Texas A&M’s ‘glue guy’ brings intangibles, Kentucky connections to Saturday’s game

His father played for a man who later coached at Kentucky. He served as a ball boy for a future Kentucky coach.

Texas A&M senior Alex Caruso brings plenty of Kentucky connections and basketball pedigree into Saturday’s game against the Cats.

It’s not a stretch to think that Caruso shares the same basketball calling card with Kentucky point guard Tyler Ulis. Mere numbers don’t capture each player’s worth to his team. Both require repeated viewings to be fully appreciated.

The distinguishing characteristics include the assist, the pass that sets up the pass that gets labeled an assist, a sense of anticipation and a competitive will.

During a telecast of the Aggies’ victory over Ole Miss this week, ESPN commentator Dino Gaudio said Caruso was “first-team all-intangible.”

Earlier this season, Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes called Caruso “the ultimate glue guy.”

That tag shows itself at the most opportune times.

“When things aren’t going well, you’ve got to have somebody that kind of steadies the ship,” Barnes said. “(Caruso) is as good at doing that as anybody I’ve seen in a long time.”

Texas A&M Coach Billy Kennedy said the cliché of “glue guy” does not adequately describe Caruso’s impact.

“Alex is probably beyond that,” he said. “He affects the game in so many areas. Something a coach doesn’t just teach you. You come with it, and you pick that up as you grow up. And he’s definitely got it.”

Caruso, who led the Southeastern Conference in assists the last two seasons, is at a loss to explain why he has an instinct for the game.

His father, Mike, played for Eddie Sutton at Creighton in the 1969-70 and 1970-71 seasons. He averaged 13.7 and 13.1 points in those two seasons, and had a career free-throw accuracy of 84.4 percent.

The elder Caruso grew up in Oakland, Calif., and followed the example of Bay Area standout Paul Silas and played for Creighton. He played for Red McManus as a sophomore, then Sutton as a junior and senior.

He described the transition as “an eye-opening experience.”

“The coach that recruited me essentially had a philosophy of we didn’t care how many points the other team scored, we’re going to outscore them,” Mike Caruso said. “Now, if you know Coach Sutton, that’s a 180 (degree difference).”

To drive home the point, Sutton did not have basketballs at the first practice. “That was, OK, things are going to be different for us,” Mike Caruso said.

Of course, Kentucky fans learned about Sutton’s belief in defense and a seven-pass rule on offense when he coached the Cats from 1985 to 1989.

After his playing career, the elder Caruso worked as a graduate assistant on Sutton’s Creighton staff. A stint as a high school coach followed, then he returned to Creighton as an assistant coach.

As an “Eddie Sutton-style coach,” Mike Caruso was head coach at a Division III school, Elmhurst College, for five years before being hired as an assistant athletic director at Texas A&M.

That kind of basketball background suggests a father that helped his son become highly attuned to basketball. Not so, both said.

“I tried to be Dad,” Mike said. As Caruso put it, Mike “honestly did a pretty good job playing the Dad role more than try to coach me.”

Caruso has never seen game film of his father as a player. He has seen photographs, and came away marveling at the then and now.

“A little different stature, now,” he said with a chuckle. “A little less hair, too.”

His father’s duties as an A&M athletic administrator include game management. So Caruso became a ball boy. His first season saw the Aggies have an 0-16 record in the Big 12 Conference. “Pretty dismal,” he said. The last two came with Mark Turgeon as coach.

Another Aggies coach Caruso served as a ball boy for was Billy Gillispie, who later coached two ill-fated seasons for Kentucky.

“He’s a trip,” said Caruso, who did not seem eager to divulge details. “He’s just really fiery and intense and does stuff his way.”

When asked if the experience as a ball boy expanded his vocabulary, Caruso said, “I was cultured very quickly.”

The Carusos are a “sports family,” Mike said. Maybe that’s why Alex developed a sixth sense for basketball. Alex’s two sisters played volleyball in high school.

Alex played multiple sports, his father said, “but he really had a knack for basketball. He had a sense. I don’t know if it’s heredity or what.”

Caruso blossomed as a prospect after his junior year of high school. He began drawing serious recruiting interest after playing well in an NBA Top 100 camp.

Until then, the schools that showed the most interest were Sam Houston State and Northern Colorado. Afterward, he turned down invitations to officially visit Georgetown and Marquette. Ultimately, he chose Texas A&M rather than Colorado.

In his first college season, Caruso led A&M in assists and set a freshman record for steals.

His sophomore assist total of 170 was the sixth highest in program history.

As a senior, Caruso brings a wealth of experience to play. But there’s one drawback to being a successful four-year player. Opponents are no longer surprised.

A&M lists Caruso as 6-foot-5 and 186 pounds. A wispy mustache accentuates the first impression of a player plucked from the intramural ranks.

“I’m not the most physically intimidating person in the world,” he said. “When you incorporate that with ‘He’s a white guy and he’s not a 45- or 50-percent shooter from three, then what can he do?’”

That’s where the intangibles come into play.

These qualities are “maybe not what people put on a scouting report, so I think that helped me in the beginning years … ,” he said. “Players didn’t recognize my ability to play hard and my desire to have success. That probably carried me.”

As Kentucky fans know through Ulis’ example, these intangibles can carry a player and team a long way.

“The intangibles,” Caruso said, “are what I think separate good players and good teams from great players and great teams.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Texas A&M’s ‘glue guy’ brings intangibles, Kentucky connections to Saturday’s game."