By Mike London

Salisbury Post

LANDIS — A UNC Asheville assistant watched an unsolicited Katie Wise highlight tape last June and sprinted to head coach Betsy Blose's office.

The brief conversation went something like this: "Uh, Betsy, you need to get in here now. You'll want to see this."

Blose watched an uncommitted, 6-foot-3 center gliding up and down the floor as if she were 5-7 and shooting from 19 feet with grace and touch. For a college coach that's like holding a winning lottery ticket.

Blose was afraid she might be hallucinating.

She wasn't.

As Wise's AAU coach Daryl Crego put it, "UNC Asheville had just found that needle in a haystack."

Blose wasn't interested in how many points Wise had averaged in high school at South Rowan. She wanted to meet her. She wanted to get her on campus. She wanted to get her into one of UNC Asheville's blue uniforms as soon as possible.

"I didn't need to see Katie play a hundred times in high school to see she was 6-3, that she could run and that she could shoot," Blose said. "We needed size to fill a void here, and the truth is, I don't think there's any way we could do any better than Katie. She fulfilled exactly what we were looking for, so why look any further? We could see all the potential that was there. We can envision her playing with her back to the basket or facing up and shooting 3s as a trailer on the break."

Wise hid in plain sight for years on basketball courts, like an aspiring actress waiting tables and longing to be discovered by a famous producer.

Two months after she turned 14, she debuted for South's varsity in the 2004 Sam Moir Christmas Classic. In a blowout loss to North Rowan, she scored one point for a team that would go 1-22.

Wise averaged 5.3 points a game as a sophomore and a modest 5.6 as a junior in a season that was sometimes torture because of a broken toe.

She impacted games mostly at the defensive end, where her long arms allowed her to reject shots without committing fouls. She posted a rare triple-double, with 10 blocks, against West Rowan. She had a game-saving block against rival A.L. Brown.

Wise, a strong student, wanted to play college basketball but had no idea where to start. Her scoring stats weren't going to attract any attention, and more college recruiting is done now through summer AAU teams than scouting high school games.

Crego entered the picture last summer. His Carolina Crush AAU squad included Northwest Cabarrus girls who knew Wise and knew she didn't have a team.

"We got Katie out there, and I was sold right away," Crego said. "Everyone on my team shoots 3s, and I was in awe because here was a 6-3 girl who wasn't just shooting 3s, she was making them."

Crego asked where Wise had signed. She hadn't.

Crego asked where Wise had applied. She hadn't.

"I was like, 'Holy cow!' " Crego said. "I'd coached at a D-III school in New York and knew Katie was a lot better than that. I figured she could play at a top-notch D-II program like Wingate, maybe even D-I. I thought there had to be a free-ride scholarship out there somewhere for her."

Highlight tapes were produced, with Wise's mother, Tammy, putting in the hours. Those tapes were soon heading to colleges across the state.

The response was immediate and overwhelming. UNC Asheville, Gardner-Webb, Campbell and Winston-Salem State were the most enthusiastic of the schools that wanted to know more about Wise.

Wise visited UNC Asheville and was sold on the mountains, Blose and the Bulldogs as quickly as Blose was sold on her.

"Katie was upbeat, enthusiastic," Blose said. "She fit in with our girls. They fit in with her."

Wise committed verbally to the Bulldogs last summer and signed the official paperwork last week. Wise and Lindsey Thompson, a guard from Virginia, were the early signees for Blose, who has turned a program that was 1-27 as recently as 2001 into a consistent winner. The Bulldogs won 21 games and the Big South tourney last season.

"It's all really exciting, and I just feel like a lot of stress has been lifted off me," Wise said. "I know I've got to really work hard my senior year. I want to do a lot better than I've ever done."

Despite her shooting touch and coordination, Wise has never been an aggressive offensive player, but South coach Jim Brooks believes that could change. With her future secure, Wise has been playing with more confidence than he's seen before.

"Katie's playing up to the billing right now, and she's had a great offseason," Brooks said. "She's going into her senior season with all the unknowns taken care of. That's a big positive. The other thing is (volleyball coach) Jan Dowling has been working the devil out of those girls in P.E., and that emphasis on conditioning makes a difference. Katie's getting up and down the floor faster than I've ever seen her."

Wise, whose father, Tony, runs Wise Oil in China Grove, plans to concentrate on math at Asheville. She wants to be a teacher and coach someday. For now, she'd like to help South produce a winning season for the first time since 2002.

"I've always tried to pass a lot, but I feel like my legs are a lot stronger now," Wise said. "I should be able to go through people and score more this year."

At Monday's celebration at South, Wise was surrounded not only by her parents, sister, coaches and school officials, but by her extended family — teammates Taylor May, Kim Wilson and Katherine Van Wieren. The four Raiders are inseparable.

"Katie and I are like sisters because we've played together since seventh grade at Corriher-Lipe," Van Wieren said. "A college scholarship has been her dream for a long time. We're all thrilled for her, and we can see getting that tremendous scholarship is making her work that much harder."

Blose, who coached the Bulldogs to a victory over Furman on Tuesday, can't wait to coach Wise. Once in a while, she rewinds that highlight tape, shakes her head and smiles. She understands Wise just turned 17 last month, and her best basketball is going to happen years down the road.

"Katie's a girl with hopes and dreams, and those are the girls I want to coach," Blose said. "Hopes and dreams are what UNC Asheville is all about."

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com.