6:00: Morning News

Driveway Dreamer showcases Gansey’s journey on and off the court

Mike Gansey is one of the more popular and decorated players to ever step on the hardwood for West Virginia University.

Despite playing only two seasons with the Mountaineers, Gansey is a member of the WVU Sports Hall of Fame and the only Mountaineer to be a finalist for three national player of the year honors — the Wooden Award, the Naismith Award and the Oscar Robertson Award.

Yet Gansey’s story goes far beyond his success while playing for West Virginia from 2004-2006 — and that story is chronicled in the recently released Driveway Dreamer: The Story of Mike Gansey, an audio only production of Pikewood Creative produced and edited by Dan Lohmann and narrated by Tony Caridi.

Driveway Dreamer is presented through the Mountaineer Athletic Club and its Time2Climb campaign and can be heard here.

“He was so likable when you watched him play,” Lohmann said of Gansey. “I gravitated toward everything he was doing and he embodied everything Mountaineer fans want to see in their athletes. He hustled and he was a team-first kind of guy. Tony, in particular, had a view into who these guys are personally and he’s as good of a person as he was a player.”

A native of Olmsted Falls, Ohio, Gansey originally went to St. Bonaventure out of high school. He was an impact player for two seasons with the Bonnies, before the school and basketball program went through a difficult period when it was revealed a junior college transfer was admitted into school with a welding certificate and not the proper academic credentials.

Players boycotted the final two games of the regular season and St. Bonaventure was barred from postseason play. The coach would be fired, while the athletic director and president resigned. The chairman of the school’s board of trustees committed suicide later that summer. 

The school and program were in a dark place.

Gansey decided to transfer and was left looking for a new school to finish out his college career with two seasons of eligibility remaining. He settled on West Virginia University to play for coach John Beilien.

Beilein, who came to WVU in 2002 after five seasons coaching Richmond, was familiar with Gansey from the Spiders and Bonnies being members of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Gansey excelled with the Mountaineers, first averaging 12 points, five rebounds and nearly three assists as a junior on a team that peaked down the stretch and reached the Elite 8. The climax of that season came in a double overtime upset win over Wake Forest to reach the Sweet 16, a game in which Gansey helped the Mountaineers eliminate Chris Paul and the Demon Deacons by leading all players with 29 points.

“The way that he played the game spoke to everyone that’s ever played the game,” Caridi said. “He was the opposite of the hey look at me generation. He went about his business as a blue collar player and that’s why so many people took a liking to his game. He was all about playing the right way and making the right pass and yet at the same time he was a sneaky good scorer.”

Gansey was even better as a senior, averaging nearly 17 points, six rebounds and two steals, while shooting 55 percent despite being a 6-foot-4 perimeter threat. WVU reached the Sweet 16 in his final season, which ended with a buzzer-beating loss to Texas.

Following the memorable two-year career with the Mountaineers, Gansey set his sights on playing in the NBA.

After going undrafted, Gansey signed a free agent contract with the Miami Heat. He struggled with the Heat that summer and revealed in the documentary, “Summer league was awful. I barely played and if I did, I was not good.”

While given a couple weeks off that summer, Gansey experienced major knee pain and was unsure what the issue was. He went to a doctor for a physical, which revealed Gansey had MRSA throughout his body.

Had he waited any longer to see the doctor, Gansey may have had to have his leg amputated.

Although Gansey beat the initial MRSA diagnosis, it returned and ulimately caused him to give up his playing career. Gansey remains heavily involved with basketball, however, and currently serves as Assistant General Manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“You look back and say it’s a great West Virginia story and a great human obstacles story,” Caridi said. “I just thought it was the perfect story.”





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