COLLEGE PARK -- There's about a foot of forgiveness on the basketball court at Piney Branch Elementary. Take the ball to the hole, get a taste of the wall just beyond the baseline.

It's one of the gyms in Takoma Park where Steve Francis tagged along with his older brothers. They were in their early teens themselves, out to challenge the older guys, and little Steve was sent a message that he didn't belong.

"Steve used to get run into that wall every day," Terry Francis said of his younger brother. "At first, he used to cry and leave the gym mad. He thought everyone was out to get him."

Steve Francis kept smacking into walls -- walls of injury, bureaucracy, family loss and his own academic indifference. They blocked the view in his hoop dream, but he kept getting up and climbing over them, to the delight of everyone attached to the basketball team at the University of Maryland.

This is his sixth campus in as many autumns, and if Francis is as good as the hype that has accompanied him, next season could find him in the NBA. He's a do-it-all junior guard whose athleticism and instincts have played everywhere except ESPN. To appreciate how far Francis could take himself and the Terps, you have to understand where he's been.

"You talk about a guy who went to the school of hard knocks," said Dale Lamberth, his coach at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, "there were times when I thought the case was closed on Steve. You've heard the stories, 'I could have gone this place, I could have gone there,' but the guy is still at the rec center.

"There were times when I thought he was just going to be a superstar in the ghetto."

Shaky start

College practice begins this week, and expectations are spiraling at Maryland, where coach Gary Williams has an intriguing blend of seniors, sophomores and first-year players. Their high school resumes range from Parade All-American for Terence Morris to project for Obinna Ekezie to puny for Francis.

He was the first player to help two unbeaten programs into the junior college national tournament, but Francis was a nobody in high school.

He took school lightly as a freshman, and was ineligible to play basketball. As a sophomore, he made the Blair varsity, and got one start. Francis transferred to John F. Kennedy High for his junior year, which was derailed by a broken left ankle. He moved back to Blair for his senior year, but the transfer rules in Montgomery County prohibited him from playing.

The absence of high school basketball seemed trivial in March 1995, when his mother, Brenda Wilson, died of cancer after a rapid decline.

"There wasn't much any of us could do or say," Terry Francis said. "I was in shock myself. Steve was devastated. A lot of the guys he played with growing up were having good senior years, but he couldn't escape into the game. He basically stopped going to school."

Francis buried himself in his video games and the family's apartment. He eventually got his equivalency certificate, but the next academic year was cut short, too, as financial problems limited him to one semester at Milford Academy, a prep school in Connecticut.

He was steered there by Anthony Langley, a police sergeant in Washington who's also the president of the Takoma Park Boys and Girls Club. Here's everything you need to know about Langley: Before Francis' senior year, Langley sent him not to one of the all-star camps that serve as recruiting meat markets, but to a teaching camp, Five Star.

Small kid, big game

Maryland could have the makings of a point guard controversy, since senior Terrell Stokes struggled early last season and that's where Francis played the past two seasons. He stresses, however, that his game isn't limited to running an offense.

"Tony Langley taught me how to play all five positions when I was 9 years old," Francis said. "He taught me everything I know on the court, my work ethic."

Langley didn't exactly get an empty vessel.

"Steve Francis always wanted to be the best, at whatever he did," Langley said. "He still holds the Takoma Park Boys and Girls Club record for raffle tickets sold in one day. He sold more than 400 tickets, a dollar a pop. Steve was never the best player on our teams, but what made him stand out was his intelligence."

The Takoma Park Rams once overcame a last-minute deficit when Francis defended the inbounds pass, asked a gullible opponent to "check" the ball and converted the gift turnover. In a summer league game in 1994, Blair's winning basket came when Francis inbounded to a teammate who had hidden behind an official.

If Francis had smarts and spirit, he didn't have size. He's 6 feet 3 and 194 pounds now, but his ability to go to the basket was developed when he was 5-3 -- and 4-3.

