Nov. 22, 2015
SAN DIEGO -
By Mick McGrane, @GoAztecs Senior Writer
(@MickOnTheMesa)
At Mountain View St. Francis High, varsity boys basketball coach Steve Filios routinely diagrammed his team's opening possession to culminate in a shot by point guard David Velasquez.
On a team that won consecutive state titles during Velasquez's junior and senior years, and included the likes of future New Mexico standout David Chiotti, Filios also made sure his point guard knew he might not shoot again the rest of the game.
If it was a lesson in patience, it was no less a crash course in preparation. Between his final game with St. Francis and surrendering his position as head manager of San Diego State's men's basketball team, Velasquez didn't shoot a ball in official competition for five years. He was a fifth-year senior during the 2006-07 season when Coach Steve Fisher, whose Aztecs were sorely lacking backcourt depth due to injury, offered Velasquez a scholarship 20 games into the season.
His career stat line: Four minutes, two shot attempts, zero points and at least one regrettable moment.
The Aztecs, having beaten Missouri State in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament that season, were awarded a second-round date with perennial heavyweight Syracuse. Velasquez, one of five guards on the SDSU roster, was listed in the pregame notes as a "fifth-year student manager."
"Whenever I see (former Aztecs point guard) Richie Williams I still remind him about not throwing me the ball against Syracuse," Velasquez said. "I thought it was a good matchup. I was playing against Paul Harris, who was a McDonald's All-American, and Richie didn't throw me the ball.
"I really don't know if either of the shots I took while I was playing even hit the rim. I'm in (Viejas Arena) every day. The only time it ever felt foreign were the times when I was actually on the floor during games."
Fourteen years after joining a staff of 10 student managers at SDSU, after becoming the head manager and spending a year at Pacific before returning as the director of player development, Velasquez is still on that floor. Living a dream. In one of the best seats in the house.
Now in his third season as an assistant coach on one of the most highly regarded staffs in the nation, Velasquez says he is done pinching himself and anxious to continue hoisting a bar already set at dizzying heights.
Velasquez's is a story chronicled more than once at San Diego State, where walk-ons have frequently walked out leaving lasting impressions.
The latest, Ben Perez, is no less driven, fully understanding that opportunity seldom knocks a second time, particularly when said opportunity has been provided by a program bidding for a seventh straight NCAA Tournament berth.
"I'm just lucky to be in the program," Perez said. "I don't mind being looked at as someone with a label of "preferred walk-on." Obviously, I'm going to do anything I can to earn a scholarship, and right now that means helping this team win any way I can."
What it really means is becoming a bona fide perimeter threat, particularly in the absence of injured Matt Shrigley and notably in the aftermath of a 2014-15 campaign in which SDSU ranked 287th out of 351 Division I teams in three-point accuracy.
Through the season's first four games, the 6-foot-3 Perez, a San Marcos High grad who spent a year at the USAF Prep Academy, is averaging 15.0 minutes and 5.5 points per game. He is tied for the team lead in three pointers with six and had a career-high three in Saturday's setback against Little Rock.
As a prep, he was an all-CIF first-team selection, averaging a team-high 16.6 points for the CIF finalist Knights. And while no less efficient at Air Force's Prep Academy, leading the team in scoring, he also concluded that a military career no longer fit his future.
"The prep academy is almost like another year of high school, because you're playing with your same age group, mostly against a junior college schedule," he said. "You get used to the physicality of college basketball, but it's not like the kind you find at the Division I level. The basketball that's played is good, and I enjoyed my time and the relationships I made while I was there, but I just thought that it was in my best interest to transfer."
It would also prove to be in the best interest of SDSU, which was in need of an additional scoring threat after Shrigley suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in late July. Perez, who was receiving interest from Iona, Florida Gulf Coast, Portland and Rhode Island, had returned home to consider his options where he ultimately reclassified as a 2015 high school graduate.
"The SDSU coaches were always at our (AAU) games," Perez said. "I had already played in front of them in high school, but now I had an opportunity to play in front of them more consistently. They could see how I'd developed as a player and how much more I'd developed as a shooter. When Matt went down, there was an opening that they needed to fill. I consider myself really fortunate that they looked at me."
So did Aqeel Quinn, who walked on at SDSU after surrendering a scholarship at Cal State Northridge. Quinn ultimately started 28 games and played a major role in the Aztecs' 10th straight season of at least 22 wins (27) last year.
So did Narbeh Ebrahimian, who after showing up at open tryouts in 2011, became part of the rotation by midseason.
So did walk-ons Al Faux and John Sharper, the former starting 57 games and leading the team in scoring in 2011, the latter ranking seventh on SDSU's list of games played at 119.
"It's been everything I could have possibly dreamed of and more," Perez said. "It was a little overwhelming at first, trying to get settled with all of my classes and then being thrown right into the fire and learning the system. But I think I've been able to adjust pretty well. The coaches have done a great job helping me out. Matt (Shrigley is a close friend of Perez) is a great shooter who could come in and hit some key shots. I want to be able to do that, too, and provide as much energy as I can.
"Obviously, I'm playing against some incredibly athletic players. But now that I've been around it for awhile, there's really no difference for me anymore. I want to be able to take my game to the next level. I want to be on scholarship and become a key component of this team."
If history holds, Perez is well on his way.