Hoopster born without a left hand gets his chance

NEW YORK — Kevin Laue isn't supposed to be here, standing on the court practicing for his first season of Division I basketball.Born without a left hand, the 6-foot-11 center from Pleasanton, Calif., is now a freshman at Manhattan College, having earned a scholarship to play for the Jaspers and a chance to live out the dream of anyone who has been told they couldn't play a sport they loved because of a physical defect.When the Jaspers' season opens on Nov. 14, the question will not be whether Laue can dribble, pass, block, score or rebound, but whether his opponents will underestimate his skills."It's to my advantage," said Laue, explaining what it's like to come onto the floor during a game and face his two-handed opponents. "They think they're going to have an easy game and just whip on some one-handed kid. But I think I've surprised a couple people out there."Gary Johnson, the NCAA's historian, said that in the 25 years he's worked for the governing body of college sports, he had not heard of another one-handed player in men's basketball, though no records are kept on such matters.The 19-year-old Laue, whose name rhymes with "wow," almost didn't get the chance to prove his game.After breaking his leg in his senior year of high school in northern California, and failing to get a Division I scholarship, he played a postgraduate season at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, hoping to impress recruiters and scouts. He did, but that didn't seem to be enough, Laue said."No matter how well you play, you aren't good enough because you have one hand," he said with some frustration.Offers did come to him from a handful of Division I schools, including Colgate and Wofford, he said. They could only offer a walk-on the first season, and the possibility of a scholarship if he proved himself, he said.Manhattan, a small Catholic liberal arts school on a hillside in the Bronx, was the only school that offered a scholarship if he came to play for the Jaspers. He arrived for summer school, taking courses in ethics a

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