There are the usual stats used to evaluate the effectiveness of a basketball player - points, rebounds, assists, etc.

But when talking about what kind of impact former Coeur d'Alene High standout Carli Rosenthal has had on the women's basketball program at Saint Mary's College, Gaels coach Paul Thomas uses a different measuring stick.

"It's her ability to make everybody happy," Thomas said.

Happy?

"Her ability to be a great teammate, and this year as she has stepped into a leadership role, far exceeds her basketball skills and abilities," Thomas added. "She has that infectious personality ... she just has this ability to bring people together. It's way, way more important than her four points and 12 rebounds against San Diego last Saturday.

"And she's really been like that her entire career."

Rosenthal, a 6-foot-3 senior forward and a starter since early in her freshman season, laughs when told of her coach's comments.

"I think maybe to be able to bring good team chemistry, having everyone get along on the court and off the court," Rosenthal said earlier this week, in a phone interview from Moraga, Calif. "Always making sure to encourage people, and if they miss a few shots, never to get mad, keep encouraging them. Once I got here I realized how much more talking is involved in college basketball than high school basketball."

Rosenthal plays at Gonzaga for the final time tonight at 6. Her freshman year, the Gaels upset the Zags in Spokane, snapping Gonzaga's 34-game conference winning streak, "and it was awesome," she said. The Gaels have also beaten the Zags twice at home while Rosenthal has been there.

"This is my favorite road trip," Rosenthal said. "I love the crowd, I love seeing all my old friends. Of course, we want to beat Gonzaga."

ON THE court, Rosenthal is averaging 6.4 points and a team-high 8.0 rebounds per game this season for Saint Mary's (18-7, 11-3 West Coast Conference), which is in second place in the WCC, trailing - you guessed it - Gonzaga (21-4, 14-0).

For her career, she has played in 107 games, started 104, and totaled 561 points and 650 rebounds. Rosenthal is 10th on the school's career rebounding list. She's been a starter since after the third game of her freshman career, when her rebound and put-back beat Montana.

"I don't know if I've ever coached a post player that works and has the motor .. the kid just has a tremendous motor," said Thomas, in his ninth season as Saint Mary's head coach. "You just don't see that a lot. It's a rare occurrence when you see a big with Carli's type of motor, and she's just a joy to coach. You don't have to tell her to work hard."

In January during her junior season, Rosenthal said she started feeling pain in her hips - then the pain started shooting down her legs. An MRI revealed a herniated disc, which sidelined her for the rest of the season. She was limited to 15 games for the Gaels, who finished 23-10, and she had surgery following the season.

"If you look at wins and losses, look at when she went out last year, and then what our record was after that," Thomas said.

Saint Mary's was 13-3 when Rosenthal was sidelined. The Gaels were 10-7 the rest of the way.

And, as Thomas said, stats don't tell the whole story.

"What she does out on the court defensively is immeasurable," he said. "You can't measure what she does on the defensive side of the ball. There's no statistic for being inspirational to your teammates. There's no statistical measure for encouraging words that you're giving to someone who's coming off the floor."

ROSENTHAL SAYS she has enjoyed her time in Moraga, located in the Bay Area, just east of Oakland and Berkeley. At roughly 16,000 population, it's smaller than her hometown of Coeur d'Alene, and her home games are played before boisterous crowds at McKeon Pavilion.

"California is so much different than Idaho," she said. "At first coming down here, 'oh my gosh, there's five lanes on the freeway.' Of course I miss my home and my dog and my mom, but at the same time it was good to be independent and be by myself. It was a good time to grow up and discover myself."

Saint Mary's has played in the WNIT each of the past three seasons - the Zags having kept the Gaels out of the NCAAs each year.

Rosenthal said she is on track to graduate in May with a degree in communications. But she doesn't plan to stop playing after her Gaels career ends next month.

In the summer before her junior season, Rosenthal helped the USA win the gold medal at the Maccabiah Games in Israel. She scored 40 points in five games as the USA went undefeated.

So she hopes to play professionally overseas after college.

"I've always wanted to play after college, so going over there just confirmed that I wanted to do it," Rosenthal said.

What's not to like about that? Get paid to play the sport you love ... get paid to see the world ...

... And make the people around you happy while doing it.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.