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Dick"), a slick, ball-handling guard whose No. 15 was retired by the New York Knicks. • Al McGuire, the iconic Marquette head A coach who guided his team to the 1970 NIT championship and the 1977 NCAA cham- pionship, and then went on to a successful broadcasting career with NBC and CBS. Another McGuire is in the process of mak- ing a name for herself, although not in the world of basketball — even though she was an accomplished player at Virginia: Brenna McGuire, who is Al's granddaughter. BY MIKE SCANDURA NY DISCUSSION OF basket- ball that includes the name McGuire conjures up images of two men: • Dick McGuire (a.k.a. "Tricky "When I was in high school, I wanted to play at the best Division I college I could. After I completed my goal, I wanted to move on and try something other than basketball. But when I graduated, I didn't know what I wanted to do. Then, I remembered those people saying go into TV or modeling. "I said 'Why not?' I was 23 at the time and felt I could try modeling then. I could try broadcasting later in life, but not modeling. If I was going to do it, I was going to put in 100 percent. It was extremely difficult. I was taken aback a little bit." Good point, considering all the women who envision modeling as a career. "With basketball, I practiced for years to get where I was," McGuire said. "In model- ing some people are natural, but you always be confident and competitive in sports. I hear 'no' every day, but it's not personal because each client is looking for a specific look. "Another job is going to come along where you need to have that look. My dad said every shot's not going to go in. You have to think it's going to go in. If you don't you're not going to succeed." In addition, modeling isn't necessarily as glamorous as the average magazine reader might think. "You could picture it as not glamorous because it's hard work," McGuire said. "For Fitness magazine, they wanted their model to be an athlete because you're going through a lot. When I modeled for the current issue, I was sore for two or three days. "I feel you can find fault in any job you MODEL STUDENT-ATHLETE Brenna McGuire Has Found Success On A Different Stage At UVa, McGuire finished her career (2004-07) ranked second for most three- point shots (196 in 127 games). As a fourth- year, she was named the team's Best Defen- sive Player and as a third-year she shared the team's Most Improved Player Award. But for the last two years, she's been a successful model for Wilhelmina Models in New York City. Modeling wasn't in McGuire's "game plan" at UVa, where she majored in soci- ology. But she did host "Cavalier Sports Weekly," a television show that covers UVa athletics, and also hosted one TV show for the ACC. So, how did McGuire go from burying three-point shots to modeling in front of a camera? "Basically, when I was do- ing those shows at UVa, some people who were around me mentioned that I should look into doing TV after college or modeling," McGuire said. "I did enjoy doing [the shows]. Those little things kept being said. I took them with a grain of salt because I was playing col- lege basketball. McGuire has been featured on the cover of in twice, and also has appeared , and PHOTO COURTESY WILHELMINA MODELS need to put time into anything you want to be good at. "I got to the point where I was frustrated. I decided to move to New York and do it there because that's where the best models are and you can do great modeling." Frustration reached a new level for Mc- Guire when she knocked on the doors of approximately 30 different agencies and re- ceived positive responses from only two. "They were boutique agencies and not big ones," McGuire said. "I was with a small one for one and a half years and wasn't going anywhere. I talked to my parents [Alfred and Georgia] and said I felt maybe this wasn't for me. "By the luck of the draw, somebody saw me and asked where I modeled. I said where and the person said I should model at Wilhelmina. My ca- reer completely changed after that." Since signing with Wil- helmina, McGuire has ap- peared in several magazines. She has been featured on the cover of Brides twice, and also has appeared in Self, Women's Health, Cosmopolitan, Health and Fitness. "I think comparing sports to modeling is like having that competitive drive and being extremely confident," she said. "You have to do, but I really enjoy modeling. Even if it's a small photo in a magazine, it's fun to be involved and you keep growing from every job you do." In a sense, McGuire grew as a person due in part to conversations she had with her grandfather Al. "The advice I always got from my grand- father wasn't about sports, but about life," McGuire said. "It was more about how you spend life and treat people. You can be com- petitive and do it in a nice way. He taught me more about life and how to enjoy it from a young age." And even though she was born into a bas- ketball family (her older brothers A.J. and Michael played the sport — A.J. at Cornell — as did her father at Marquette), it wasn't preordained that this was the path she would follow. "The first thing that was taught to my brothers and me was that we didn't have to play sports," she said. "Basically, if we chose to do so or to participate in the school play, my parents expected us to do it at 100 percent. If we chose basketball, be the best you can be. "I never was compared with my dad, brothers and grandfather. It was something we all had in common. It just so happened that we all loved the same sport. My parents came to every one of my college games. It was really nice to look up and see them watching me." ◆ FEBRUARY 2012 ◆ 25 B lr f i Health S e d We o Fitness. ' s m e n s H e a l t h , C o s m o p o l i t a n ,