He prays every morning before he steps outside. He prays in the locker room before every game. He prays in silence, only for himself.

Edgar Sosa always asks for the same thing: To win and to be protected. It reassures him, he said, because in faith he finds routine.

But Sosa also needs faith in himself.

That was missing on Jan. 4, before Sosa entered Freedom Hall’s center court. Louisville’s junior point guard had too much on his mind. Against Kentucky, the first opponent of the New Year, he would get his first start in three games. Inconsistency had plagued his season. He averaged five points per game, shot 30 percent from the field and 20 percent from beyond the arc. His minutes shrank, and his starting job was in jeopardy.

And he thought too much, Sosa said.

It had come down to this: A week before the Kentucky game, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino pulled Sosa into his office 30 minutes before practice and suggested the struggling guard should transfer.

‘We’ll look at some schools that don’t play any defense,’ Pitino told reporters following the game against the Wildcats. ‘There aren’t that many, but I know a few.’

Sosa took it to heart. It made him uncomfortable, like the bum ankle he sprained during his sophomore year at the start of his slump. But his ankle had healed. Sosa wanted another shot.

So he prayed. He waited until just before tip-off. Sosa asked himself and forces beyond him, ‘Can I have a big game?’

He knew he needed it. His voice doesn’t wane when he admits to his failed responsibilities, his slow start this season for a team forebode as a Final Four contender. Sosa knows he is the missing link to success for the No. 9 Cardinals (14-3, 5-0 Big East), who visit the Carrier Dome to take on No. 8 Syracuse Sunday (noon, Time Warner 26).

What was missing – for Sosa to become a great point guard – is a matter of faith.

With 23 seconds remaining against Kentucky, the Cardinals and the Wildcats were tied. With time draining off the clock, Sosa held the ball. He wanted to drive into the paint, earn a foul, or pass it back out.

That was the plan. But Kentucky point guard Jodie Meeks kept backing up.

‘So I stopped and pulled up,’ Sosa said. ‘Just raised the ball . . .’

***

Erick Sosa’s little brother is blessed. Erick talks about it all the time – how his little brother Edgar is living a dream, playing in the Big East for Rick Pitino.

But before Edgar Sosa broke out as a freshman, before Pitino and assistant coach Steve Masiello sat with Sosa’s family in their two-bedroom apartment, before the pride of Rice (N.Y.) High School began collecting accolades for his God-given talent, before all of that, Erick, 28, knew his little brother was meant for the game.

It began at 6 a.m. in Inwood, N.Y., half-an-hour from the heart of Manhattan. That’s when Erick and Edgar would wake up. A good morning was a routine of fitness. They would walk a block to the weight room at dawn and then train for almost an hour. After, they headed twenty blocks east to the Dyckman Court in Brooklyn, where Edgar first learned. They would finish on the steps of their home, jogging up and down 10 times each.

‘Basketball was an escape route for us,’ Erick recalls. ‘We got the best out of it.’

Afterwards, Edgar would head to Junior High School 218. Erick would head off to work. He was an office aid for the New York Public Library System. But by night, it was basketball again.

But soon, Edgar was improving ‘too fast.’ The little brother who grew watching Erick dribble and drive began to surpass his mentor. Edgar took his brother’s love for basketball, Erick said.

‘I think he still looks up to me, but he doesn’t want to be like me,’ Erick said. ‘I told him to be better than me. He’s done that.’

Erick likes to talk about the next step for his brother. About how blessed one is to be paid to play – for Edgar to reach the pros and succeed as a Cardinal. But his little brother struggles. That’s when Erick calls to remind him that the faith Edgar Sosa needs is within him.

”What more can you ask for?” Erick told him. ”Who’s ever in your shoes, or your team, or a Big East program is a very blessed person.”

***

Two free throws haunt Edgar Sosa.

He knows that those two shots could have been the dagger to Texas A&M that year; back in 2006 when a freshman Sosa could have led his team to the Sweet 16.

But he missed. Then missed again. With 29.8 seconds left, he pulled up again, a three to win.

He missed again.

‘We could’ve won the game,’ Sosa said. ‘Those two free throws haunt me the most.’

And Sosa has never been the same. Come sophomore year, Sosa sprained his ankle and limped through the season. He never picked up where he left off. His final game that season, against Texas A&M, he scored a career-high 31.

But, to Sosa, that night was a failure. He failed. He missed.

‘Edgar’s biggest critic is Edgar,’ said Louisville assistant coach Richard Pitino (Rick’s son). ‘He’s got the ability to make plays and make other people better.’

Over the summer, Erick Sosa made his younger brother watch the tape repeatedly. They would speak about the final seconds. How Edgar let the defense off the hook, didn’t force them to foul, didn’t pass. Worse, Edgar seemed tense.

When the 6-foot-1 point guard is uncomfortable, it shows. On Dec. 27, in a win over Auburn, Sosa missed two first-half 3-point shots in six minutes. He watched the second half from the bench.

‘I’m the type of player that once I make my first one or two shots, I’m feeling it for the rest of the game,’ Sosa said.

***

Meeks kept backpedaling, offering Sosa another chance. He rose up and fired.

. . . And the shot dropped. Erick Sosa knew it would.

From the moment it left his little brother’s hands, Erick knew the shot was perfect. The ball was arched right and lifted Louisville to a 74-71 victory over Kentucky. But, he remembers the smile on his brother’s face on the television screen. He was calm, Erick said. He had seen that smile before.

‘It gave me a smile,’ Erick said, ‘because he’s living the dream for both of us.’

The smiles are what matters when Sosa returns to his native state Sunday to face Syracuse. Before tip-off, Edgar will probably say a prayer. He will pray in silence, only for himself. Erick will drive up from the city to watch his little brother play, like he did when they were kids, when they played for fun.

‘I asked God when we need to come out on top,’ Edgar said. ‘God definitely answered that one for me.’

Erick knew he’d make the shot because he knows what Edgar Sosa lacks isn’t dedication – that, he built in his little brother – but faith. Confidence. Like the self-assurance one receives from a prayer.

‘Sometimes he needs to just settle himself down and lose himself in the game,’ Erick said. ‘When he does that he’s one of the most talented players on the court.’

edpaik@syr.edu

Published on January 21, 2009 at 12:00 pm