Herve Lamizana finally had enough.

After two horrific losses to Pittsburgh and Miami, in which the 6-foot-10 Rutgers forward only managed six points and four rebounds, he lashed out at anyone who would listen for the abuse that he took under the glass.

‘The refs did a terrible job on me,’ Lamizana told reporters after the Jan. 21 defeat. ‘Me fouling out like this is not right because I know I don’t hack that much. I have no respect for the Big East officials. They can do whatever, that’s not my concern. I felt I could’ve easily scored 25 points if I was in the game, but I wasn’t. Why? Because of the refs.’

Lamizana’s outburst may have been unwarranted, but since then, the Ivory Coast native has taken control of each game he has played. He has scored double-digits in his last five games, including a 22-point effort against Notre Dame, and led Rutgers to its first four-game win streak in conference play since the Scarlet Knights joined the Big East in the 1995-96 season. He’ll be on the court Tuesday night as Rutgers squares off against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome at 7.

‘Herve is the key guy for Rutgers because he’s so hard to defend,’ Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said. ‘His flexibility is amazing, and he’s an inside-and-out threat, which is something that you have to pay a great deal of attention to. When you draw up a scouting report, he’s one of the first guys you have to look at on that team.’

Even though there is little doubt that Lamizana possesses the talent to be a star player, his largest problem has been his consistency. Coming out of St. Patrick’s high in Elizabeth, N.J., he was hyped as one of the best big men on the East Coast, but he has failed to live up to the high praise.

Lamizana has been shut down by defenders numerous times over the past two seasons, which has led to even his own teammates and coach questioning his level of play.

‘It’s a reoccurring situation where our go-to guys disappear down the stretch of games,’ RU head coach Gary Waters said. ‘In order to win on the road, you can’t have that type of thing happen, and it’s something that we’ve been working on and getting better at.’

Although critics have been harsh on Lamizana – some even define him as no more than a role player – he has had many other issues to wrestle with since arriving in the United States just before his sophomore year of high school. Lamizana’s mother and family still reside in Abidjan, Africa, and after civil war erupted in the country last year, he gave thought to joining a professional league, which would help raise money for his family’s departure from the country.

But after talking things over with his mother, and even with the chance of repeating last season’s 12-16 (4-12 Big East) record a possibility, Lamizana chose to return to school for another season to lead Rutgers, like many thought he would when he first arrived at school. So far, he seems to have made the right choice. He has improved his play in the post, ranking fourth in the Big East in blocked shots per game and seventh in rebounds per game.

‘He’s got super speed for a big guy and has touch on his outside shot that will be hard to defend,’ one NBA scout said. ‘His choice to stay in school for one more year probably was a good decision, and teams are going to go after him when he comes out because he can do a lot of different things for you.’

Lamizana’s improvement on his individual game has been impressive, but more importantly, Rutgers’ overall performance has been a shock to those who doubted Lamizana’s ability to lead a team. The Scarlet Knights are 13-7 (5-5 Big East) and have their best shot of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in years, largely because of the emergence of the senior shot-blocking expert.

‘He is more than just a role player, and when he’s on, he can take control of a game,’ Brey said. ‘He’s got that team playing at a high level right now, and I would be surprised if they didn’t knock off some really good teams as the season winds down.’

Published on February 8, 2004 at 12:00 pm