"Steve made the varsity here when he was a sophomore because he was so fearless," said Lamberth, the Blair coach. "For a small kid, he would bang. He understood at an early age how to absorb a hit and still get off a shot. The amazing thing was this little pipsqueak who played so big."

Jason Miskiri, the star guard at George Mason University, has been tight with Francis since he was 7. He was in awe at the championship game of the Jabbo Kenner college league this past summer, when his teammate dunked on four straight trips downcourt.

Francis added to his urban legend when his 43-inch vertical leap alley-ooped over NBA star Chris Webber in one of the upscale pickup games at Maryland's north gym. He made seven of nine three-pointers in a junior college game last season. He can read and react when the Terps apply pressure, a la Laron Profit, but he'll most make a difference at the offensive end.

"He can break down a defense, which is really a key in today's game," Maryland's Williams said. "You can run a pretty good offense, and still not get a good scoring opportunity, because the good teams usually play good team defense.

"No matter what defense you're playing, a guard who can penetrate is going to cause you problems. So far in his career, Steve Francis has shown that he has the ability to break you down. Part of that is the outside threat; you have to come out and play him. Part of it is, when he does get in the paint, he's capable of taking it all the way and scoring."

Still growing

A break came in summer 1996, when Francis made the all-tournament team at the AAU under-19 nationals in Florida. The holes on his high school transcript would have required sitting out a year in Division I, so junior college was his primary option. Prepared to follow Miskiri to Montgomery-Rockville, he instead went to the top of the ladder, to Texas and San Jacinto.

Two years ago, San Jacinto had the junior college Player of the Year in Omar Sneed, a low-post artist who's now at Memphis. The backcourt included players who are now at Oregon and Texas, but as the season developed, the Ravens learned who was in charge.

"I might not have realized it until about halfway through the year," coach Scott Gernander said, "how good Steve was with the ball at the end of the game."

Francis had surprised his family and friends when he pulled up roots and went to Texas. Gernander was shocked, too, when Francis told him he was homesick and wanted to return to Maryland and play at Allegany, the two-year school in Cumberland that is a perennial Top 10 team itself. Before he granted Francis his release, Gernander fought his transfer.

Gernander, whose earlier backcourt stars included Sam Cassell and Michael Lloyd, could see a breakout season coming for Francis. Allegany made it to the nationals when a postseason loss to Hagerstown was later ruled a forfeit victory, and that setback showed Francis at his best.

"We were down bad [53-39] at the half, and the second half kind of became Steve's game," Allegany coach Bob Kirk said. "Steve had three points at the half, and ended with 34. Whether it's a practice or a game, he hates to lose. He's very serious about the scoreboard, and that's what makes him great. We've never had a greater competitor."

After he talked about his ability to break down a defense, Williams was asked if Francis could do for Maryland what Andre Miller did for Utah last year. The coach nodded yes, and all Miller did was drive Utah to within six minutes of an NCAA title.

The Terps have never been to a Final Four. It's been a generation since Maryland even got past the Sweet 16, but the new guard knows his way around obstacles.

Steve Francis has picked himself up and gotten over walls before.

On the road again

A look at the stops and starts in the basketball career of new Maryland guard Steve Francis:

Season School .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Skinny

1991-92 Montgomery Blair HS .. .. .. ... Academically ineligible

1992-93 Montgomery Blair HS .. .. .. ... Varsity substitute

1993-94 Kennedy HS .. .. .. .. .. .. ... DNP, broken ankle

1994-95 Montgomery Blair HS .. .. ... .. DNP, transfer rules

1995-96 Milford (Conn.) Acad. .. .. .. . Left after one semester

1996-97 San Jacinto (Texas) JC .. .. ... Point for NJCAA finalists

1997-98 Allegany JC .. .. .. .. .. .. .. JuCo All-American

1998-99 Maryland .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Will start; position TBD

Pub Date: 10/14/98