The Gage Bobe Story: How Evansville men's basketball's guard went from walk-on to starter

EVANSVILLE — Seated in a rolling chair, lightly turning right to left, Gage Bobe flashed a slight grin as he reminisced on the highlights of his University of Evansville men’s basketball career.

As he sat in assistant coach George Swanson’s office, Bobe recalled when former coach Todd Lickliter called him into his space, across the hall from where he told the story.

“I see the work you’re putting in,” Lickliter told Bobe, who was a walk-on at the time.

He was being placed on scholarship for his senior year.

“It was awesome,” Bobe said.

Being a walk-on typically means paying for your own education and seeing little playing time. Bobe moved past that. After playing the typical walk-on limited role in his freshman year, he made strides, put in extra work on and off the court and made it into UE's rotation his sophomore and junior seasons. Now he was being rewarded.

Bobe called his parents, who were at home in Vincennes, to give them the news after leaving the meeting with Lickliter. When they answered, they were thrilled by what he told them.

“Me and his mom, we just kind of sat there and cried,” Bobe’s father Darrel said. “When you work hard and all the sudden the accolades come with your hard work, that’s the biggest thing.”

Later last spring, however, Lickliter was fired and “a lot of stuff was up in the air,” Bobe said. About two weeks passed before the Purple Aces announced David Ragland as the new coach.

Ragland is Bobe’s third head coach in four years, and he recalls two summer conversations as they got to know each other. During the first, Ragland told Bobe he wanted to keep him on scholarship even though he hadn’t seen him play. The second, Ragland reaffirmed what Lickliter previously told Bobe.

“I want you to know I feel like you earned it,” Ragland said.

“That first conversation we had, it was like, ‘Oh, he gave it to me but he hasn’t seen me play. He doesn’t know. Maybe he just gave it to me just because,’” Bobe said. “But that second conversation really meant a lot knowing that I got it from him, too. Like, he trusted me to have one.”

The full story, however, can’t be condensed into a few conversations with coaches. There’s more to it — beyond being placed on scholarship, named a captain, becoming a starter or even the off-court stuff, such as class or the family Bobe's Pizza joints owned by relatives throughout the area. Bobe knows that. Sitting in the practice facility he’s called home throughout a turbulent career, he knows it’s been a book and not a poem, with many chapters written along the way.

He was posed a question as he was still swaying back and forth.

“What’s the theme of the Gage Bobe story?”

He paused for a moment and leaned back. About five seconds passed before he answered, perhaps reminiscing on the past and what led him to this point and to this place.

Bobe gathered his thoughts and answered.

Bobe: ‘It was a pretty easy decision’ to attend the University of Evansville

David Burkett coached Bobe throughout his high school career at South Knox taking over as head coach for Bobe’s senior year. Today, Burkett has a signed Bobe UE jersey hanging in his office, a reminder of someone who came through his program and made it to the next level.

That’s something he tries to show his current players: They can get to that level despite being at a small school, given South Knox is in Class 2A with 379 students. Not many small-school athletes from Southwestern Indiana have the talent to play in NCAA Division I. Burkett brought his program to the Aces’ exhibition game against Huntington University, where they saw Bobe start.

“It was a good opportunity for my younger kids to watch him play and hopefully have aspirations of being in his position one day,” Burkett said. “It proves that just because you come from a small town, it doesn’t mean that you can’t play on the big stage.”

Bobe and Burkett still talk regularly. Their relationship goes beyond that of a player-coach connection, but a genuine friendship — “I tell all my players that I’m going to be very hard on them, but if they give me four years of their career, there’s nothing after high school that I won’t try to do for them if it’s within my limits,” Burkett said.

“I probably call him once or twice a week just to talk,” Bobe said.

Burkett offers Bobe some coaching, as well. He tells Bobe about where he needs to improve and the things he’s doing well. Their relationship is part of what brought Bobe to UE in the first place. Burkett was close with members of the Aces’ staff at the time and felt Bobe was a good fit for a potential walk-on spot.

As the staff and family talked about his role, they eventually agreed that it was the best situation. He had the option of playing elsewhere, but the choice was clear.

“It was a pretty easy decision,” Bobe said. “I wanted to play at a high level. I knew I wouldn’t do it right away, but I just bet on myself and it paid off.

“That decision was probably one of the best I’ve ever made.”

‘Not everybody’s a Gage Bobe’

Mark Rohrer has known Bobe for a large portion of his life. He was Bobe’s basketball coach in middle and high school, but he also coached him in baseball.

Rohrer recounts a memory from when Bobe was in seventh grade. Bobe fielded a ball at second base and stretched out to step on the base. The runner ran into him and Bobe and immediately knew something was wrong. “It was just a freak play,” Rohrer said.

Bobe shattered his femur “in a couple of places." He needed surgery.

“I was out for months and months,” Bobe said. “I’m glad it happened when it did because, any older, it would’ve been tough to come back.”

For a period of time, doctors didn’t know if Bobe would get back to full fitness or speed again. He has a titanium rod in his leg due to the incident.

