Not sure?

Well, both began and ended their West Virginia basketball careers by playing in the NCAA basketball tournament.

West led the Mountaineers to three straight NCAA berths from 1958 to 1960, while Leonard was a member of WVU’s NCAA tournament teams of 1989 and 1992.

Leonard will be the first to admit that any additional comparisons to West would be ridiculous. But like West, though, Leonard does professes a similar love for his alma mater.

More than years after he peeled off his basketball jersey for the last time following West Virginia’s 89-78 loss to Missouri in the 1992 NCAA East Regional, Leonard still keeps close tabs on his Mountaineers.

He orders ESPN Game Plan to watch all of West Virginia's games, and can offer a pretty interesting critique of this year's basketball team.

You see, playing basketball at West Virginia University has meant a great deal to Chris Leonard.

"Running out on the carpet is something you just don’t forget," he admitted.

Leonard grew up just miles across the West Virginia-Virginia border in Purcellville, Va., his father having attended Shepherd College.

As a freshman in 1989, Leonard played just 112 minutes on an outstanding club that featured a pair of unrelated Brooks’ in Herbie and Chris. The ’89 team also had forward Darryl Prue, centers Ray Foster and Wade Smith, and point guard Steve Berger.

There wasn't much room for Leonard in 1989, but he did take the time to watch West Virginia's older guards to learn how to play the game properly.

He also quickly developed a healthy respect for forward Chris Brooks.

The 6-foot-6 Brooks was a Parade All-American basketball player from the tough streets of New York. He was a self-confident, somewhat brash player who backed it up with 245 pounds of solid muscle.

Once, sophomore center Matt Roadcap managed to block one of Brooks’ shots during a team scrimmage. For the rest of the practice Roadcap bragged about his achievement until Brooks had had enough.

"You’re talking big while Coach is here," Brooks growled, "if you don’t shut up, I’m going to get you when he isn't around."

By the time Leonard made it to the locker room after practice, the 6-foot-9 Roadcap was still trying to get out of his locker.

Brooks had placed him in there.

"Afterwards when we went out to dinner, Matt said ‘You know, I probably deserved that,’" Leonard recalled.

Once Brooks got into an argument about how long it took to drive to Hawaii. Never mind the fact that Hawaii is separated by the Pacific Ocean, if Chris Brooks said it took four days to drive to Hawaii, well, it took four days to drive to Hawaii.

"Everybody learned from Chris," Leonard said. "He demanded respect and if you didn’t give it to him, he just took it."

Leonard's sophomore year saw him have an increased role in the offense. He averaged nearly 10 points per game as the Mountaineers registered a 16-12 record. A year later in 1991, he averaged 13.4 points per contest and converted a team-high 53 three-point field goals.

By 1992, Coach Gale Catlett had given Leonard the green light to shoot the basketball. He responded by scoring a team-best 17.2 points per game. The 6-foot-4 guard canned a school-record 101-of-220 three-point baskets that season, and also owns records for career three-pointers (200) and career three-point field goal percentage (.417).

Leonard ranks 21^st on the school’s career scoring list with 1,235 points.

After suffering back-to-back losses to Temple and Alabama-Birmingham to put West Virginia’s record at 6-5, the Mountaineers went on a roll by winning nine-straight games to push their record to 15-5. Among those wins were a home triumph against Notre Dame and a victory at Temple.

West Virginia upset the Owls 44-41 in the semifinals of the A-10 tournament and advanced to the championship game to play nationally ranked Massachusetts. John Calipari’s Minutemen won the game, 97-91, but West Virginia’s gritty effort earned it an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament.

"Going to the NCAA tournament is what everybody plays for," Leonard noted.

That 1992 NCAA team was comprised primarily of sophomores.

Mike Boyd and Marsalis Basey shared the point guard duties, while 6-foot-7 Ricky Robinson, 6-foot-8 Pervires Greene and 6-foot-9 Phil Wilson patrolled the paint.

Six-five guard Lawrence Pollard came off the bench.

Tracy Shelton and Matt Roadcap were juniors who played key minutes in addition to promising 6-foot-10 freshman Wilfred Kirkaldy, while Leonard and Catfish McNeely were the team’s only two seniors.

Leonard proved to be the glue that held the 1992 team together.

It became more evident in ensuing seasons, when West Virginia couldn’t quite get over the hump. In ’93, WVU posted an even 7-7 Atlantic 10 record on the way to an NIT berth.

A year later in 1994, the brilliant sophomore class of Basey, Boyd, Greene, Robinson and Wilson were now seniors and had West Virginia off to a 15-2 start before a late-season swoon eliminated the Mountaineers from NCAA play.

What West Virginia missed during those years were Leonard’s three-point bombs that loosened up opposing defenses.

"If you ask Ricky Robinson the difference between when he played as a sophomore and when he played as a senior, he’ll tell you guys collapsed in on him," Leonard admitted. "You just can’t collapse if you’ve got somebody that can consistently hit the three."

Today, the Fairfax County budget analyst is relegated to playing in the Leesburg (Va.) Recreational League, where he says the players are much younger and the games are getting much tougher.

"Normally I just sit out on the wing and shoot threes, but sometimes I have to bring the ball up the floor, too," he lamented.

The Leesburg A-league Leonard plays in features some of the best players in the area. In fact a couple of years ago, Leonard’s team faced a squad that included former Mountaineer forward Tyrone Shaw.

"He still uses that wrap-around, fake pass underneath the basket," Leonard laughed.

Chris still wears his trademark flattop hair cut. However, he admits it has been difficult maintaining his college playing weight of 185.

"Those days are over," he shrugged.

Before moving to Leesburg, Leonard spent a few years coordinating the Loudon County recreational athletic program.

He used his sports contacts to get an impressive list of speakers for the kids at the park, including Dodgers general manager Kevin Malone and former Wake Forest standout Rodney Rogers.

In addition to those two, Leonard also called on former Georgia Tech sharpshooter Dennis Scott to give his motivational spiel to the youth of Loudon County. Unfortunately, Scott had a bad day and instead presented the kids with a profanity-laced tirade that made national news from coast-to-coast.

"His speech was certainly a surprise," Leonard recalled. "Associated Press, Miami-Herald, Orlando Sentinel ... they were all calling us. It was unbelievable.

"That was the end of my career booking motivational speakers," he said.

Today, Leonard and his wife Stacie have most of their time occupied by two young daughters – Megan and Ashley.

He still makes plenty of trips to Morgantown to watch the West Virginia University football team in action.

ESPN Game Plan has turned him into a big Mountaineer football fan, too.

Back to Varsity Club Profiles