FEATURES | THE LONG-ISLANDER, FEBRUARY 8, 2007

Under Dad’s Watch, Agudio Lives The Dream

Former Whitman star thrives at Hofstra and strives for greatness

By Michael R. Sisak / The Long-Islander

An old dream lives in the empty arena.

On the glistening hardwood, amid the blue seats and golden banners, the hopes of the past reawaken in the promise of the present and potential for the future.

The wisdom of age and the talent of youth go one-on-one without fans to cheer, teammates to watch or coaches to shout. It’s just a father, a son and a basketball.

Alex and Antoine Agudio meet twice a week at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex, the 5,100-seat gymnasium on the Hofstra University campus in Hempstead.

On game days, the cinder and steel structure teems with the energy of a raucous student section and the attention of thousands of fans that come from across Long Island to watch the resident Pride play.

On dream days, the relative silence amplifies the sounds that spring from the court  — the squeaks, the swishes and the exchanges between father, a Long Island high school legend, and son, a highly regarded scorer on the Hofstra basketball team. The quiet shrouds their efforts — extra hour-long workouts that provide a supplement to team practices and a preparation for post-collegiate life.

Alex, the father and teacher, leads Antoine, the son and student, through drills in outside shooting and inside penetration. They work on shots from the foul line and on three-pointers from the ranges of the collegians and the pros.

They cover quick cuts and defense. They breakdown videotape and correct the deficiencies that Alex notices when he watches Antoine play — the imperfections that can hide behind the junior guard’s 16.3 points per game career scoring average, and school-record 199 career three-pointers.

“You’re not great yet,” Alex often reminds Antoine, during their practices at the empty arena and outside the locker room after games. It’s a cold shot of reality from the man who has been guiding Antoine’s basketball courtship since he introduced them when Antoine was in the third grade.

“You can’t pacify a good athlete, you always have to find flaws in his game,” Alex said. His mantra, “If you want to have success, you’ve got to work for it.”

There was no one to guide Alex, 42, when he was rising to stardom at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington Station, more than two decades ago. No one to critique or challenge, drive or even pacify. Alex’s parents divorced when he was 9. He lived with his mother for a time and eventually moved in with his grandmother to hide from the pain of the separation. He was left alone to handle his emergence as a man and a basketball player.

“I had to do everything on my own, and that was one part of my failure in trying to get where I wanted to go,” Alex said. “No matter how old you get, you always need your parents for something.”

Alex led the Wildcats to the county title in 1982 and earned state player of the year honors that season. A year later, he was starting as a freshman for coach Dick Harter at Penn State and questioning his college decision. He had not experienced the kind of prodding and perfecting that Antoine has known since he was a boy.

“Coach Harter was teaching me about life and the world and I didn’t realize why this guy was riding me so hard,” Alex said. “That’s why I’ve been riding my son so hard.”

Alex transferred to Niagara and later played professionally in Israel, but gave up his playing career after he and wife Lisa started having children. Alexis, the eldest, is now 23 and studying education at the University of the District of Columbia. A-tia, 14, plays basketball and volleyball at Walt Whitman. Antoine, the middle of the three Agudio children and the only son, has enlivened Alex with his basketball success, first at Walt Whitman and now at Hofstra.

“Antoine’s a great kid, a super kid,” Walt Whitman coach Tom Fitzpatrick said. “He works hard and he’s been brought up the right way by his parents… they knew what he was doing, they had a positive influence on him. They were very involved.”

Alex taught Antoine all that he knew, about basketball and about life. The father told the son about the power of the jump shot, about how it opens up opportunities, about how it freezes defenders when taken quickly, off the dribble.

“My father always told me how important it was to practice,” Antoine said. “He just would hand the ball to me and tell me to start shooting.”

Fitzpatrick and Tom Pecora, the Hofstra coach, have reinforced Alex’s teachings. The private sessions in the empty arena have helped too.

“If you’re going to be great, especially as a shooter, you’ve got to sacrifice,” Pecora said. “You’ve got to sacrifice time and you’ve got to sacrifice a part of your personal life.”

Alex has been to nearly every Hofstra game since Antoine began playing there in 2003. He even supported the Pride when Antoine was sitting out his freshman season with a broken finger. He has become a fixture in the arena, when it is full and when it is empty, and he regularly travels to road games.

Alex and Lisa were watching from behind the Hofstra bench last month at Stony Brook as Antoine hit his milestone three-pointer, the shot that broke the Hofstra record for most in a career. Antoine, had a different view, he saw the shot glide through the hoop as he tumbled toward the floor, early in the 73-57 win.

“As I was falling, I saw it go in and I thought, ‘Now I’ve got it, no more worries,’” Agudio said after surpassing the previous career mark of 192 set by Norman Richardson, who played from 1997 to 2001. “Now every three-pointer is the same as normal.”

Agudio tied the record in the first-half of a 62-59 home win over Georgia State on Dec. 2, but missed on three subsequent three-point attempts. He surpassed the mark on his first attempt at Stony Brook.

“It’s a great accomplishment because each year I’ve gotten better and better,” Antoine said. “[Now] I’m going to try and make it unreachable for some people.”

As Antoine works on adding to his three-point total in full arenas, in front of thousands of fans, he will continue to work on improving his game in the empty arena, in front of his dad.

“I’m living my life all over again through him, I tell him,” Alex said. “And that’s why I ride him. Not for my benefit, for his.”