in
high school, gang up again to form UCLA ‘s formidable middle
blocking tandem.

FRED HE / Daily Bruin

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