INSIDE WITH MICHAEL DOLES
1-12-05
By: Greg Stephenson

His father always told him that it doesn’t matter who starts the game, it only matters who finishes it.  Being in there at the end, at crunch time, the elder Doles would say, means more than where you were an hour and 45 minutes earlier.  Coaches typically want their best players on the floor when a game is coming down to the wire and even though he only started nine games last season, that’s usually where Virginia Commonwealth’s senior captain Michael Doles found himself: on the floor as the final buzzer sounded. 

Doles provided the spark off the bench last season for the 2004 Colonial Athletic Association Champion Rams.  He only started nine of the 31 games he played, but still managed to be the team’s third-leading scorer behind graduating seniors Troy Godwin and Domonic Jones.  However, after beginning the season recuperating from a couple of health issues, Doles has started the past four games and is beginning to provide that spark as soon as the ball is tipped.

The 2004-05 season got off to a rough start for the All-CAA Preseason Second Team honoree.  He was diagnosed with mononucleosis just prior to the Preseason NIT, which forced him to miss the games against American and Wake Forest.  He also suffered a minor ankle injury that kept him out of practice once the illness subsided.   The Rams still managed to play well without him, however, defeating American in overtime, and hanging with then #2 Wake Forest until the later parts of the game.  One can only imagine, though, how those games would’ve turned out had Doles been healthy.

“I just wanted to start off the season well, and pick up from where I left off from last season,” added Doles.  “But getting sick gave me a late start.  Once I got back in there I didn’t want to rush things and I knew the guys already had their thing going on.  I had to figure out where I could fit in and not cause any trouble with the team.”

The only trouble Doles has been causing, as of late, is the type that is directed towards VCU’s opponents.  During the Rams’ 81-74 victory at George Mason, the team’s first road win this season, Doles scored a career-high 22 points.  He followed up that performance by leading VCU to a 70-58 win at Towson while matching his point total from the prior game.   After those outings, Doles was named CAA Player of the Week, and the Rams are 2-1 in CAA play having already accomplished something last season’s championship team did not: a win on the road against the always tough Patriots. 

Doles’ first game of the season was on the road against Sweet Sixteen participant UAB.  He of course came off the bench in that one and did the same for the next five games.  However, with the Rams hovering at 4-4, head coach Jeff Capel thought it was time for one of his veterans to receive some more playing time.

“I just felt like in practice Mike had been doing a good job, and it was time for him to step up,” said Capel.  “We’ve been struggling a little as a team and trying to find out who we are.   A big part of that is Mike being a good player for us.  That doesn’t necessarily mean being a good scorer.  Certainly he can score.  But we need him to rebound, we need him to defend, and we need him to be a leader.  Mike’s one of our most experienced guys.  We need him back out there, and I love the way he’s responding.”

“I’m ready to step up and accept the challenge,” added Doles.  “I’ve always thought I’ve been one of the main guys on the team.  With Troy and Dom gone, I felt like I had to step up, and not really take over where they left off, but just be Mike Doles and play the way I’m supposed to play.”

Doles’ first start this season came at home on December 29th against SEC-member Ole Miss.  He has started every game since averaging 19.3 points per game in that span.  He is indeed a scorer and, at 6’6”, that is largely due to the versatility he brings to the game.  Capel has said that last season, when Doles was normally the first player off of the bench, he could substitute him in for any player on the floor excluding the center. 

“I pride myself on being versatile,” said Doles.  “I can step out and shoot the open jumper or penetrate to the bucket.  It can provide for match up problems with the smaller guys who guard me and the big guys who guard me as well.”

Capel has seen Doles, who played for Meadowbrook High, transform from a young local transfer from Wright State into one of the team’s seasoned veterans.  “I think he’s grown so much and gotten better and he’s learn how to work hard,” said the third-year head coach.  “Those are the things that are going to be with him and hopefully help him become a successful man when he leaves here.

“I think Mike’s strongest trait is his ability to move on to the next play.  He’s a guy that doesn’t get rattled that much.  He’s always kind of the same.  As a coach, he kind of drives you crazy because at times you want more, you want to see some emotion and you want to see some different things.  But I think that’s a tremendous strength of his.  He knows that he’s never too down and he’s never too up.  He knows that he’s right there in the center, which is a really good thing for an athlete to be.  He’s always looking to move to the next play.”

Of course Michael Doles is always looking for the next play.  It makes sense for someone who knows that it doesn’t matter where he starts out, but only where he finishes.