The New York Times-20080126-Masters of Zen- Not of Winning

Return to: The_New_York_Times-20080126

Masters of Zen, Not of Winning

Full Text (1050  words)

A book called The Complete Pocket Positives sat at the center of Cathy Andruzzi's desk after a recent practice. One of her players had bought it for her earlier this season, and Andruzzi, the women's basketball coach at Fordham, has taken to flipping it open to a random page and having a member of her team read one of the quotes out loud before each practice.

In three decades as a fixture on the women's college basketball scene, Andruzzi has never endured a season quite like this. But she insists she is using every tactic she can to eliminate negative energy, from yoga to meditation to visualization to the study of self-help books with names like The Master Key System and Your Invisible Power. She also insists she is not focused on her team's win-loss record, even as it becomes harder and harder to ignore.

I don't know what's going on in their mind -- I'm sure there's doubt, Andruzzi said. But I consider myself an eternal optimist.

A loss to St. Bonaventure on Wednesday dropped the Rams to 0-19 over all and 0-4 in the Atlantic 10, heading into Sunday's game against Duquesne. Fordham finished 3-25 in 2006-7, Andruzzi's first season at the university, and has lost 23 in a row since a 74-65 victory against Duquesne on Feb. 4, 2007. It is still nowhere near the N.C.A.A. Division I women's record of 58 consecutive losses, by Long Island from 1987 to 1989. But for Andruzzi, who has had success as a player, coach, administrator and broadcaster, this is perhaps the most difficult task she has faced.

Andruzzi, a native of Staten Island, was a member of the Queens College basketball team that played in the 1973 national title game. She coached at Wagner from 1976 to 1978 and East Carolina from 1978 to 1984, and had six winning seasons in eight years. After stints as a television broadcaster, a general manager in the American Basketball League, and an executive director of the 2000 women's basketball Final Four in Philadelphia, she spent a season as an assistant coach at both Rutgers and Seton Hall before coming to Fordham. Known as Druzz, she has been closely involved in the marketing of women's basketball for nearly 30 years.

But now Andruzzi is attempting to sell recruits on a program that has not had a winning season since 1995, one that has lost 20 games in a season five times since 1999-2000. She brought in eight new players this season -- five freshmen and three junior college transfers -- and most of them were thrust directly into the fray.

It does get frustrating, but that's all part of learning, said the freshman guard Megan Mahoney, who is averaging a team-high 14.9 points a game. Coach is a tough person. Nothing gets her down.

While the Rams have been on the wrong side of a number of blowouts -- they are shooting only 34 percent as a team -- there have been several close calls. On Dec. 22, before a game at George Mason, Andruzzi had her team visualize a moment when they had had success on the basketball court. The Rams then pushed George Mason to overtime before Lateisha Wade scored with eight-tenths of a second left to give the Patriots a 76-74 victory.

And on Jan. 12, in front of a home crowd of about 100, cheered on largely by the members of a youth basketball team, Fordham took St. Louis to double overtime before losing, 84-78. This, despite the Rams' being outrebounded, 59-31.

Going out there, I had so much adrenaline, I almost felt sick afterward, the junior guard Annie Zopf said of the St. Louis game. Coach says all the time, 'We're right there.'

Andruzzi said she was aware when she arrived in May 2006 that the program was in need of an overhaul. But then one of her top assistants quit because of an illness, and Andruzzi was left with a roster of seven healthy players, none of them taller than 6 feet.

We were under water from Day 1, she said. And we never got a chance to catch up.

Andruzzi took her team on a two-day spiritual retreat before this season. She said she was doing all she could to keep the Rams focused on the present, and she has turned to metaphysics to reinforce that philosophy. She has given several books to her players and recently extolled the virtues of an article titled, Using the Law of Vibration to Manifest Your Vision.

I know every day I walk in here and I have to set the tone, she said. I don't always do it the right way. But my vibrations, and the way I am, feed everyone.

Her players said they continued to believe in Andruzzi's vision. Zopf said she spent much of Christmas break working on her shooting, and that a number of her teammates had begun staying after practice and spending their spare time in the gym. In fact, Zopf said, the losing might be as hard for her father to endure as it is for her.

Bill Zopf played at Duquesne and briefly with the N.B.A.'s Milwaukee Bucks. He drives from Pittsburgh to attend nearly every one of his daughter's games, and coached her when she played for one of the most successful A.A.U. programs in the country.

It's hard for him, Zopf said. In high school, me and all the other girls were on winning teams, and that's just such a hard transition.

But Andruzzi refuses to dwell on the negative. She likens her role to that of Greg Schiano, the football coach who built Rutgers from a perennial doormat to a Big East power. And she will continue to extol the virtues of books like The Master Key System. When you want to attain something, states the description on Amazon.com, 'The Master Key System' will show you how to get it.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Cathy Andruzzi, who has had success as a player and a coach, is leading a team that has lost 23 games in a row.; Fordham, which has not had a winning season since 1995, has tried yoga, meditation, visualization and self-help books to try to end a slump.(PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTIAN HANSEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)