Photo: Tywain Mckee, 6-2 senior point guard/shooting guard, Philadelphia, PA/Bartram H.S., major: Criminal Justice.Forgotten and ignored, Tywain McKee was an unlikely college hoops prospect. Then a basketball legend tapped him on the shoulder.
There are some kids you just want to protect. It would be great to say that about all of them, but the truth is some wear trouble like a too-big pair of jeans, uncomfortable unless they're pretty much engulfed by it. Tywain McKee, back when he was a hunch-shouldered, woolly haired teenager, could have been one of those kids.
"He was swallowed up by strife, living in a hotbed of violence," says former Temple coach John Chaney, who recruited McKee as a Philly high school senior four years ago. Chaney discovered McKee when the Bartram High guard dropped 13 fourth-quarter points in a city-league semis loss to Philly power Simon Gratz. But McKee, who battled a stutter and had always felt uncomfortable in school, fell well short of Temple's academic requirements.
Still, the Hall of Fame coach liked the fight he saw in McKee. He liked that the kid had learned the game from his mom. He liked that McKee kept playing, even after his mother's drug abuse meant she was around less and less. And he liked that McKee didn't lose focus, even while his younger brother, Robert, was skipping school. Chaney wanted to see McKee play at the next level, for him or someone else. "If no one puts a kid like that in a position to succeed, his self-esteem keeps dropping," Chaney says. "I called Fang Mitchell because I knew he would be good for Tywain."
Ron "Fang" Mitchell has spent 21 seasons at Baltimore's Coppin State University, one of 103 historically black colleges and universities in the U.S.
CONTINUE READING THIS INTRIGING ARTICLE ON CSU's TYWAIN McKEE BY CLICKING ON BLOG TITLE.
There are some kids you just want to protect. It would be great to say that about all of them, but the truth is some wear trouble like a too-big pair of jeans, uncomfortable unless they're pretty much engulfed by it. Tywain McKee, back when he was a hunch-shouldered, woolly haired teenager, could have been one of those kids.
"He was swallowed up by strife, living in a hotbed of violence," says former Temple coach John Chaney, who recruited McKee as a Philly high school senior four years ago. Chaney discovered McKee when the Bartram High guard dropped 13 fourth-quarter points in a city-league semis loss to Philly power Simon Gratz. But McKee, who battled a stutter and had always felt uncomfortable in school, fell well short of Temple's academic requirements.
Still, the Hall of Fame coach liked the fight he saw in McKee. He liked that the kid had learned the game from his mom. He liked that McKee kept playing, even after his mother's drug abuse meant she was around less and less. And he liked that McKee didn't lose focus, even while his younger brother, Robert, was skipping school. Chaney wanted to see McKee play at the next level, for him or someone else. "If no one puts a kid like that in a position to succeed, his self-esteem keeps dropping," Chaney says. "I called Fang Mitchell because I knew he would be good for Tywain."
Ron "Fang" Mitchell has spent 21 seasons at Baltimore's Coppin State University, one of 103 historically black colleges and universities in the U.S.
CONTINUE READING THIS INTRIGING ARTICLE ON CSU's TYWAIN McKEE BY CLICKING ON BLOG TITLE.
