Gabrielova runs Hawai'i with speed and spunk
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
If University of Hawai'i senior Janka Gabrielova was truly set free on a basketball court it would look like a hurricane just hit.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Basketballs would be everywhere. Backboards would be shaking and nets would be torn down. Players — opponents and teammates alike — would stand in stunned, gaping silence.
Rainbow Wahine assistant Jon Newlee says Janka Gabrielova "does everything at 100 miles per hour."
Even after leveling the place, Hurricane Janka would look for one last, long pass. And, considering the Rainbow Wahine are 43-13 with this force of nature at point guard the past two seasons, it would probably culminate in the winning basket.
"She does everything at 100 miles per hour," says UH assistant Jon Newlee, who recruited Gabrielova from Weatherford Junior College. "You're usually pushing players to move quicker, and with Janka we're trying to get her to back down. Her motor runs full speed all the time, even in practice. It's amazing."
Adds head coach Vince Goo: "I'd rather have a point guard you need to settle down rather than motivate. And it's easy to settle her down. We get a player with a towel waiting to come in for her."
The 5-foot-6 senior from Slovakia is perpetual motion on caffeine. Only she can describe her style.
"Crazy, because I'm running all over the place," Gabrielova says. "I know where I'm going, but the other players don't."
Today—Tulsa, 7 p.m. Sunday—Rice, 2 p.m.
Her type of controlled turmoil naturally has drawbacks. She once had a double-double with points and turnovers. "Sometimes, she makes bad decisions," admits Newlee. "Then it escalates because she tries to make up for it and forces things."
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Those "lapses," as UH coaches so delicately call them, have become rare. Going into this week's crucial Western Athletic Conference games against Tulsa (tonight) and Rice (Sunday), Gabrielova is second in conference 3-point shooting, fourth in assists and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio.
And her most valuable asset is defense, where her incredible energy is an ally. If Gabrielova got any closer to the player she guards they would share a uniform. She focuses on an opponent's hips and refuses to let them shake her. After 30 seconds of that, she roars off in the other direction, basketball in hand.
She is so relentless, the only Rainbow Goo can compare her to is BJ Itoman. "They are both equally tenacious," Goo says. "They both get upset when they get beat. Not in a ballgame, on one possession."
Gabrielova has adapted her totally unstructured JC style to Hawai'i's meticulously structured offense. Those baseball passes and one-hand-off-the-dribble line drives she has been winging since she took up the game at 12 are nearly European history.
Over the same period, her teammates have altered their perception of quickness to anticipate their point guard's next move. And in new teammate Kim Willoughby, Gabrielova has found a breakaway buddy.
Gabrielova is no longer the point guard "who never met a dribble she didn't like," with a shot that goes one way while her tiny body flails the other. And Goo has grown to appreciate all her qualities. His awe started slowly last year, but by the postseason — where Gabrielova played a near-perfect point — he was hooked.
"The thing about Janka is, she's trying to do the right thing," Goo says. "When you have a point guard who gambles a lot she's going to make great plays and win big for you, then she's going to make plays that will surprise you in not such a good way. You need courage out of your point guard. You need a point guard who is going to gamble."
Gambling with a basketball is nothing compared to the gamble Gabrielova made by coming to America. It had been her dream to play here and learn English. It was also a huge adjustment.
Fortunately, she hooked up with Mindaugas Burneika, the Rainbow Warriors' 6-foot-7 forward, five days after getting to Weatherford. They have been dating since. Gabrielova also met Dainora Puida and her husband Nerijus in JC. They have become close friends.
"She's the same in life as what you see in basketball," says Dainora, who, like her husband, is a former UH player. "Very funny and outgoing. It's fun to be around her. And I think she's made me more outgoing."
Puida and Gabrielova are both studying liberal arts with a coaching emphasis. Goo dreams of the day Gabrielova coaches a point guard who came out of her broken mold.
"I'd like her to get her due," Goo jokes.
Gabrielova, as usual, has a retort. "It would be good to have a whole team of players like me," she says, unable to stop a huge smile. "Then I wouldn't even have to communicate. They would just know."
