By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com

There isn’t much that the doctors can do to alleviate the pain in Wheaton junior center Joel Kolmodin’s knees, but there still isn’t much that opponents can do to stop the best player in the CCIW.

Since his junior year of high school at Unity Christian outside of Grand Rapids, Mich., Kolmodin has had five knee operations for torn cartilage, leaving him with plenty of swelling and plenty of pain because there is no cushion remaining.

This year Kolmodin, who missed almost all of last season due to the pain, bit the bullet, or in this case, the anti-inflammatories that when combined with electrostimulation treatments, allow him to get through games. You would never know by his numbers that he’s hurt, as he’s averaging a league-best 23.4 points and 10.5 rebounds per game on 53% shooting (39% from 3-point range) and the Thunder are 16-4 heading into a Saturday showdown with No. 15 Illinois Wesleyan. Kolmodin has been named CCIW Player of the Week five times and is the favorite to win Player of the Year honors.

“The more I play, the more I’m convinced that basketball is about running harder and faster than everyone else,” said the 6-foot-8, 240-pound Kolmodin, who has posted nine consecutive double-doubles, has missed only one game this season, and has not shown signs of slowing down. “So that’s what I try to do.”

That’s why he runs 20 miles a week during the offseason. Running in a straight line doesn’t cause as many problems as moving laterally, so it’s something he can do to keep in good shape. Because his knees throb for days after games, Kolmodin practices no more than 30 minutes per day, but he’s sure to get in plenty of stationary bike riding and weightlifting, and is very careful with his diet to make sure he stays fit for the next contest.

“His personal discipline is largely responsible for his success,” said Wheaton coach Bill Harris, who traveled three hours each way to watch most of Kolmodin’s senior year in high school because he identified Kolmodin as a special impact player. “He’s an extremely disciplined young man. He can score inside or face the basket and shoot the 3-ponter, but if you get him on the block, he’s very difficult to stop.”

Most players of his caliber end up at MIAA perennial powers Calvin and Hope, but Kolmodin said he liked the idea of “breaking the mold.” He is a pre-med major who volunteers even during the season at a local hospital and soon will take the MCATs.

Maybe by the time he becomes a doctor, he’ll be able to find a way to heal himself. For now, he’s able to block out the discomfort and focus on the rest of the season.

“Our goal is to win the conference championship,” Kolmodin said. “If we play hard and we play selflessly, I think we have a good chance.”

STEPHANIE GIANAKOS...COME ON DOWN! When the New Paltz State women’s basketball team paid a visit to Television City last month in between games against Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne they stopped to watch a taping for a prime time version of The Price is Right. Sophomore Stephanie Gianakos told the show’s contestant coordinators that she had come 3,000 miles to give host Bob Barker a kiss. They decided to give her a chance to do so.

Gianakos was called to Contestants Row, was the winner of a grandfather clock valued at more than $3,000, then won $8,000 at the bonus game “Shopping Bag.”

The episode aired Wednesday night.

“I was shaking the entire time I was up there,” said Gianakos, who averaged 1.4 points per game in 13 appearances this season for the State Hawks (7-13), and will sit out the rest of the year with a back injury. “It’s still not real for me yet. I watched the show since I was five years old and I watched it religously.”

During a commercial break, the New Paltz team sang a cheer for Barker. After Gianakos won the money, she kept her end of the promise.

“I did get to give him a kiss before I left the stage,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll say this. He wears a lot of makeup.”

THERE FOR THE TAKING: The Westfield State men’s basketball team was 2-6 when senior guard Shawn Jones, during a halftime interview on a broadcast conducted by this author, boldly predicted that his team would be league champs at year’s end. That looked pretty laughable after the Owls lost their next four games to slip to 2-10. But things changed for the better quickly and now Westfield State looks very much like a contender, having extended its win streak to eight games with narrow wins over Worcester State and Salem State. Suddenly the Owls are 6-3 in the MASCAC and right in the title hunt.

The other team to start slow that could make a push on the men’s side is 12-8 Chicago, which also has won eight in a row, but will have to beat both Rochester and No. 1 Washington U. on the road to have a shot at a UAA crown.

One thing these teams have in common is players that can dominate games, i.e. Sacred Heart transfer Jones (who entered the week seventh in Division III in scoring at 24.5 ppg) and recently profiled Maroons senior Derek Reich.

AND THEN THERE’S ... The Gwynedd-Mercy men are a team that no one in the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference wants to face. That’s because the Griffins have one of the nation’s best all-around inside talents in 6-8 sophomore center Badou Gaye.

Gaye is averaging 20.8 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game. That’s not too shabby from someone who didn’t come to the USA from his native Senegal until his senior year of high school. Gaye moved in with an uncle who lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia in hope of getting a college education. The coaches at Kennedy-Kenrick High persuaded Gaye to play and he is one of those people who becomes a better player on a daily basis, because he is still learning the game.

“I was kind of raw,” said Gaye, whose previous athletic experience primarily was in soccer. “I had to get used to all the running. Now I have to work on my outside game. All the defenses are sagging on me and I have to get used to that. That can be frustrating."

Gwynedd Mercy will have to work just to make the PAC playoffs though. Gaye has been hobbled recently by an ankle sprain and as a result, the Griffins are 12-10, 7-6 and in fifth place in a league in which only six teams make the playoffs.

AND ALSO... The Bethany men’s basketball team is 4-0 in overtime. The problem for the Bison in Aaron Huffman’s first season is getting there — the team is just 5-11 in games decided in regulation.

Bethany has played reasonably well recently, going 9-6 after an 0-5 start, with back-to-back double-overtime road wins against Frostburg State and Grove City.

But the 4-0 isn’t the best mark in overtime this season. That distinction goes to the McMurry men, who are 6-0. Southern Vermont's men are 5-0 in overtime, including a triple-OT win against Clark on Jan. 3. Several women's programs have won two overtime games, but none have reported three or more.