Oklahoma State University Athletics
Tony Allen Leads Team With Toughness
March 26, 2004 | Cowboy Basketball
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -- Toughness has never been a problem for a Chicago kid like Tony Allen.
Allen wears his inner-city ruggedness as a badge of honor, the product of playground beatings from his hoops-loving uncles and older kids who had little patience for smaller children.
``I wasn't that good at basketball growing up,'' Allen said. ``But playing with older guys helped me. I was always getting beat up, taking a beating from older guys. It helped me to get tougher.''
The problem was harnessing that toughness, and limiting it only to basketball.
Allen learned how to smooth out those rough edges at Oklahoma State, slowly maturing into a team leader. The senior guard, who arrived at Oklahoma State last year via two junior colleges, has become the driving force behind the Cowboys' run through the NCAA tournament.
Oklahoma State (29-3) will meet third-seeded Pittsburgh on Thursday night in the East Rutherford regional semifinal.
``Kids from the inner city are generally tougher and that's never been a problem for Tony,'' coach Eddie Sutton said. ``But of all the players we've had here, Tony has made more progress off the court than any of them. This is why I've stayed in coaching.''
Allen, who transferred from Wabash Valley (Ill.) Community College, got off to an inauspicious start in Stillwater.
Days before classes started in Aug. 2003, Allen and then-teammate Cheyne Gadson were arrested for their roles during a riot of about 300 people in the parking lot of a Stillwater restaurant. The charges against Allen and Gadson were eventually dropped.
Fortunately for the Cowboys, his transition onto the basketball team was smoother.
Allen emerged as the team's second-leading scorer, one of its most reliable defenders and helped the Cowboys come within a bad half of knocking off eventual national champion Syracuse in the NCAA tournament.
But Sutton, wary of Allen's tendency to spout off and provide opposing teams with bulletin board material, shielded him from the media for much of the season.
Even Allen admitted he needed to polish up his image.
``I needed to get my communication level better,'' Allen said. ``When I talked to reporters, I'd, you know ... keep it real. I didn't know they would quote me word for word. I thought they fixed you up a bit.''
Allen finally figured out that he had to do the fixing himself.
A year later, Allen needs only a three-hour foreign language course during the summer to earn his education degree. He was baptized in September. He's even become one of the Cowboys' most popular interviews, routinely pushed in front of the microphones and cameras by his teammates.
``I knew I had to change,'' Allen said. ``I wasn't feeling too good about myself and the way I did things. Now, when I approach things I have more caring for others and I'm more thankful for what's going on in my life.''
The one thing that didn't change was his tenacity on the court.
Allen is the team's leading scorer at 16 points a game, second-leading rebounder at 5.5 and the defensive enforcer. For his role in leading the Cowboys to their first outright league title since 1965, Allen was chosen the Big 12 player of the year by the coaches.
He was also selected the Big 12 tournament MVP after scoring 49 points in three games, including 21 in the final against Texas. Allen also shut down Longhorns star guard Brandon Mouton, who finished with six points.
``No one in the league has an answer for him,'' Texas coach Rick Barnes said.
Allen's teammates have noticed the off-court change.
``I think he's just kind of stepped up and become more of a leader,'' forward Terrance Crawford said. ``We're just kind of riding his coattails right now.''
