By Joe Vanden Acker
Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2005
They
couldn’t be more different, but in so many ways, they are mirror images.
One is a power forward with a penchant for rebounding, and the other is a sharpshooting
guard with a deft passing touch. One stands 6-foot-5, the other is 5-6. But
Chris Braier, ’06, and Claire Getzoff, ’06, are the stars of their
respective Lawrence University basketball teams.
Both are driven by an insatiable appetite for excellence. Both are seeing records
tumble in their wake. And both are in a quest for a championship, as they enter
their final collegiate season.
Braier has led the Viking men to Midwest Conference (MWC) titles and NCAA Division
III Tournament appearances in 2004 and 2005. Getzoff has been the driving force
behind two MWC Tournament 
appearances in the past three years for the Lawrence
women.
“Claire does things that no other woman in the conference does,” Braier
says. “She’s the same way I am — always relentless. I don’t
know how many big shots she has hit in overtime or to win games. She wants
the ball at the end of the game, and that says a lot.”
Getzoff, who hit buzzer-beaters to beat Illinois College and Lake Forest College
within weeks of each other during the 2002-03 season, has been named to the
All-Midwest Conference team in each of her first three seasons.
“He just plays hard,” Getzoff says of Braier. “He’s
very intense, and he expects a lot of his teammates. You can see the joy when
he plays. He’s
big, but he’s not that tall. He just gets it done. There’s nothing
you can do to stop him. He’s going to get his points and his rebounds.”
The rebounder
Braier is likely to be the first player in Lawrence history to have 1,000 points
and 1,000 rebounds. He is ninth on the Vikings’ career scoring list,
with 1,164 points, and is the school’s career rebounding leader with
949.
Braier is the more decorated of the two. The native of Wauwatosa is a two-time
All-American and has been named to the all-conference team three times, including
a Player of the Year selection in 2004. He is known for his unrelenting quest
for rebounds, having broken the rebounding record of Brad Childs, ’69,
early in his junior season. Braier, who once had 19 rebounds in the first half
of a game, has averaged 12.0 rebounds per game for his career.
“Chris is a warrior. It’s not about Chris Braier. It’s always
about the squad. He understands he has to give 100 percent,” says Lawrence
men’s basketball coach John
Tharp, who believes Braier should have been
part of the “greatest generation” of the 1940s.
“That’s when Braier should have grown up, because he has that mentality.
He will give it his all, because he owes that to himself and he owes that to
his teammates. In his mind, anything less is not acceptable,” Tharp adds.
Braier’s practice habits, where diving for balls, floor burns, and the
occasional bloody nose are normal, are legendary.
“You practice like you play,” Braier says. “That definitely
makes me the player that I am. If I went out there at 75 percent and didn’t
crash the glass every time, I would be an average player.
“I’m not the most athletically gifted player on the floor, but
I won’t
let up. It might not happen in the first half, but there’s going to be
one time when your opponent lets up, and that’s when you’re going
to get an easy basket or an offensive rebound that is going to help your team.
“If you’re not going hard in practice, you’re going to be
made a fool of.
That’s the attitude we have, and that carries over into games.”
His teammates readily admit that, if the big power forward were playing for
another team, his unyielding nature would make him their most hated rival.
Instead, because Braier is one of them, they are spurred to greater achievements
because of his drive for excellence.
“He’s relentless in practice and in everything he does. Because
he’s
so relentless, it makes our practices ultra-competitive, and that makes us
better,” says Tharp.
“Because of that, all of our teams want to beat him in practice,” the
coach says. “Any game we’re playing in practice, Braier wants to
win. That’s the reality of it. He hates to lose.”
Tharp says the coaches knew during the first week of practice in Braier’s
freshman season how good he could be. The talent was there, but it was driven
by an unmatched work ethic and great court instincts. Three years later, the
hard work is a given, but it is not overlooked, Tharp says.
“We expect that out of Bopper (Braier’s nickname), but we also
appreciate it,” says Tharp, adding terms like heart, discipline, dedication,
and team spirit to describe his star.
“It’s not like he just does this in basketball; this is the way
he lives his life.”
He is a biology major and an academic all-conference selection, and he keeps
his focus on the long term, not just his last season of college basketball.
“The main thing that brought me to Lawrence was academics,” Braier
says. “You
might go to a school because of the basketball program, but after your four
years, the academic part is what is going to move you along in life.”
