Coro: Lever's hoops love runs deep

The best views in Bolzano, Italy, are not inside a gymnasium.

The venerable valley town looks up at forested slopes and majestic Italian Alps ridges. The setting befits a sporting scene that sends most of Bolzano's best athletes to the Winter Olympics, and the ones who play team sports trend toward hockey, soccer, volleyball and handball.

Yet, even in Bolzano, Alessandro Lever was born to play basketball.

Twenty years ago, Lever was in tow as his mother, Annalisa Piccoli, ran the court and threw elbows for Basket Club Bolzano in her first trimester. She was tough as a pro and remains so, following up Lever's Grand Canyon University basketball games with critiques. Raised on hardwood and hard knocks, Lever has become GCU's budding basketball star and the WAC's Preseason Player of the Year after one Lopes season. He was born and bred for this.

"When I was playing, I was forgetting that I was pregnant," Piccoli said from Bolzano via her son's translation from Italian. "I remember when my husband screamed from the seats during a game after I dived to get a ball on the floor.

His father, Franco, was steering Lever the same way. Now a principal, he was a school teacher and basketball coach during Lever's boyhood. Lever first took the court in a womb and stayed in the gym as a boy for mom's work and dad's teams, but his basketball destiny was not apparent to all.

"This child is tall, but he stinks," said his grandfather, Donato, who founded US Piani, the Italian basketball club that Lever later joined.
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Lever did not hear the opinion on his boyhood play until after his grandfather died 11 years ago. Donato would not be shocked to see that Lever is 6-foot-10, but he might be stunned by the passion and skill that made Lever the leading scorer for GCU and Italy's under-20 team.

"I love basketball," Lever said. "I want to spend as much time as I can in the basketball facility to get better. I need to play basketball in my life."

Lever's first basketball impressions came from watching his mother, a 6-1 center, for toughness and his father, a coach, for tactics. Once their teams finished, Lever had the floor "The only way for him to leave the gym was when the maintenance guy was shutting down all the lights," Piccoli said.

Like Donato, Piccoli was unimpressed when Lever began playing for his father's team. She once told her husband that she would not return because his games were not basketball. With his father at 6-1½, Lever sprung to 4-1 by age 7. Tests projected he would be 6-8, prompting a doctor to offer growth-stunting medicine.

They passed and Lever's body and game grew, thanks to an ankle injury that squelched a transition to an elite volleyball club at age 11.

Lever posted Kobe Bryant's image on his boyhood bedroom wall. That might seem contrary for a big man, but Lever's father put him at point guard despite his height. That acumen shows today in Lever's passing feel and shooting touch.

Lever's move to GCU was less daunting after he previously left Bolzano for three years to join Reggiana, where Bryant played as a youth.

"Ale was tall, not dynamic, but really smart and able to execute very quickly what was required of him," Piccoli said. "Moreover, he always had a spirit of sacrifice and dedication. Franco always believed in his potential. I started to believe it with the first call by the (under-16) national team (at age 13)."

Lopes assistant coach Chris Crevelone was the only college coach to visit Lever in Italy after Lever's under-18 national team took bronze at the 2016 European Championships. That convinced Lever and his mother to visit GCU when neither spoke English.

During the visit, GCU tennis player Lorenzo Fucile, also from Italy, met a shy Lever at a beach volleyball match.

"Ale has really come along with the GCU atmosphere," Fucile said. "He's bleeding purple. I see him doing everything with athletics. He's going to be like (ex-GCU basketball star) Josh Braun, an icon for the university. On campus, people are active to see him. He's more in the real world and is very nice with everyone."

With subtitled movies and GCU immersion, Lever turned conversational in English within a year. His basketball did not translate so well initially. He could not finish conditioning. He could not earn a starting spot. He could not meet his expectations.

"I figured out really quickly that he would be successful because he worked extremely hard," said GCU coach Dan Majerle, whom Lever texted after games to request drills to do.

"He's always in the gym. He always wants to get better. He wants to win and be a good teammate. He's an unbelievable kid."

Lever averaged 18.6 points over last season's final 16 games, helping GCU reach the WAC Tournament championship game. But parental nudges still come from 6,000 miles away – a GCU home game starts at 4 a.m. in Bolzano, where his parents are watching live.

"If I have a couple messages, usually it's because I played well," Lever said. "If I don't, I get worried because they're going to call me as soon as they can: 'Why'd you do this? Why didn't you do that?' "

Sometimes, Lever's postgame walks detoured to the gym to work on mistakes. The gym, GCU and Phoenix's Pizzeria Bianco pizza feel like home.

"He has more confidence in himself," Piccoli said. "This is thanks to Coach Majerle and all the staff that always showed him that they believe in him. Thanks to GCU, he has improved as a player and a man. We are really proud of what he's doing."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Alessandro Lever

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