While Basile did score a game-high 27 points, grab a game-high 11 rebounds and block four Vikings’ shots, his mom wasn’t just beaming because of his box score.
She was especially delighted about the absence of his box braids.
The last two years, Basile started the season with his hair in tight braids. Often he wore it in cornrows. A few times there were box braids.
“Some people thought they were cool and a lot of people thought they were dumb,” Basile said with a laugh when we talked about them a few days back. “For me, it was fun. I liked to mess with the people and they either loved (the look) or they hated it.”
Nass made clear the camp she was in:
“I hated them,” she said with a bit of a laugh as she stood in the Coliseum concourse Monday night with her daughter, Brooke, Grant’s twin sister.
“Last year he had $500 on the table to get rid of them. This year I put it on our family group chat. He was on it, too. I said, ‘Grant, here’s $500 if you cut your hair.’ My husband (Kevin) was at work, but he came back with: ‘And I’ll double it!’
“So there was $1,000 on the table and, once again, he wouldn’t take it.”
A former coach said he’d also pay $100 to see the braids go. And Basile said neighbors back in Wisconsin offered to chip in, as well.
“Yeah, up there it’s more clean cut, shaved heads and stuff like that,” he said.
“All our friends made fun,” Nass said. “And one announcer on ESPN even said, ‘You know, he plays like a young Larry Bird…albeit with a much different hairstyle.’”
Sometimes opponents made cracks and that was especially the case early in the season when the Raiders played at Marshall.
“I had box braids then and some Marshall people were chirping about it,”Basile laughed. “I liked getting them going.”
He must have.
Although Wright State lost, 96-88, he scored a career-high 37 points.
Hair today, gone tomorrow
The whole hair today, gone tomorrow saga of Grant Basile began his freshman year after coming to Wright State from Pewaukee, Wis., where his family has quite a hoops resume.
Both his late grandfather and his dad were college standouts themselves and then both became successful coaches. His grandad, Mike Basile, was a longtime high school and junior college coach, and Grant’s dad, Michael (Mike), coached Grant at Peuwaukee High.
Once at WSU – following a redshirt season to deal with a lingering ankle injury – Basile had regular practice battles with Loudon Love, the Raiders 6-foot-8 muscle man who would become the two-time Horizon League Player of the Year.
Off the court, Love wanted them to become a tonsorial tandem.
“Freshman year I was supposed to grow my hair out with Loudon, but I chickened out,” Basile laughed.
Last year he finally asked his girlfriend, Melody Roop, to braid his hair before games.
The new look wasn’t a big hit at home.
Then Santa delivered a painful gift to his mom.
“I shattered my kneecap at Christmas and the surgery was pretty rough and took really long,” Nass said. “Grant felt pretty helpless. He was stuck at school, so he went and shaved all his hair off.
“He cut it super short and it was the best thing I could have woken up to. I loved it.”
This season when the family pushed its stance with a cash incentive, Basile shook his braided head “No!”.
His position only changed when he said his braids began to require too much time and maintenance.
“I think once Melody was trying to braid it before game and was having trouble,’ Nass said. “Her nails are long and she got impatient and finally decided: ‘That’s it, forget it!’”
“He said the braids were bothering him when he tried to sleep, too,” Brooke said.
“That’s when he woke up his roommate, Andy Neff, in the middle of the night and had him shave all his hair off,” Nass said. “When he came home for Christmas, it wasn’t a very good haircut – he had horns—but I still loved it.”
And Basile certainly fared better than Samson when somebody messed with his hair.
The Israelite judge and legendary strongman was done in by his lover Delilah, who got a Philistine to cut his hair, a snip that stole all his strength.
Basile, though, has blossomed with his new ‘do.
He’s averaging 18.5 points per game second best on the team behind Tanner Holden (19.8) and fourth best in the league. His 8.7 rebounds lead the Raiders and he’s ranked No. 22 in rebounds in the nation.
For the second year in a row, he won second team All-Horizon League honors.
He’s now scored 1,175 points at WSU, putting him 25th on the all-time list of career scorers. He’s No. 10 in career rebounds.
‘I picked my battles’
Mike Basile said he took a tactical approach to the braids brouhaha.
“I was trying to cut down on the tattoos so I picked my battles,” he laughed.
He said his son has four tats. The most prominent all have to do with family and one, on the inside of his left arm, simply says “Family’ written in script.
That and some of the other things you pick up on when you’re around the redshirt junior tell you he’s pretty decent guy.
He’s a standout in the classroom. This season he made the Horizon League’s All-Academic team. He’s already gotten his undergrad degree in accounting and is working on his masters in sports management.
And during Monday’s postgame press conference, he deflected praise the way he batted away Vikings’ shots.
When questions focused on his stellar play, he instead talked about the efforts of freshmen A.J. Braun and Keaton Norris and especially redshirt junior Tim Finke, who turned on another smothering defensive effort.
This time he put the clamps on Vikings’ star Torrey Patton, the Trotwood Mason grad, who has scored 1,203 points, won All Horizon League honors and last year was the MVP of the league tournament. He came into Monday’s game averaging 13.7 points per game and finished with four on 2-for-10 shooting,
Basile had a big hand in ruining the night for Patton and his teammates.
In the game’s first 5 ½ minutes, he took a charge from Patton and blocked two field goal attempts by the Vikings all-conference guard Tre Gomillion. He later blocked two of Patton’s shots and took another charge from Broc Finstuen.
On the offensive end, he hit a pair of deep threes, did a drive and spin to the rim that he finished with a feathery jumper and ended his night with a break-away jam that got the Raiders’ crowd going.
As for the hair – now a wavy thatch atop his head – his mom loves it.
“My mom had nothing to do with this.” he said with smile. “I did it for myself.”
And does he miss the braids?
“Well it was fun,” he said. “People did love it or hate it.
“And either way, a lot of people talked about it.”
Monday night they talked about him even more.
Come tournament time, box scores stand out more than box braids.
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