When Braier looks at his upcoming final season, he doesn’t see, or care
about, the number 391. Having averaged 14.7 points over his three seasons,
he needs 391 points to break the career scoring record of 1,554 held by Joel
Dillingham, ’93. Instead, Braier sees only the number three, as in third
consecutive Midwest Conference championship and third straight NCAA Division
III Tournament berth.
“They’re nice to have,” he says of the records, “but
the thing I’m worried about is the team as a whole. If it takes me to
rebound or score for us to win, that’s just part of it. The accolades
are good and the records are good, but the most important thing is winning
conference championships.”
Braier also thinks about the repercussions of his time at Lawrence. While the
Vikings have built a strong winning tradition under Tharp, who has won back-to-back
MWC Coach of the Year honors, Braier believes he has an obligation to keep
that winning attitude thriving with the next generation of players.
“We lost good players this last year, but we have a lot of good players
coming back. It’s a new challenge,” he says.
“It’s our team, and it’s our chance to keep what has been
built alive, and we want to instill our winning ways in the young guys as well.”
The shooter
Getzoff, a native of Evanston, Ill., burns for what Braier already has, a championship.
The Vikings came close last season by piling up an 18-6 record, the second-best
record in school history, and finishing second in the regular-season standings.
Unbeaten at home (10-0) for the first time in school history, the Vikings lost
in the semifinals of the conference tournament, which determines the league
champion and the automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
“I want to win the thing,” Getzoff says flatly. “This past
season was a disappointment. We had a very talented team, and we blew it in
the tournament.
It’s definitely about getting back there and winning it. That’s
something we haven’t done in awhile. That’s something we were expected
to do last season and fell short.”
The team changed a bit last season with the addition of outstanding freshmen
like Kelly Mulcahy, ’08, Carrie Van Groll, ’08, and Jenny Stoner, ’08,
players who complemented Getzoff and four-time all-conference selection Felice
Porrata, ’05. Getzoff, who had led the conference in scoring as a freshman
and sophomore, now had a team around her that gave the Vikings more options.
“I never thought I’d have or want the leading scorer in the conference
on my team, but we needed Claire to do that,” says women’s head
coach Amy Proctor, whose squads are known for their balance, depth, and superlative
team play.
Proctor says Getzoff understood that she wouldn’t always have to be the
go-to player, but that didn’t dim her competitive fire or change her
work habits. “She will do whatever we need her to do to win,” Proctor
says.
“Claire has developed her skills. I’ve never had a player who works
this hard out of practice. Once we got that shooting gun (a machine that rebounds
shots and passes the ball back to the shooter), that was her best friend.
“I always say to her that I’m a much better coach with her on my
team. She’s dedicated because she knows that if she’s better, the
team will be better.”
While Getzoff, a history major with plans to teach and coach, constantly works
on her game, there is one thing she brought to Lawrence that didn’t need
any adjustment — her attitude. She thrives on being the one who has to
take the key shot with the outcome hanging in the balance.
“There’s nothing cocky about her. It’s just confidence,” Proctor
says. “I tell our team that she has put herself in that situation so
many times — in practice, on the playground, in her driveway — that
she’s confident she can do it.”
Says Getzoff, “I love to be in those pressure situations. That’s
why you practice. I can create that situation in my head and try to hit those
game-winning shots.”
She admits that even she was nervous when Proctor called for her to take a
potential game-winning 3-pointer against Lake Forest, perennially one of the
league’s best teams.
“My hands were shaking before we got the ball inbounds,” she says. “I
just let it fly and it went in.
That was probably one of the best games I’ve
played. I love playing against Lake Forest or any of the top teams in the conference.
“When I hit that buzzer-beater, Lake Forest was so deflated,” Getzoff
adds, with just a touch of glee in her voice.
“I like the fact that my teammates and the coaching staff trust me to
take that shot. I work hard on my shot, and I try to work hard on my game.
In those situations,
the worst thing I can do is fail, and I don’t like letting my teammates
down.”
Again, as it is with Braier, it is more about team than it is about self. Getzoff
is on pace to easily break the career scoring record of Sarah O’Neil, ’92.
She needs only 104 points to top O’Neil’s mark of 1,225. Also,
again like Braier, the record would be only an added bonus.
“I just go out and play. If it happens, it’s great,” Getzoff
says. “It’s
most important that our team wins. If I beat Sarah’s record but the team
is 0-10, that’s no fun.”