Couch: Gauna chose fatherhood but cherishes MSU reunion

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At 6-feet-10-inches tall, wearing green warm-up pants, Alex Gauna still looks the part of a Michigan State basketball player. He could still be one.

When he walked out of the Spartans' locker room Thursday at Time Warner Cable Arena, it was easy to forget he wasn't.

And easy, too, for Gauna to remember what his old life felt like.

"I needed this," Gauna said a few minutes later, standing just off the court as his former teammates practiced for Friday's NCAA tournament game against Georgia.

Gauna left MSU's basketball program last spring. The former Eaton Rapids star decided to make fatherhood his priority. His then-newborn daughter Brooklyn Rose needed him more than Tom Izzo.

Ten months later, Brooklyn is beginning to walk — "I have to make sure I'm watching her more closely than I ever have," Gauna said.

And Gauna is engaged to Brooklyn's mother and his longtime girlfriend, Hannah Fitzpatrick — a former East Lansing High School track and basketball state champion. He proposed on Christmas, hiding her ring under the tree. The couple was introduced by Fitzpatrick's close friend, Klarissa Bell, a former East Lansing and MSU basketball player and the wife of Gauna's ex-teammate, Russell Byrd.

Life is plenty good. But very different. There's no replicating the camaraderie and competition college basketball provides. He could have had it for another year. This year. These are his teammates. His friends. He walked away with a degree in sociology and "at peace" with basketball.

He'd be a uniquely strong soul if he didn't miss it.

So when his old coach called Wednesday morning and asked if he wanted to make the trip to Charlotte — as a former player guest — Gauna didn't hesitate.

"I was pretty pumped up," Gauna said. "I think I needed to reconnect with some of my teammates and the coaches.

"When I first saw the guys, that was the most rewarding feeling to me. Guys you spent a lot of time with and invested a lot with. We all had the same kind of goals."

His teammates were thrilled to see him, too. Denzel Valentine and Matt Costello beamed Thursday at the mention of his name.

"We're sitting in the back of the bus just laughing about old times and different stuff that used to go on," Costello said. "I missed him a lot."

This is the warm side of Izzo — among the reasons he can scream at players for four years and keep life-long relationships.

"I heard a couple weeks ago that Alex was struggling, like all players do when they get to the real world," Izzo said. "Nothing bad. You're kind of lost. I know I was. … I just went into my office (Wednesday) morning and I was kind of thinking about all the players of the past, I looked up on my board and his name was up on my board, his phone number from last year."

Izzo called. Gauna called back.

"I said, 'How would you like to take the trip with us and kind of go out with your class?'" Izzo said. "I didn't know what he would say. He was so excited it made me feel good."

Gauna's emotions still sometimes sway with his former team — until he looks at Brooklyn, who simply does not care.

"At times when I do feel maybe down in the dumps or that I'm missing something, whether it's basketball or my teammates, my daughter fills that little bit of a hole," Gauna said.

"The Minnesota game (on Feb. 26) really stuck out to me, because it was a tough loss. Not only that, I knew what they were going through and I've felt that before, where toward the end of the season, every game matters.

"I watched that game, I was at work and I came home and she was there as soon as I came through the door."

That's Gauna's life now — a job at Player's Choice Golf in Okemos, a fiancée, and a daughter who's suddenly way too mobile and isn't the least bit concerned with ball-screen defense.

"(Fatherhood) is a lot harder than anything else I've ever done," he said. "But the rewards are endless. It's the best thing that's ever happened to me."

This weekend, though, is a welcome trip into the past.

"It definitely makes me miss it and miss being out there," Gauna said.