Basketball: Lacking prep hoops, Fawehinmi shines at SU (01-06-06)
Background cost junior his high school career -- By Michael Petre (Daily Staff Writer)
WINCHESTER — After three years of the same old thing, Mouktar Fawehinmi started thinking a little bit farther down the line.
As a junior at High Point High School in Beltsville, Md., Fawehinmi had been unable to secure a spot on the varsity basketball team for the third year in a row. In his senior season, he'd push for a spot on the team — again — and still not make it, but he already had greater things in mind.
"After my 11th-grade year — after I got cut again — I had my eyes on junior college," Shenandoah's junior swingman said before practice Wednesday.
Fawehinmi ended up at Montgomery Junior College in Germantown, Md., eventually making his way to Shenandoah without the aid of organized basketball at the high school level. Fawehinmi has thrived regardless, averaging 13.6 points and a team-high 2.8 assists for the Hornets (7-2), who host Lycoming tonight at 7.
"When I went to school, each year they basically had their team set," Fawehinmi said. "For the new people that came in, you had to come to an open gym to show the coaches that you could play. I felt I could play, but the neighborhood I was from had a bad name in the school."
A native of Adelphia, Md., Fawehinmi was one of two busloads full of students that made the trek to High Point each weekday. Many of the students weren't exactly appreciated by the school's administration, and understandably so.
"Most of them would get expelled, suspended, arrested," Fawehinmi said. "The things that happened, they let the whole school know about it, where they were from and all that. That kind of caught the coach's attention, and I guess he took that like I was part of them."
Fawehinmi had the talent to produce at High Point. But his aspirations were dashed immediately, missing the cut for the junior varsity team as a freshman.
"They cut me because some of the cats on varsity were better than me," he said. "I'm in there like, 'I'm trying out for the JV team; I don't want to have anything to do with varsity right now.' [It was] lame excuses after that. After awhile, I just figured it out."
Transferring to another school wasn't an option — Fawehinmi and his younger siblings lived with their older sister and he didn't want to add that hassle to her worries — so high school basketball never materialized. Instead, Fawehinmi nurtured his growing game with older players in open gyms. Lacking games that mattered, school became an afterthought.
"Since I didn't get a chance, it was kind of hard for me to stay out of trouble," he said. "There was a lot of things that could have happened that I got away with — hanging out, staying out all night, having nothing to do with my spare time. [Basketball] is what I went to school for, so I didn't pay attention to my schoolwork."
It would still be more than a year until he met Fawehinmi, but Shenandoah coach Rob Harris has seen enough of him recently to understand Fawehinmi's basketball approach.
"What is shocking about that, and it's a tribute to him, is that he never gave up on his dream of playing collegiately," Harris said. "Without a doubt, he remained coachable, he remained humble. He comes with a hunger and thirst to be as good as he possibly can be."
After briefly contemplating walking on to the basketball team at Howard University — where his mother went to school — Fawehinmi arrived at Montgomery, where he finally got a chance to learn the game. He sat out a season after failing to acquire an adequate entrance test score, and then had a pair of strong seasons for the Gryphons, earning a spot on the NJCAA's Region XX second team in 2003-04.
Fawehinmi got a glimpse of Shenandoah in the preseason last year, in a woeful scrimmage in which he was fighting through sickness. He didn't think he played very well, so he was surprised when Harris told him he was interested in making him a Hornet.
"When I got the call, I was like, 'How?'" he said. "Why would he want me to come here?"
"You could see he had some great defensive intensity," Harris said. "He could hit the boards very well."
Fawehinmi played all over the court at Montgomery, but since coming to Shenandoah, he has settled into a role as the starting swingman, using every inch of his 6-foot frame to his advantage.
"I'm not a big fan of scoring," he said. "The way I play, it's going to come to me anyways. Rebounding and assists, I've got to put effort into. Those are not going to just come to me."
It's that attitude, Harris said, that has allowed Fawehinmi to thrive, despite his relative lack of experience.
"He is blessed with explosiveness and strength and quickness, but his approach to the game is outstanding from what we've seen so far," he said. "And we hope that that never changes."
* COMINGS AND GOINGS: The end of Shenandoah's fall semester brought significant change to the Hornets' roster. Harris has three new faces — all players he has had before — but lost an interior depth player.
Back are junior forward James Brodie, sophomore guard Christopher Lyon and senior forward Patrick Miller. Brodie, a two-year contributor that left the team after the 2003-04 season to pursue other basketball opportunities, can be a force on the inside. He pulled down a team-high 6.8 rebounds in 2003-04 and scored six points in the Hornets' 84-71 win at Davis and Elkins on Wednesday.
Lyon, who played 8 minutes over four games last season, returns to the roster after sitting out the fall semester. Miller is also a one-year letterman, averaging 2.9 points in 27 games last season. He sat out the fall semester to complete an internship at the Naval Academy.
Gone is junior center Henry Anderson, who averaged one point and two rebounds in five games and lost his spot to academic issues.
* WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?: Shenandoah's win against Davis and Elkins was its second against a Division-II foe in as many years, following last season's 87-70 win at Shepherd. The wins are notable in Harris' development of the program, but a victory against the higher-caliber school had little meaning to sophomore guard Stevie Johns, who led the Hornets with 17 points.
"It doesn't mean anything," he said. "[Division II] is just a number to me."
Harris put slightly more stock in it, but not much.
"[Assistant coach Derek Helman] put it pretty simple," Harris said. "He looks at me and says, 'I'm not worried about anybody else in the country; I'm just worried about us.'
"We have the type of team that, if we do what we're supposed to do and we play with a certain pride and a certain intensity and emotion, we can beat anyone."
The talent level might not be the same at all levels of competition, but Harris isn't afraid to venture out of Division-III hoops.
"We're not bringing hamburger to a steak party," he said. "If we lose, we lose — but we're going to bring it."
