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WSU hoops: Wildcats' little man comes up big
Kellen McCoy » Size has not kept 5-foot-6 guard from excelling at DI level.
By Maggie Thach
The Salt Lake Tribune
Posted: 02/06/2009 01:21:23 AM MST
Kellen McCoy is used to this feeling by now. Over Christmas break, when he went to visit his parents in Indiana, McCoy went down to the local gym. Teams were being selected for a pick-up basketball game and one by one, McCoy watched as others were being picked over him until both teams were full.
"I'm thinking, 'I'm a Division I college basketball player and I didn't get picked,'" said McCoy, who is a starting guard for the Weber State men's basketball team. "I got in the next game, and until they saw me play, they didn't want to pick me."
It's a familiar feeling. McCoy always has had to prove himself because people can't look past his 5-foot-6 stature. It's the reason he wasn't highly recruited out of high school and overlooked at the junior college level.
But Weber State coach Randy Rahe looked past his height, possibly because Rahe can relate to being the smallest guy on the court. Rahe saw a player who had great court awareness, an accurate shot, incredible rebounding abilities and most of all, a gritty determination.
"I didn't worry about his size. He just has this toughness," Rahe said. "You can tell a lot about a player by how they react when things don't go well, and he just never put his head down."
Offensively, McCoy leads the team in conference play with 16.2 points a game. His scoring has helped the Wildcats to a 15-8 record, including 9-1 in the Big Sky Conference -- good for first place. He shoots 41.5 percent from
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three-point range and his long-range shooting has lifted Weber State out of some tight situations, but he's just as likely to get his points by driving to the basket.
Against Idaho State last Saturday, McCoy drove to the basket with two formidable obstacles in the way -- the Bengals' 6-foot-8 Chron Tatum and 6-foot-11 Lucas Steijn.
"[Being short] has never bothered him. He's just really determined. Deep down in his heart, he knows he does have to go above and beyond [because of his height]," said Jennifer McCoy, Kellen's mother. "But he's always walked into every situation with confidence. Once he plays, he doesn't have to prove anything else anymore."
McCoy has always had to overcome obstacles. When he was 2 years old, he had to wear braces that would fix his bowleggedness. He had to wear those braces for two years straight, 24 hours a day.
As he got older, he had to deal with asthma. That was especially hard when he came to Utah and had to deal with the elevation. But every setback McCoy has encountered, he has conquered. It's just that other people's perception about his height is the only thing that stays with him.
McCoy's mother can see how people size up her son every time she goes on the Internet to watch her son's game or read any newspaper article about him. The announcers often refer to McCoy as 'the little guy' and writers call him diminutive.
Those names don't bother him, though.
"People have told me all my life that I'll never be the biggest guy on the court," McCoy said. "But you can never let anybody tell you what you can't do."
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WSU hoops: Wildcats' little man comes up big
Kellen McCoy » Size has not kept 5-foot-6 guard from excelling at DI level.
By Maggie Thach
The Salt Lake Tribune
Posted: 02/06/2009 01:21:23 AM MST
Kellen McCoy is used to this feeling by now. Over Christmas break, when he went to visit his parents in Indiana, McCoy went down to the local gym. Teams were being selected for a pick-up basketball game and one by one, McCoy watched as others were being picked over him until both teams were full.
"I'm thinking, 'I'm a Division I college basketball player and I didn't get picked,'" said McCoy, who is a starting guard for the Weber State men's basketball team. "I got in the next game, and until they saw me play, they didn't want to pick me."
It's a familiar feeling. McCoy always has had to prove himself because people can't look past his 5-foot-6 stature. It's the reason he wasn't highly recruited out of high school and overlooked at the junior college level.
But Weber State coach Randy Rahe looked past his height, possibly because Rahe can relate to being the smallest guy on the court. Rahe saw a player who had great court awareness, an accurate shot, incredible rebounding abilities and most of all, a gritty determination.
"I didn't worry about his size. He just has this toughness," Rahe said. "You can tell a lot about a player by how they react when things don't go well, and he just never put his head down."
Offensively, McCoy leads the team in conference play with 16.2 points a game. His scoring has helped the Wildcats to a 15-8 record, including 9-1 in the Big Sky Conference -- good for first place. He shoots 41.5 percent from
Advertisement
three-point range and his long-range shooting has lifted Weber State out of some tight situations, but he's just as likely to get his points by driving to the basket.
Against Idaho State last Saturday, McCoy drove to the basket with two formidable obstacles in the way -- the Bengals' 6-foot-8 Chron Tatum and 6-foot-11 Lucas Steijn.
"[Being short] has never bothered him. He's just really determined. Deep down in his heart, he knows he does have to go above and beyond [because of his height]," said Jennifer McCoy, Kellen's mother. "But he's always walked into every situation with confidence. Once he plays, he doesn't have to prove anything else anymore."
McCoy has always had to overcome obstacles. When he was 2 years old, he had to wear braces that would fix his bowleggedness. He had to wear those braces for two years straight, 24 hours a day.
As he got older, he had to deal with asthma. That was especially hard when he came to Utah and had to deal with the elevation. But every setback McCoy has encountered, he has conquered. It's just that other people's perception about his height is the only thing that stays with him.
McCoy's mother can see how people size up her son every time she goes on the Internet to watch her son's game or read any newspaper article about him. The announcers often refer to McCoy as 'the little guy' and writers call him diminutive.
Those names don't bother him, though.
"People have told me all my life that I'll never be the biggest guy on the court," McCoy said. "But you can never let anybody tell you what you can't do."
[email protected]