One by one they filed in, mystically drawn toward the freakish sports knowledge on display inside the Brewster Hall lounge. Adesina Koiki couldn’t miss — not with sports. He owned the “2-Minute Drill” like Rosy Perez owned “Jeopardy” in the movie “White Men Can’t Jump”.

Until that day, Koiki never thought seriously about trying to become a contestant on the ESPN show. He remained content with a vast knowledge of the sports world and the small amount of notoriety it brought from his peers.

“I just started rolling off answers, here and there,” Koiki said, snapping his fingers to show the rapid pace at which he answered the questions he saw on television. “The people turned around to me and said, ‘You should be on this show.’ I’m like, ‘These people don’t even know. I know my stuff. But these people on TV right there, they’re insane. There’s no way I can hold their jock.’ ”

Koiki leaned back, reveling in the warmth the compliments provided. At least until a girl refused to join the admirers. The communal television in Brewster was no place for this uncanny display of sports trivia knowledge. Certainly not with “Dawson’s Creek” or “Friends” episodes available for viewing.

“She was watching it with me and was like, ‘What are you going to do with all this useless sports knowledge?’” said Koiki, a 18-year-old sophomore and broadcast journalism major. “Oooh, it hit the spot. I thought it was pretty cool that I knew this stuff. Hey, at least she was frank. She said, ‘It’s useless.’ Alright, don’t beat around the bush here, come right to it.”

Koiki remembered that comment while surfing the “2-Minute Drill” Web site last spring and decided to see just how “useless” his sports knowledge indeed was. Just old enough to be eligible, Koiki entered the competition, earned a spot on the show, then used his “useless” information to win all five rounds, resulting in four trips to sporting events (including Sunday’s Super Bowl) and $170,000.

Stat addict

It wasn’t the first time a classmate teased Koiki for sports knowledge far too advanced and encompassing for one so young. Elementary school classmates anointed him “Freak” and told him to “get a life.” Take that brackethead of his, they said, and fill it with some useful information. For God’s sake, even Miss America scolded him for not going to class.

Growing up on Brooklyn streets riddled with addictions, Koiki certainly picked an interesting vice. Some say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Koiki’s already admits he’s hopelessly addicted. But he never wanted any 12-step program. He’d rather have his fix, which means watching any sporting event, anywhere and at anytime.

“From when I was 4 or 5 years old, I was pretty much a sportshead,” said Koiki, a sports staff writer for The Daily Orange. “I just couldn’t get enough of it. It was like a drug. If there was something that even involved athletics, I had to watch. It was like I was groomed to be this machine, like a baby giving birth how you let it grow up and you groom it, it was like I was groomed to know all this sports stuff.”

That’s the angle Koiki took when applying for the “2-Minute Drill”. It went something like this: I’m probably the youngest contestant you’ve ever had, but I think you’ll be surprised at just how much I know.

“He walked through the door, he was the third person we auditioned, and we knew right then he had the potential to win the whole thing,” said J.P. Buck, a “2-Minute Drill” producer. “He’s just such a personality, very sweet, soft-spoken, nice but very excited. He lit up when he talked about sports, just loved it. He stood out right there at that point. We knew he was going to be on the show.”

DOUBTFUL, DEFINITELY DOUBTFUL

Koiki always knew he was going to be a game-show contestant. Before he’d even seen a sporting event, he was a self-described game-show freak, saddled with a “Price is Right” fetish and a stunning memory that allowed him to reenact the entire show from the comfort of his living room. He even considered Bob Barker his idol.

Kayode Koiki explained the basics of football to his son during a Super Bowl, not knowing that Adesina’s memory was already absorbing details during its first television viewing. Sports became Adesina Koiki’s new obsession, and he still remembers nearly every detail of every sporting event he’s seen ever since.

