Late father helps Alex Hamilton drive La. Tech's success

• Alex Hamilton%27s late father taught him everything he knows%2C and Hamilton carries lessons on and off court
• Hamilton is now the leading scorer for Louisiana Tech as it heads into Conference USA tournament as top seed
• Coach Michael White says his team has gone from below average offensively to above average with Hamilton

RUSTON, La. — Alex Hamilton would love to hear that voice, the one barking for him to play grittier defense, the one that always allowed him to know where his father was sitting, way up in the stands, for his high school games.

The 6-foot-4 Hamilton, a sophomore at Louisiana Tech, is the leading scorer for the top seed in the Conference USA tournament, which figures to be among the nation's most competitive tournaments this week.

The performance of Hamilton, a skilled playmaker and penetrator who scored 31 points in the Bulldogs' overtime victory at Oklahoma on Dec. 30, will be integral in Louisiana Tech's pursuit of its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1991.

"He has changed us offensively," third-year Louisiana Tech coach Michael White said. "With Alex in the lineup (this season), we have gone from a below average offensive team to an above average one. We're not winning games scoring 60 points like we were last year."

Hamilton's driving force is the man who will not be in attendance this week at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso. If there is any question how much Hamilton's late father, George Hamilton Jr., meant to him, just flash back to when Hamilton signed his letter of intent at a gathering at Chipley High in Florida.

His mom sat to his right. To his left, Hamilton left an open chair.

"I needed to leave that chair open," said Hamilton, whose full name is George Alexander Hamilton III. "Everything I do, I do for him. He taught me everything I know."

Hamilton's dad, who was the girls' basketball coach at Bay High in Panama City, Fla., provided tough love, offering few compliments because he always dreamed of larger accomplishments for his son on and off the court.

When Hamilton was 7, after missing a couple layups in a recreation league game, his dad made him stay in the gym to convert 100 layups with his right hand and 100 with his left, encouraging him to keep his hand in a precise spot behind the ball.

Now Hamilton, 20, writes and eats with his right hand, but his dominant basketball hand is his left. He said he can shoot with either hand.

Starting at age 10, Hamilton always played his dad in full-court one-on-one games. And, finally, at 16, he beat his dad for the first time. "I was ecstatic," Hamilton said.

Hamilton said his dad taught him how to interact with people, how to be professional and personable.

But what is also seared in Hamilton's memory is that early winter day during his junior year when he sat in anatomy class and his cell phone started buzzing. The players from his dad's team started sending text messages.

"Did you hear about your dad?" they read. "He had a heart attack."

Hamilton dropped his pencil. He sat in anguish and confusion for five minutes.

"I stopped, I just froze, nothing else mattered," he said. "I was looking at the ceiling thinking, 'Please don't let this be true.' I finally got to where I could move. I went to the teacher."

He left class and called his mom, Brenda Gaynor. He didn't tell her what had happened until he climbed into their green Grand Marquis and they made the hour drive to the hospital in Panama City.

"Then I broke down," he said. "I felt like I was in the car by myself and floating."

The hardest part was seeing his dad, in shape and running twice a day just days earlier, on a hospital bed and not being able to function or breathe under his own power. Hamilton said the left side of his dad's body was paralyzed after suffering a stroke.

His dad remained in the hospital for six days; his speech was decent and he could recognize his son. Hamilton was told his dad's condition was improving. But by nightfall it had worsened, and Hamilton was out of bed at 1 a.m. and he and his mom were near his father an hour later. He had internalized the sorrow, but it finally poured out.

"That's the first time tears came to my face," Hamilton said. "When I got there, he was going away."

George Hamilton Jr. died Dec. 4, 2010.

White, the Louisiana Tech coach, made the eight-hour drive to Chipley, Fla., five times to recruit Hamilton, the program's top perimeter target who had also received interest from Auburn. Every trip was worth it.

During the recruiting process, White talked to Gaynor about Hamilton's father. And Hamilton's mom and uncle remind White as December approaches each year that the anniversary of his father's passing is nearing and that Hamilton may be more emotional than usual.

Follow national college basketball reporter Eric Prisbell on Twitter at @EricPrisbell.