Jerry Snyder was wise to get off that ladder

I'm not sure if Randy Breuer was a freshman (winter of 1975-76) or a sophomore (1976-77) at Lake City when I first heard the tale of a lad who was close to 7 feet and playing high school basketball.

It was the offseason from my duties on the Twins beat for the St. Paul newspapers, so I went to Lake City to take a look and write a story.

Breuer was as tall as advertised and, as anticipated, very lean. He was hesitant in his reactions and in his brief conversation with a visiting reporter.

Even with that great height, I wondered if Breuer would ever find the strength and the footwork to be more than a novelty on the court.

I mentioned these qualms to Jerry Snyder, the Lake City coach, and he shook his head and offered a message similar to this: "If you knew how far Randy had come in the past couple of years, you wouldn't have those doubts. He's going to be a terrific player – here, and in college.''

Snyder also told the story about the first time that he had noticed Breuer as a grade schooler. Jerry was a house painter in the summer (as was every coach in small-town Minnesota). He was on a ladder, painting the highest level of a two- or three-story house, when he heard chatter on the nearby sidewalk.

He took a glance and saw what he assumed to be a gaggle of fifth graders (or so) walking along. Except, one of these kids with the young faces happened to be two feet taller than the others.

Randy's answer was a shrug, and Snyder assured him that, oh, yeah, he would expect to see him playing basketball when the grade schoolers assembled for organized play that winter.

"Best thing I ever did as a coach … getting down off that ladder,'' Snyder said.

For sure.

The next time I watched Randy Breuer, he was a junior and on the way to leading Lake City to the 1978 Class A title. This was in the era of only two classes, so a team had to beat some brutes (and that generally included Winona Cotter in Section 1) to win a Class A state championship.

Breuer scored 68 points in three games of that tournament, including 36 in the semifinals against Butterfield-Odin. His improvement in all areas from my first look a year (or two) earlier was tremendous.

Breuer went to Minnesota for the 1979-80 season, where he joined senior Kevin McHale and sophomores Trent Tucker, Darryl Mitchell, Mark Hall and Cookie Holmes.

One member of Jim Dutcher's top-rated recruiting class for 1978 – Leo Rautins – had transferred to Syracuse because he didn't get to shoot 25 times a game as a freshman.

Ben Coleman of Minneapolis North (he would later transfer to Maryland) also came in with Breuer. There was a lot of talent, but it didn't quite mesh and the Gophers wound up in the NIT.

The most-memorable part of that season, to me, was Breuer competing on mostly even terms with Virginia sophomore Ralph Sampson Jr. They were both approaching 7-foot-3. Sampson would become a two-time national player of the year.

The idea that the kid I saw in Lake City on that first trip ever would be going sneaker-to-sneaker with a player of Sampson's talent was astounding.

On Saturday, Breuer had his number retired. There's no need to say, "It's about time.'' We can just say it's a fine time, and I'll add this: