November 30, 1998
By Heather Plumb
MU Sports Information
Change is difficult for anyone. Many people refuse change because what is familiar is more comfortable. But when you are an athlete, change is all part of the game.
Athletes are constantly on the move from one town to the next or from one team to another. But nothing is more difficult than that first big move from high school to college.
University of Missouri freshman guard Keyon Dooling is one of the most heralded recruits that the Missouri basketball team has seen in a long time. He was recruited, not only by Missouri, but Clemson, Georgia and Michigan State, to name a few. He also received enough votes to be selected as the Big 12 Conferences Preseason Freshman-of-the-Year. If he was to win the award at the end of the season, hed be the first Tiger to do so since Kelly Thames won the Big Eight equivalent in 1994.
"Its a lot of expectations, having that title," Dooling said. "But when they announced that, I hadnt played a regular season college game, yet, so that is all going off of my high school reputation," he said. "I have high expectations of myself and other people also have high expectations. I just want to live up to them. But if I dont, that wont make or break me," he said.
So far, he has lived up to others expectations. In Missouris first two games of the season, Dooling averaged 12.5 points and 5.0 assists per game. He notched a career-high 13 points on Nov. 18th against Southwest Missouri State, despite playing with a strained hip muscle, an injury that nearly kept him from playing at all.
Before coming to Mizzou, he averaged 22 points, six assists, six rebounds, and five steals per game his senior year at Ft. Lauderdale Dillard High School. He was also named a third-team Parade All-American. Then last summer, he was selected to the USA Basketball Mens Junior World Championship Qualifying Team. Dooling started in all six games played in the Dominican Republic. He helped his team to the gold medal, averaging 7.8 points per game and adding 14 assists and eight steals.
He attributes his success to his family back in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He left his parents, two brothers and one sister to pursue his dream of playing college hoops.
"I give all my thanks and praise to my mother (Brenda) and father (Leroy). I love them with all my heart. I owe it all to them and wouldnt change them for anything in the world," Dooling said.
Judging from Doolings closeness to his family, one would think that it would be very difficult to move so far from home. For Dooling, it was, especially after finding out his father had suffered a stroke.
"I didnt realize how tough it was going to be until I left," Dooling said.
But before he even came to Columbia, Dooling had made another switch -- from Cardinal-Gibbons, a private 4A institution, to Dillard, a public 6A school. He made the switch because he was unhappy and because most of his family had graduated from Dillard. Plus, most of his friends attended Dillard, including fellow Tiger freshman Clarence Gilbert. He obviously didnt regret the change and said that his senior year was "a great year."
So now that he has moved on to bigger and better things, Dooling sees where he wants to go and what he wants to accomplish. Being so highly recruited, there are many expectations from fans, coaches and teammates. But he claims that the pressure has not gotten to him.
"I feel that I have a lot of ability to get a lot of things done. I just want to help this team any way I can. I dont want to let people down and I dont want to let myself down," Dooling said. "If they think I can be Big 12 Freshman-of-the-Year, I would like to do that. Its a goal of mine," he said.
"I see the magazines and stuff, too," he said. "I try to use that as inspiration to go out and work hard to just hopefully get better. I just want to go out and prove everybody right," he said.
For a freshman, Dooling has quite a good head on his shoulders. He has goals, he has confidence and he knows what he is here to do.
So far, it appears change hasnt affected him.