Despite that difficulty, Bobe had a proclamation for both his father and his coach.

“Oh, I’m going to play basketball my eighth-grade year,” he told them. “Don’t worry about that.”

“He had a really good eighth-grade year,” Rohrer said.

Like Burkett, Rohrer and Bobe are still close and talk regularly. Rohrer, who now coaches boys basketball at Gibson Southern, also uses Bobe as an example for his current players.

UE men's basketball: Meet the Purple Aces: David Ragland's thoughts on every Evansville men's basketball player

Rohrer coached Bobe for three years at South Knox. When Bobe was a freshman, Rohrer decided to keep him on the freshman team so he could work on his scoring. Come sophomore year, Bobe got some varsity experience but was primarily on the JV team.

In his junior year, however, Bobe hit a growth spurt and “got a lot stronger in the weight room,” Rohrer said. Despite having “a really good senior class,” Bobe was named as one of the team captains.

“He could inspire and encourage teammates appropriately when they did something well, but he would also hold his team accountable in an appropriate manner,” Rohrer said. “He’s kind of seen it all. I’m sure he’s doing those same things with his work ethic and the communication ability that he has.”

Rohrer took the Southridge job prior to Bobe’s senior year. When he was initially approached for the opening, he said Bobe was a big reason he considered staying at South Knox.

“He started out as a coach and now he’s just one of my friends,” Bobe said. “He’s someone I look up to, I think a lot of. He helped shape me with my work ethic and skills in general, but like my mindset, especially how to work hard and be successful.”

Rohrer uses “The Gage Bobe Story” when talking to his players. He said Bobe and others were part of a group that “religiously” worked on their game. Using the story every year, he says there are players who can move up to the next team based on their skill level, like Bobe, who are kept on the JV or freshman teams due to the plan he has in place for them.

“I had such a luxury that I coached Gage Bobe,” Rohrer said. “Not everybody’s a Gage Bobe, but I can go back and say, ‘I had a dude who we did this with his freshman year and he’s starting at a Division I school now.’

“Gage Bobe probably doesn’t realize how much of a luxury it is for me, as a coach, that I was his head coach and I can say, ‘This plan worked for this player.’”

‘Prove them wrong’

“What’s the theme of the Gage Bobe story?”

Bobe pondered, considering what he would say before he gathered his thoughts.

“I think ‘doubted’ would be a good word,” Bobe said. “Constantly people were thinking, ‘I don’t know if he’s there yet,’ and then each year just making jumps and jumps and jumps and finally getting to the point where I am now.

“I think the theme of the story is constantly being — not doubted, maybe — but questioned. ‘I don’t know if he can do it. I don’t know.’ My only goal is, still, to prove them wrong.”

Bobe played just five games as a freshman. Then 14 as a sophomore and 23 last year, all off the bench although he rose from being one of the last reserves to the sixth man. This season, he's started 15 of the Aces' 16 games as a tough defender at the point guard position.

He's grateful for his basketball journey to this point — the experiences, the relationships, and the memories. He hasn’t thought much about his potential fifth year of eligibility, instead focusing more on the present than the future.

Like those who influenced him and got him to UE, Bobe is considering a future in coaching. He hasn’t fully landed on what he wants to do in post-basketball life — “my dad asks me all the time,” he said — but staying involved with the game has some appeal.

“Seeing what these guys do every day,” he said, “I think that’d be a very rewarding job.”

Rohrer and Burkett pointed to Bobe’s work rate and attitude as reasons he’s made it to where he is.

“The biggest thing is perseverance. The kid had a dream and was not willing to give up on that dream,” Burkett said. “That’s what I admire him for. So many times and so many nay-sayers out there that tell you, ‘You can’t do something.’ It’s nice to see somebody battle through it to show that you can do it.”

“Those are just the qualities that he showed throughout his high school career that, as a walk-on, it does not surprise me that he has worked his way into the position he is now,” Rohrer added. “He took that same path throughout high school. He was not fast-tracked.”

For Darrel, his son’s journey takes on a different meaning — “I never thought I’d feel like I feel today. I’m very, very thankful,” he said.  He recalled a recent game when Bobe, Kenny Strawbridge Jr. and Marvin Coleman II came to support Bobe’s younger sister, Ella Bobe.

Bobe took a photo with some kids on the court after the game, something Darrel appreciates.

“I hope that one day, he knows the number of people that he has been able to inspire,” Darrel said. “That’s just the most humbling piece of all of this. The number of people that will come up to me and his mom and just say, ‘He’s really made a difference in my kid’s life.’

“I hope one day, for him, that he’s able to know how many people he’s affected by his work ethic and his determination.”

Perseverance. Determination. Questioned. Doubted.

Those are all aspects of what’s been written and what’s yet to come. From the freshman team in high school to starting in the Missouri Valley Conference, from walk-on to scholarship, those are the steps along the way.

That’s the Gabe Bobe Story.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville Purple Aces: How Gage Bobe went from walk-on to starter