“That’s how my mind works,” said Koiki, pacing and bouncing and never ceasing movement in his Dellplain Hall room. “I remember in the second round, Syracuse lost to Arkansas in ’95, and Arkansas went on and beat Memphis, then they beat Virginia, then they went to the national semifinals and they beat North Carolina, then they lost to UCLA. It’s just there. I didn’t want to know this. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh wait, I have to remember this.’ It wasn’t really like I wanted it. It just stuck. I wish math, science and broadcast homework could stick as easily as sports do, but that’s just not going to happen.”

Which is why it’s difficult to explain Koiki’s nervousness heading into the first round on Aug. 8. He stood outside with seven other contestants and one alternate waiting to find out the pairings. One member of the group talked incessantly about the Chicago Cubs.

Koiki stood silently and grew increasingly worried, wondering if he should take the A-Train home to Brooklyn immediately.

“I was just standing there like, ‘Should I even be here. Really, should I even be here. I’m going to get my butt handed to me right now,’” Koiki says. “I mean, it’s one thing to win, and it’s one thing to be close, but if I got like blasted, lost bad, I would have lost all credibility with the ‘2-Minute Drill’ community. They would be like, ‘What was the ‘2-Minute Drill’ thinking when they brought an 18-year-old here.’ Especially if I got toasted like 25-9 or something.”

To make matters worse, Koiki’s first opponent was Mr. Cub himself. Kenny Mayne, the show’s host, joked with Koiki during the opening about how he’d skipped the first day of NCAA Tournament since third grade to increase his sports knowledge, asking at the end why Koiki didn’t go to class more.

“I see so many girls out there and there’s too many distractions,” Koiki responded.

Watching the show on tape now, he cringes, realizing he forgot for a few seconds that he said those words on national television.

“So stupid,” he mumbles. “How in the world did I do that?”

ESPN billed the show as oldest against youngest and Koiki made quick work of the wisdom-comes-with-age theory. Dressed in white slacks, a blue blazer and a blue tie, Koiki rattled off 14 first round points to seven, prompting Kenny Mayne to address his opponent with, “You have no chance of winning this game,” before Round 2.

Afterward, he was confronted by Miss America about his class attendance habits.

“After the show as over, I was talking to Miss America, John Salley and all of them, and at the end, Angela was like, ‘Congratulations, and go to class,’” Koiki says. “John Salley’s like, ‘Man, he just won 10 grand, he can do what he wants.’”

MR. NICE GUY

Koiki refused to let his family accompany him to New York City for the tapings. He returned home the first night and was scolded by his brother, Olalekan, for not getting autographs. His confidence, though, was growing, leading to a bold prediction that he would never get fewer than 10 in the first round (20 is the highest possible).

Already content he’d proven his sports knowledge, Koiki was looser entering the second round, which was taped Aug 16. His opponent, Eugene Meshman of Beverly Hills, Calif., posted nine in the first round. Koiki’s guarantee made victory seem eminently safe. At least until he posted a nine himself and followed it with another nine in Round 2.

Meshman started hot for his second turn, rattling off five questions in a row, and with 35 seconds, he got point 17 to trail by only one.

“I needed a whole lot of help now,” said Koiki, while watching himself turn and look at the scoreboard four times during the final 30 seconds.

“Then question after question that I knew, and I was waiting for him to say the answer, he would say pass or get it wrong. It keeps happening again and again. I knew them all, but he was silent. One of the answers was John Havlicek. I’m like, ‘Why didn’t he say John Havlicek already?’

Then, when he got to 18, the last question was ‘which St. Louis Brown played in1920 and 22’. I was like, ‘Roger Hornsby.’ Then he said it. But it turned out we were both wrong.”

A tiebreaker question remained regarding one of the show’s panelists.

How many career sacks did Karl Mecklenburg have? Koiki advanced with a guess of 81, only two off the 79 total.

“I knew I needed that scare, but I didn’t really want it,” he said. “After the second round, a load was taken off my shoulders. Whew. The weight of the world, literally, was taken off my shoulders.”

Koiki again got the “Question of Great Significance” (his category was the 1996 NCAA Tournament), doubling his money, giving him $30,000 total and trip to the Big East men’s basketball tournament.

