It takes passion and a pinch of imagination to leave the friendly confines of a life in the province of Naples, in Cercola, an enclave with great basketball passion even in Diego Maradona’s country, to move to Turin.
As a 13-year old boy.
Guglielmo Caruso did it and now that he comes to Olimpia at the age of 24, he can say he has made it even if this will have to be a steppingstone not a landing spot. “Over the last few years, I have improved, but a lot of work has to be done. What I’m doing better is to play at a higher physical level. But I need to keep improving, because the higher the competition the higher the physicality is. Generally, I’m trying to use my skills, a little bit of agility at finishing around the rim. I need to work a lot, and this is why I’m here. At Olimpia I can make some strides and improve more,” he explains.
Like every kid in Naples, he too had started playing soccer, only you don’t see many 2.08 mt tall soccer players around. Inch by inch he was getting too tall to play in midfield, on the wing or even as a center-back. His mom suggested that he try basketball. He was agile, athletic, and very tall. He was perfect. “I tried when I was 10-11 years old, a little later than usual. Up to that point, I was a soccer fan like everybody in Naples. Then, my friends, my mom, pushed me toward basketball because I was getting taller and taller. Gradually, with the help of my coach Virgilio, I developed my passion, understood it was the right path and fell in love for the game, unconditionally.”
Luckily, he also had two little sisters at home otherwise how would Willie’s parents let him go? First in Turin then even in California. “Moncalieri discovered me through some regional tournaments. Andrea Bausano and Vincenzo Di Meglio believed in me when I was 13. My family supported me. It was an adventure, I was a kid, I didn’t understand much. I was very immature. And moving from Naples to Turin was huge. But my coaches, my teammates helped me a lot. After a rough start, everything went smoothly.”
He spent five years in Moncalieri, under Coach Vincenzo Di Meglio, a fellow Neapolitan, and Andrea Bausano, played for the youth national teams, won the Under 18 European bronze in Turkey which meant qualifying for the Under 19 World Cup in Egypt. Representing your country is something that makes you proud. But to win an unexpected silver medal, let alone being a little sad for the championship game loss against Canada, is a great result, is something that stays with you. It is not only the result itself, but also what we built as a group, the days spent together, the 30 days spent together, and then it was the same group that won the European bronze medal in Turkey. That was a great one-year period. Only the regret for the final lost to Canada remains”. Canada, which was led by RJ Barrett, now star of the Knicks, in a World Cup in which there was also Rui Hachimura, the Japanese Lakers’ star.
Caruso has made all the youth national teams. In 2015 he was at the Under 16 European Championships, in 2016 at the Under 18 Championships despite being underage, then the Under 19 World Championships, finally the Under 20 European Championships in 2019 where he was at the top of his game, averaging 13.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
It was at this time that he began to attract the interest of American colleges. “After the World championship, Santa Clara called me. In truth, they contacted me earlier, but I was underage, so they talked to my parents. They invited us to visit the campus, trying to understand how the experience worked. For my parents it was a huge sacrifice letting me go to the other side of the world. Without them I couldn’t do it. And I’m grateful to Santa Clara, they are great people. They made me what I am now,” Willie says.
He spent three years with the Broncos, he had some gems, like the 25 points scored against San José State, the 19 scored against number 1 ranked Gonzaga. In all, he played 68 games, had averages of 9.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game during his last season, when he finished fifth for blocks in the West Coast Conference. That year Santa Clara reached the third round of the conference tournament; and he was huge, he had 14 points against Portland, 14 against Pacific, 16 and eight rebounds against Pepperdine, led by Colbey Ross who he would later meet again as a teammate in Varese. The best of his teammates was Jalen Williams, now an emerging young star for Oklahoma City. “You could see he had the body and the shot and the skills to play at a high level. He was focused on basketball. 24 hours a day in the gym, he made sacrifices that paid off. I’m glad he’s showing he can play at the highest level possible,” he says.
Two years ago, there was the return to Italy. In Varese. “When you comeback from college, you have to restart from the ground up, rebuild your name, adjust again to the European basketball, which is different. My first year was tough, I experienced some injuries. Fortunately, I stayed there with my head, I was confident, I showed how hard I worked, Luis Scola helped me a lot. In the end, we were able to do our job, have fun, enjoy good results,” he says.
In the process, Caruso became a player of the senior national team. In Spain, in February, he scored 18 points in a road win against Spain. A sort of coming-out party for him at the international level. “It was one of the best games of my career. I’m proud of it. Like I said the National Team means a lot. It was not expected. I live in the moment and was happy to be part of the group. The Coach gave me the opportunity. I played well and meant even more because we won the game.”
And now Olimpia: “I’m happy, I’m excited. Olimpia is not just any team; few clubs have a history like this. I can’t wait to start, it will be a huge challenge, I will have a lot to learn, but I think it’s the right place to really improve”.
