Jan. 16, 2004

The Nova Notebook is a weekly in-season feature written by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan. This week the Notebook catches up with senior guard Tom Grace.

Less than two hours have passed since Tom Grace felt his left ankle buckle as it landed on the foot of teammate Will Sheridan in a drill during a practice session. He has already been fitted with a boot to help speed the healing process and it rests elevated on the scorer's table.

The injury is not considered serious. It has been diagnosed as a mild sprain and the hope is that this native of Baltimore can be back on the practice floor in 7-10 days.

For now, though, Grace can only watch.

At a moment when some athletes might begin a slow descent into self-pity, Grace exhibits none. As each play unfolds, Grace is there in spirit, exhorting, reminding and encouraging his 13 teammates.

It is the same kind of upbeat attitude that has endeared this Maryland native to the coaching staff and his teammates for the last three seasons.

Since first donning a Wildcat uniform in 2001-02, Tom Grace has seen only 38 minutes of game action. Twelve of those came in a 114-103 win at Redlands on a morning when head coach Jay Wright had only four scholarship athletes at his disposal. He has seven total career points, though three of those helped put an exclamation point on a victory over Saint Joseph's in 2001-02.

Yet this is one of those cases where numbers only scratch the surface of a story. They don't begin to quantify the contributions Grace has made in his three seasons as a 'Cat.

"Tommy Grace brings the kind of attitude we really value as a basketball staff," notes head coach Jay Wright.

Of course, Grace has posted some incredible stats during his time at Villanova. It's just that most of those have been delivered in the privacy of the classroom. As a member of the Honors Program, Grace has been an outstanding student with a grade point average that hovers just below 4.0, emerging last fall as one of the university's Rhodes Scholar candidates.

That Grace would one day step forward as one of his university's finest students would shock no one who encountered him at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Maryland. The son of Dr. George and Terri Grace was class valedictorian with academic scholarship offers on the table from several institutions.

Yet Villanova has Terri Grace to thank for landing her son.

"I wanted to go to a school with under 10,000 students and within two hours from home," says Grace, whose family makes its home near Baltimore. "I looked at Loyola, UMBC, and then planned a trip up here to look at Saint Joseph's. When we were up here visiting, my mom really encouraged me to visit Villanova as well. We did and I was impressed."

The choice was not a simple one.

"For most of my life," he says, "I thought I wanted to be a doctor. Both my parents are in medicine and they attended UMBC, which has a very good science school. If I knew for certain that I wanted to be a doctor, I probably would have chosen UMBC. But I wasn't totally convinced and that pushed me towards Villanova, where I would have a lot of terrific options from a career standpoint after graduation."

Although he had been a solid guard at Cardinal Gibbons, Grace did not have the kind of basketball tools to excite Division I recruiters. His hope was that once he found a collegiate home, he might get the chance to earn a spot as a walk-on.

After enrolling in the Honors program at Villanova in 2000, Grace inquired at the basketball office about walk-on tryouts. As it turned out, the Wildcats already had a full roster and did not conduct those workouts that year.

"I missed playing," states Grace, "but it really was a blessing in disguise."

Grace focused on his academics, which included a seminar featuring Philosophy, Theology and Literature. It involved many hours outside the classroom in addition to the in-class work.

"It is intensive," he states. "It's the kind of thing that, looking back on it now, I love that I did. But there is no way I could have done it as a member of the basketball team."

Shortly after Wright was hired in 2001, Grace inquired again about the possibility of joining the team. By fall, he and Lou Ruskey were on board and thrilled to be there.

"It was never about playing," says Grace. "I just wanted to be on the team."

Grace found a situation that was, in one respect, familiar to him. As a senior at Cardinal Gibbons, he welcomed a new coach determined to restore a traditional hoops power to prominence.

"The emphasis was on restoring tradition, playing hard and having a great attitude," he says. "And that's what coach Wright was trying to instill here."

Although Grace is articulate, sophomore walk-ons generally don't carry much sway in most Division I locker rooms. Yet Grace's intelligence and commitment to team earned him respect among his peers. His academic achievements were among the most notable at the university yet few on the team were aware of It.

That changed last fall when word began to leak that Grace was a candidate for a Rhodes Scholarship.

"It all started during the spring of my junior year (2003)," states Grace. "(University Vice-President) Dr. (Helen) Lafferty, suggested I see Jane Marsh, who is the director of undergraduate grants and awards. I talked to her and began to put together letters of recommendation."

Grace's resume and grades were good enough to land him a formal interview in Washington, D.C. The only dilemma was that they were scheduled for the week of the Nov. 21 opener at Temple. Grace spent two days in the nation's capital before rushing back up I-95 for the start of what looms as his final season of basketball.

While he did not advance to the next level of interviews, Grace bears no scars from the process.

"It was a good learning experience," he says. "It was stressful but just to be included in that class of people at that level of scholars was amazing. I really appreciate that.

"It may sound strange, but to be a finalist and not go is in some ways as good as actually getting the scholarship. This way, I have the benefit of having been through the process and that's on my resume. But I don't have to spend two years in England and can get started on my career. I also wasn't forced to miss any games, which I would have had to do if I had advanced further in the interviews."

That became especially noteworthy in the win at the Redlands, when Grace, Mike Claxton and Ross Condon came off the bench to help the Wildcats stave off a second half challenge in a 114-103 triumph.

As he begins contemplating the end of his hoops career, though, Grace doesn't focus on his in-game contributions. Instead, his Villanova basketball highlights are centered on the whole.

"The best experiences I've had here don't correlate to me having played in the game," states Grace. "If I had to pick a game highlight, it would be the Big East Tournament quarterfinal (2001) when we nearly beat Connecticut. For that team to have won 19 games and come within a game of probably reaching the NCAA Tournament was significant."

One reason Grace plans to attend law school next year is the sense of competition it offers.

"The law has always been intrinsically interesting to me," he explains. "I don't know exactly what kind of law I want to practice, but I like and respect the process. I enjoy the competition of advancing your argument and competing with an opponent. The law just has so many applications."

At the moment, though, Grace's mindset is squarely upon the completion of his undergraduate degree and the 2003-04 season. Sprained ankle or not, Grace plans to be animated and enthusiastic as this young team he helps lead moves into the second half of the season.

"I've probably never been on a team that gets along as well as this one does," says Grace. "There are no cliques and we spend all our free time together. It's a great group to be around.

"Coach (Wright) always emphasizes that he wants us to come back and continue to be a part of Villanova basketball after we graduate. I definitely plan to do that."