Go ahead and try to pinpoint the moment when her confidence blossomed. Guess away, because any suggestion is as good as another. It’s all just speculation.

Nobody really knows where it came from, not even Marchele Campbell herself.

Maybe Campbell’s swagger came when she was in high school, when, during games, she stared down hecklers in the crowd, pointing a finger to her lips for them to shush. Or from her brother, Malcolm, who plays at Alabama State, whom she competed against in the most meaningless basketball endeavors. Or from playing with such big names like Tyronn Lue, JaRon Rush, Kareem Rush and Earl Watson. Or after her father, MIchael, implemented his 3-point drill, which he forced her to make 500 3s in a 40-minute span.

‘I don’t know,’ Campbell says. ‘It’s my swagger. I just have a lot of confidence in myself. I can have a bad day, and the next day, I still think I’m the best player.’

It’s hard to tell where it came from. But Campbell boasts more confidence, more swagger, than any Syracuse women’s basketball player.

Maybe she attained it on her driveway, where Campbell, now a sophomore guard on Syracuse, practiced for hours with boys, girls, or even alone.

That same blacktop court with a basket perched above the garage that may as well have served as the home address, because that’s how the neighborhood knew it. Campbell’s place – the house where everyone gathered to ball.

Maybe that’s where Campbell’s confidence brewed. After all, her driveway is where she stood one day in the rain just to shoot, where the boys would initially and intentionally bruise and bump the smaller Campbell into the garage, causing her to run crying into the house. Her father told her the same thing every time: ‘You’ve got to be prepared if you play with the boys.’

‘Pretty soon,’ Michael Campbell said, ‘she was backing them down, shooting over them, trash talking. I said to myself, ‘This girl’s not afraid of anything.’ ‘

By third grade, the confidence began to show. Michael let his daughter sit alongside him as he coached his AAU team. Just a 9-year-old, Campbell begged her father to let her play.

By the fifth grade, Campbell’s confidence grew. Michael gave his daughter a chance. Initially the seventh- and eighth-grade players wouldn’t guard her.

‘Then she hit a couple of 3s,’ Michael said, ‘and the opposing coach made them guard her.’

No, wait, Michael says, remembering another story from Campbell’s childhood. Look to when she hit the game-winning 3-pointer as a 10-year-old. That’s when Campbell’s confidence really took off, because the shot came in front of a packed gymnasium. The fans, who packed the gym to see the men’s high school game, witnessed Campbell, while during the exhibition, slip through defenders and throw a running, half-court shot through the net. Then, as they cheered, they witnessed her run out of the gym keeping her extended right arm in that follow-through, statuesque position.

That’s when the town of Kansas City, Kan., started talking, when it began wondering about this girl.

By the time she visited a high school basketball camp at Nebraska, her confidence gleamed. Campbell, used to playing with older players, shrugged her shoulders when one of the coaches at the camp asked if Campbell could play for the team. Michael, who thought the coach wanted Campbell for junior varsity, obliged. But coaches wanted Campbell, a seventh-grader at the time, to play with varsity high school girls.

‘The Nebraska coaches came over to the coach,’ Michael said, ‘and they thought she was already in high school. She was in seventh grade and she was impressing college coaches. Now that’s something.’

But that still came before Michael Jordan heaped praise on her, which would boost anyone’s confidence. As Campbell played at Michael Jordan camp in Santa Barbara, Calif., Jordan noticed her talent.

‘If Michael Jordan is saying you’re good,’ Michael says, ‘what else is there to say?’

Nothing. Especially not after Jordan, who loved Campbell so much he began calling her his daughter, challenged Campbell in front of the rest of the campers, seeing if Campbell could hit pressure free throws. She, of course, hit them.

By then, coaches – both high school and college – talked about that short girl at F.L. Schlagle High, where Campbell broke the all-time scoring mark at 2,002.

Still, her greatest accomplishment came in an end-of-the-year All-Star Game between the two Kansas City teams – from Missouri and Kansas.

At halftime, Campbell competed in the 3-point-shooting competition. In the final, she hit 21 straight 3s for the win.

‘That,’ former Schlagle head coach Herb Marble said, ‘was unbelievable.

‘Most people were there to see the dunkers. But Marchele took the house down that night. Boy, I had some good shooters that I’ve coached, but Marchele broke all their old scoring records.’

After sitting out a year because of failing to reach initial academic eligibility and dealing with a new coaching change, Campbell is finally ready to show the rest of the Big East the confidence that led her to Syracuse despite standing just 5 feet, 4 inches.

‘(Connecticut head coach) Geno Auriemma may have Diana Taurasi,’ Michael said, ‘but Keith Cieplicki’s got Campbell. They’re gonna have two superstars in the Big East now.’

Said Campbell: ‘It’s been an eternity for me. I haven’t played in forever. Last year, I was helpless. But this year’s the year. I have an attitude when I play. You’ll see my attitude.’

So where did it come from? So many times in her life she’s shown the calm, quiet confidence. Is there any point that it started?

‘If you think back to what I just told you,’ Michael said, ‘everyone she knows in basketball is in the college or the pros. She grew up with all these people, so she grew up with that attitude and confidence.’

So all along, the answer’s been so clear. At no one point did Campbell gain her confidence. Turns out she had it all along.

Published on November 20, 2003 at 12:00 pm