Mary Perrizo has done something most basketball players only get to dream about, and done it twice: Gone to the national championship game. The details leave room for further dreaming.

The first time, she was a freshman at North Dakota State University and saw little playing time in the Bison's unsuccessful bid for an NCAA Division II championship. The second time was with the University of North Dakota last March after transferring. But she had to sit out a year for moving to a school within the same conference, the North Central Conference. Though the Fighting Sioux lost in overtime to Cal Poly-Pomona, it was a great experience just being there, she says.

She was Miss North Dakota Basketball in 1999 while at Mandan High School, where she lettered five years in basketball and track, and three times in volleyball. Now, Perrizo will be looked to at North Dakota for leadership on a very young team that lost many key players after its run to the title game last year.

A 5-10 sophomore, she's learning to run the offense as a point guard under Head Coach Gene Roebuck. In this interview, Perrizo talks about learning a new position and her transfer from Fargo to Grand Forks.

GBall: Why did you transfer from North Dakota State to North Dakota?
Perrizo: I guess it comes down to that I didn't feel right there. I wasn't comfortable, I wasn't really having like a good time. It just didn't feel right to me, basketball and overall.

But making the decision to leave was really difficult. It took me until July (2000) to make a final decision. And I didn't know if I was going to play basketball here at UND for a while. It took me a while to see if I really wanted to play anymore.

But then I guess I just got hungry to play some more and coach Roebuck was very nice and helped me thorough it. He said, "Whatever you want to do," and gave me time to decide if I really wanted to do it. When I was ready, he helped me through it and made it an easy transition.

Did you think about not playing basketball anymore?
You know, I didn't really know what I wanted. I had such a bad experience my first year in college. The whole transferring thing, I thought, was going to be a huge deal. But I totally still love basketball and I did want to play it. It was just that to get myself to transfer, to get myself in and talk to coach Roebuck, it took a while.

Were you disappointed in not getting a lot of playing time at NDSU?
Yeah. That kind of bugged me for a while but that wasn't everything.

Was it hard sitting out last year?
It was really hard. Especially because they did so well and I just had to sit there and watch. It was very hard but it went by really fast. It helped me out for this year, too. I still got to practice and I took stats for the games. It got me prepared for this year.

What was it like going to the national championship game?
It was a really great experience. Last year especially, it was a lot of fun to be in Rochester, because it's so close to our university and a lot of our fans. It helped to pay off all the practice and the long season to get to that game.

Was it hard not being able to get in and play?
Yeah. Big time. It was really an emotional kind of thing. But I know my time will come. Everything's okay. It works out.

This year, what is your job on the team?
I'm going to be playing point guard this year. It's my first year playing point guard, so it's a new position. I want to be a leader out there and a scorer. We lost a lot of scorers last year, so I kind of want to be a threat out there and lead the team on the court.

How are you learning the position?
It's going slowly. It's coming every day. Last year I got to play against the point guard of last year, Tonia Jones, and she helped me out a lot. I just liked watching her and learning. It's going slow, but I'm learning it. I'm enjoying it, though. It takes patience and understanding of the game.

What's the team's outlook this year?
I think we're going to surprise a lot of people. We do have a young team, but we also have a lot of people who did play last year, like Becky Moen and Jenny Boll. They were in there a lot last year, especially in the championship game. We have a lot of good leaders who came back from last year but the rest of us are just going to have to step up and replace the other girls who left.

How did you start playing basketball?
Probably through my sister and brother (Mike and Tina). They both played, and it was really big in my town. We had a really good coach there.

How did you get to be Miss North Dakota Basketball in 1999?
They pick one person from North Dakota. We have two classes, Class A and B; the bigger schools are in Class A. The best players from all the schools in North Dakota get nominated and people vote on it. That was me.

How did you pick NDSU and then North Dakota?
I was recruited by both of them. I wanted to stay in North Dakota and both of these schools are really good, tradition-wise, and I knew I was going to go to one of them. I picked Fargo. I guess it just came to a last-minute decision. It was a pretty close tie. I guess I was more familiar with NDSU than UND. I realize now I should have picked UND.

Were you recruited by Division I schools?
A little bit, but not really. North Dakota doesn't really have AAU, so we never really get recruited that well by Division I schools. I didn't really want to play Division I anyway. I didn't want to go that far from home and I thought I'd probably play more in Division II.

What do you think you'll do after college?
I don't know if I'd want to still be playing basketball or not. I might be a gym teacher a coach and go on from there.

What do you do in your spare time?
I like going to movies or hanging out with my roommates or my boyfriend. Just hanging out.

What's your favorite movie that you've seen in the past year?
Hmm. I just saw "Don't Say a Word." I thought that was pretty good.

Interview conducted by Gball Assistant Editor David Hill.


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