Remember the rule, obrigado. When the letter ‘R’ appears at the beginning of a Portuguese word, make sure to say it properly. This is no sweet-rolling Anglo-Saxon ‘R’ – no, this ‘R’ is hard and guttural and unforgiving, the kind of sound that you can never quite say properly if you don’t learn it before kindergarten. This ‘R’ is the kind that makes perfect sense for Rafael Araujo.

Say Rafael’s name properly – Chahf-igh-L – and it sounds like you’re spitting shrapnel… but somehow, it’s the proper sound for a bullish man who stands an inch shy of 7 feet (2.11 meters, for easy translation) and who remains, in part because of his language deficit and size surplus, the novelty of the Mountain West Conference.

His name is tough to say and his game is tough to stop. Araujo is BYU’s starting center, a surefire NBA draft pick who averages 18 points and 10 rebounds in this, his senior season. His English still drips with the verbal missteps that might be expected of a Brazil native who spoke nothing but Portuguese until four years ago, but even so, Araujo’s goals are clear:

Work hard.

Play strong.

Remind folks, perhaps starting today against Syracuse, that his is a name worth remembering.

So say it together now: Chahf-igh-L. Teammates and coaches call him Chaffa. ‘Just so we don’t have to say his real name,’ BYU freshman Garner Meads said. Sometimes, opponents can’t even get that far. ‘I’m not sure how to pronounce his name,’ SU guard Gerry McNamara said.

Heck, even the person who coaxed Araujo to this country five years ago didn’t know enough Portuguese to tell him why he should leave the city of Sao Paulo, home to his mother and father and 18.5 million other Paulistas. And Kelly Green, head coach at Arizona Western, didn’t have much of a sales pitch, either. Araujo would have to travel to a junior college in Yuma, Ariz., and take English as a second language.

Green couldn’t promise comfort; he could only promise winning. See, Green’s made a career of plucking basketball players from Brazil – he’s had 15 or 20 at Arizona Western since he arrived there seven years ago. Coincidence or not, in the last half-decade Green has the highest winning percentage of any college coach in the state.

When Araujo arrived next year in Yuma, the big man grew bigger. He lifted maniacally. He packed on a few dozen pounds of muscle. And as his body expanded, his potential blossomed.

The big schools in the region wanted to watch him. Division I scouts didn’t always see him play for too long – Araujo fouled out in 61 of his 64 junior college games – but they did see someone willing to work and improve.

Remembers Green: ‘He’d meet one of my assistants every day at 6 a.m. to shoot, and that wasn’t my assistant telling Rafael, ‘Be there at 6.’ That was Rafael saying, ‘Coach, be there at 6 for me.”

Former Pittsburgh coach Ben Howland ventured to Yuma to recruit Araujo. So did representatives from programs like UNLV and Kansas. BYU, however, offered what no other school – not even Arizona Western – could offer: a taste of Brazil.

Though BYU, often tagged as a homogeneous school, has fewer than 100 students from Brazil, it sends hundreds every year to do missionary work there, according to a recent article in the Deseret Morning News. Blue, green and yellow national flags greet Araujo and fellow Brazilian Luiz Lemes at every home game. (The pair is married to PlayStation soccer games during road trips.) Two Brazilian-style barbeque restaurants sit within driving distance of campus and Guarana, a popular Brazilian soft drink, is sold at the BYU bookstore. Last season, the Cougars even hired a native of Brazil, Walter Roese, onto their coaching staff.

Araujo now gets a chance to use Portuguese with both Lemes and Roese. And, Meads quips, ‘whenever he misses a free throw.’

Make no mistake, Araujo can shoot. He has a .716 free-throw percentage, and he’s even made eight 3-pointers this season. That, plus a seemingly paradoxical combo of ruggedness and quickness, have most NBA heads convinced Araujo will be selected sometime in the middle of the 2004 draft’s first round.

‘It’s my dream [to play in the NBA],’ Araujo said, ‘but right now, I just want to play and then I’ll think about it.’

Said BYU assistant Andy Toolson: ‘No question he’s a first-round draft pick. After the season when more people see him at camps his stock will go up even more. He’s a big body that can run the floor. He’s got to get better offensively still. But the difference between this year and last is like night and day.’

Last year Araujo faced troubles similar to those at Arizona Western – namely, he played basketball like a gladiator. He fouled out of seven games, and led the team in personal fouls.

‘He’s got a real high motor, and he has to learn how to channel that,’ Green said. ‘Sometimes he gets onto the floor and he’s like a bull in a china closet. He’s just so big and strong, he can run into somebody and he’ll just go flying onto the floor.’

Yet now, Araujo’s toughness has become more a virtue than a liability. He’s grown increasingly disciplined, and he fouls less frequently. Meads calls him the strongest player on the team, a player who’s both the focal point of the Cougars’ offense and a lynchpin for the growing Brazilian faction in Provo.

‘We put a lot of weight onto his shoulders because we need him,’ Meads said. ‘But those are big shoulders.’

Published on March 17, 2004 at 12:00 pm