INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Garrett Temple has a bit of an independent streak. Everyone expected him to play for LSU, so he insisted on looking elsewhere.
He visited Oregon, but decided that was too far from home. Baylor and Stanford were considered, but didn’t make the cut.
In the end, Temple just couldn’t resist his destiny.
He’s a Tiger.
“Deep down, I think he always wanted to play for LSU,” said his father, Collis Temple Jr.
Naturally. Garrett Temple followed his father and older brother to the Tigers, determined to carve his own niche but aware of the very large shadow that his family casts over the program.
Collis Jr. was the school’s first black basketball player, enduring death threats and racial epithets after he broke the color barrier in the early 1970s. Collis III scored almost 1,200 points and played on two NCAA tournament teams at the beginning of this decade.
And now there’s a third Temple wearing the purple and gold.
At the Final Four, no less.
“Hopefully, they’ll remember my family and what we meant for LSU,” the youngest Temple said. “It would probably be easier to remember us if we win a national championship, but I think they’ll remember us anyway because of what my father did and what his two sons did.”
The family’s influence extends beyond mere bloodlines. Collis Jr. is like a surrogate father to LSU star Glen Davis, letting him move in for a couple of years when Big Baby was going through a rough time with his drug-addicted mother.
The other starters grew up in or near Baton Rouge, so most of them have known the Temples since they were kids.
Not surprisingly, Collis Jr. sounds like a proud father – whether he’s talking about his own son, the Tigers’ defensive stopper in the backcourt, or those kids who might as well be part of the family.
“I know how much hard work and the kind of commitment they made to being a team,” Papa Temple said Friday when reached on his cell phone. “I’m really excited and happy that things are working in the direction of them possibly being national champions.”
The Tigers haven’t been to the Final Four since 1986 and they’ve never won a national title. Garrett, who’s always been a bit of a rebel, has a chance to accomplish something that eluded his dad and older brother.
But championship or no, the father’s impact will be felt every time a black kid steps on the court in Baton Rouge.
Collis Jr. was the first black player to suit up for LSU, joining the team in 1971 when the remnants of the civil rights movement were still painfully evident throughout the South.
Those ugly sentiments were expressed in hate mail that arrived at his dorm, in death threats slipped under his door, in racially charged graffiti that was sprayed on his walls.
The son of two educators, Temple never wavered in his determination to remove the stain of Jim Crow from the LSU campus. He made it through his three seasons and, in the process, made it easier for those who came along after him – including his two sons.
“It’s the best decision I could have made,” the father said. “If I had to make that choice again, my choice would be the same.”
All things considered, Temple insists that his college career was a generally positive experience. When it came time for his own kids to pick a school, he had no qualms about steering them toward LSU.
“Everything in life is going to have positives and negatives,” Temple said. “Hopefully, you can maintain and understand what your mission is, then make sure you dwell on the positives and work on the negatives to move forward.”
In a sign of just how much things have changed, the Tigers will send out an all-black lineup for Saturday’s semifinal against UCLA. Garrett Temple, one of their three freshmen starters, has already played a key role in the tournament with his defensive effort against Duke’s J.J. Redick, the national player of the year.
Redick was held to 11 points on 3-of-18 shooting in the regional semifinals, helping LSU pull off a stunning upset of the top-seeded Blue Devils.
“He takes great pride in his defense,” Garrett’s father said. “He has great pride in the concept of team. He loves winning. He’s going to sacrifice whatever it takes to win.”
Garrett also wants to be remembered as more than just the latest Temple to play for the Tigers. When picking out a uniform, he went with No. 14 on the jersey instead of 41 – reversing the number worn by both his father and older brother.
“He’s tried to pull away a little bit,” his father said. “Collis (III) could not wait to wear 41 when he got to LSU. Garrett wore 41 in high school, but when he got to college he decided to wear 14. He didn’t want to be his big brother. He wanted to be himself.”
But he’ll never totally escape those family ties.
Not that he would want to.
“I don’t know if I would put us in the category of being the first family of LSU basketball,” the elder Temple said. “But we’ve had a pretty strong impact on it the last 35 years. I appreciate having the opportunity to do that. It’s very gratifying to have passed through there.”