He cruised through the quarterfinal, taped Aug. 22, against cancer survivor Scott Polk, winning 21-18 and securing a birthday present for his brother, Adeola. He again got the “Question of Great Significance” and, with the win, earned a trip to the Jimmy V. College Basketball Classic, where Duke beat Kentucky in an epic overtime game.

In the semifinal, which was taped Aug. 23 along with the final, Koiki faced Jeff Izes, who owned the highest-single game total with 31.

It was a good run, Koiki thought to himself, while Izes tried to mentally prepare for his opponent.

“I’d like to fancy myself an athlete,” said Izes, who has since become good friends with the youngster that reminds him of himself. “I’m a pretty tough competitor. I try to build up animosity for an opponent. (Koiki) did a very good job of disarming that. It was very difficult to get my anger going to get ready for the game. He’s one of the friendliest guys you ever want to meet.”

One of the smartest, too, after Koiki stormed to a 26-22 victory to win a trip to any Sunday night NFL football game (he chose Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia) and increase his money total to $120,000.

SUPER BOWL TRIPS, JOB OFFER DIBS

For the final, the nerves were practically gone.

“I was so nervous downstairs, but I was getting it,” Koiki said. “When I got downstairs and got to the set and sat down, it seemed like I was less nervous. And when I got onstage, I was calm. The chair was my ally.

“It was with me now. That soothed me. I was nervous all throughout the day, but when I got in that chair it was just me and the questions. It was just my world, nothing else entered into it. I was in a vacuum.”

Apparently, Michael Lazarus didn’t feel the same way, essentially choking on Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s questions en route to a 22 total.

Koiki tallied 13 first-round points and nailed 10 consecutive in the second round en route to the championship victory. He missed the Question of Great Significance, but earned a trip to the Super Bowl and $170,000 in prize money.

Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a panelist on the show, points to the confetti coming down on Koiki after the victory as his favorite moment of the experience. Koiki then raised his hands in the air, pumped his fist and struck a Heisman pose on national television (“God, that was embarrassing,” he said.)

“Of course, I was curious whether it was because he had a great memory or because he had no life,” Cuban said. “Fortunately, he turned out to be a great guy who just happened to be a sports fan with a great memory.

“He was just rolling. Each question I was thinking there was no way. Then, boom. He answered it. In fact, all the kids who called him (Brackethead) will be asking him for a job some day.”

THE REGULAR RICH GUY

Panelists on the show were impressed with Koiki’s expertise. So much so, in fact, that some couldn’t help but root for him.

“I’m really glad to hear that he won,” said Sean Burke, a two-time panelist who plays for the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. “Now that you mention him, the first thing that comes to mind was his enthusiasm. A lot of people know a lot about sports, but he was someone you were rooting for. You could tell that he was genuinely excited to be there.”

Now, Koiki is genuinely excited to get his check, which has yet to arrive. When asked about his favorite part on the show, though, money is the furthest thing from Koiki’s mind. He talks about proving everyone wrong, about having fun talking sports with other people, about being rewarded for being, essentially, a freak.

And, in all reality, the show has done little to change Koiki’s viewpoints. He still watches every sporting event he can, still eats at Kimmel Dining Hall and, during an interview two weeks ago, had only 17 cents in his Dellplain room. Sure, his celebrity on campus has increased. But Koiki is still just Brackethead at heart.

“I could cash it all in, put it on my bed and sleep on it,” Koiki said. “It still hasn’t hit me. Trust me, I’ve had my thoughts about getting a Mercedes, getting iced out with some gold chains. I’ve been tempted to think that. My family lives in an apartment right now, Hopefully, I’ll come up with a down payment to a house.

“In my heart of hearts, me being on TV and stuff outweighs the money.

“But I’m not stupid. You know, $170,000, that’s a boatload of cash. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. After watching the show, the most important thing about it was watching myself on TV, proving to people that I know my stuff.”

Indeed he did. And maybe that “stuff” wasn’t quite so “useless” after all.

Published on February 4, 2002 at 12:00 pm