Year: Senior
Major: Finance
Hometown: Middletown, N.J.
Sport: Basketball
Position: Guard
Injury: Sprained Ankle, December 2012
Earlier this year, you became the 39th player in Royals’ history to score 1,000 points in a career. How does it feel to reach such a milestone?
Reaching this milestone and joining all the other Scranton players who have accomplished this means a lot to me. In my time here I’ve seen two of my teammates [Zach Ashworth ’11 and Luke Hawk ’12] accomplish this, and they were both great players for the University. To join them in this club is an honor.
You suffered a sprained ankle the day before the photo shoot. Thanks for toughing it out! What is your worst sports-related injury? How did it affect you?
My sprained ankle was the first injury that made me miss a game in my college career so I’m going to have to say that was my worst sports-related injury. It was miserable sitting out of practice and games and having to watch our team play without me.
Entering this season, you have been a two-time All-Landmark Conference selection and selected as the conference’s defensive player of the year in 2012. What’s the key to being a stellar defensive player?
The key to being a good defensive player is to play hard. As long as you stay in front of the person you’re guarding, you will have success. I also have really long arms so it seems to help against the smaller players I guard.
You buried a buzzer-beating three-pointer to lift Scranton to a 58-55 victory over Middlebury College last season, sending the Royals to their first Elite Eight appearance since 1993. Describe how it felt taking the shot, and then hitting the shot.
I knew that once Middlebury tied the game up that we didn’t have much time left to get a shot off, so as soon as I got the ball I started to look for my teammates. My first option was to try and get Matt Swaback ’12 the ball in the corner, but instead he set a pick for me so I just shot the ball and it went in. Celebrating with my teammates after that win is something I’ll never forget.
Do you have any pre-games routines or superstitions?
I don’t really go through a routine before games. I just go through the warm-ups and try my best to get ready for the game.
What’s the difference between a good high school basketball player and a good collegiate basketball player?
High school basketball is such a different level of basketball than college basketball. In college, the pace is so much faster and the teams have a lot more talent. In high school the teams in your conference might have one or two good players at most, but in college pretty much every team has a solid core of players.
What is your favorite place on campus?
My favorite place on campus is definitely the gym. When I go to shoot by myself and there’s nobody there, I like it because it helps me get away from everything for awhile.
Who was your favorite athlete growing up?
John Starks
Facebook or Twitter?
Favorite movie?
Happy Gilmore
What musician do you tell people is your favorite? Who is your actual favorite musician?
Bruce Springsteen. My whole family is big Bruce Springsteen fans.
Three-on-three, horse or knockout, which is the best basketball game and why?
Horse is probably the best of those three. It’s fun to shoot crazy shots and see if they go in or not.
