This wasn’t how Donavan Short envisioned his first two seasons in college basketball after the former Denmark star committed to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in 2021.
When the NCAA transfer portal opens on March 18, the 6-foot-10 sophomore center will have his name on it for the second time in less than a year.
Short entered the portal at the end of last March after his first season at UWGB, but the team went 3-29 and head coach Will Ryan was fired before the season ended, a dire time for everyone involved. Ta.
About a month later, he found a new home when he committed to DII Nebraska-Kearney.
Short’s goal is to regain his confidence, like a player who averaged 23 points and nine rebounds as a senior and had offers from schools like USC in the lead-up to becoming Denmark’s all-time leading scorer. It was to play.
Everything up until sophomore year felt promising. The exhibition season went well. He was racking up points.
But one game into the season, longtime coach Kevin Lofton resigned, citing an awkward contract situation.
Most expire at the end of the season, but this one expired at the end of November. Lofton was told the school had no plans to extend it.
Short wasn’t lucky that the coach who hired him stayed on for very long.
“Two years in a row,” he said. “We were already at a disadvantage. I mean, last year in Green Bay, he had five coaches on staff. There was always someone, and it was a different kind of feeling. There was only a head coach and an assistant coach.
“(Lofton) was turned away, but throughout the season (along with interim coach Antoine Young) last year’s player (Matt Brien), who is from New Zealand and had just spent his first semester, stayed on to help Lofton. The team continued until they decided to do so. So he became our assistant coach. ”
Short spoke highly of both and loved everything about Young, but with an assistant who may not be older than some of his senior teammates and a new head coach who was thrown into the fire overnight. It felt strange to be there.
Lofton was the one who helped him regain his confidence. Every time Short received a pass near the rim but kicked it out, Lofton called for a shot.
“It felt like my whole world was turned upside down,” Short said. “I was preparing myself to be able to go into situations where I was scouted, intending to play in the system that the head coach was talking to me about. I pride myself on being a strong person, but I can’t lie. It did some damage.”
Short suffered a concussion early in the season, but started the first three games and then came off the bench.
His best game easily came in late December against Central Oklahoma. In that time, he scored 20 points, made 8-of-14 shooting, grabbed 5 rebounds, and played 26 minutes.
However, Short never felt like he found a rhythm after Lofton left. While Lofton encouraged aggressiveness even when he made mistakes, Short knew his lead wouldn’t be that long after he was gone.
He tried to play a perfect game in a sport where no one is perfect. Opponents didn’t have to take Short out of the game because he was playing the game for them.
Dovan Short spent time finding himself.
Mr. Short went to see Mr. Young on February 5 and informed him that he was resigning for personal reasons. He also felt his 5-17 team wasn’t playing as well as a group and was a little checked mentally.
Short doesn’t know how to categorize the personal issues she’s experiencing, or whether or not they are depression. He knew there was a lot going on in his head.
He used on-campus resources and talked to a woman who helped him get through his situation.
They met three times while he was in school, but now that he’s back home in Wisconsin, he scheduled another meeting with her to discuss how he’s adjusting.
He feels like the old Donavan again.
“I was in a very dark place,” Short said. “My mom knew about it. My teammates knew about it. I wasn’t me at all. If you had called me then, I’m sure you’d have said, ‘Hey, what’s going on? ?’ You must have thought that.”
Young was supportive and told Short he would do his part to help him get into another school.
Short isn’t ready to call it a career. He hopes third time is the charm.
“I think for someone who didn’t have a love for this sport, they probably couldn’t have gotten through some of the situations that I went through,” Short said. “I don’t say this lightly, but this is a game that I sacrificed countless hours to build. Countless summers. Growing up, that’s all I did. It’s me. It’s a lively sport.
“That’s why I’m in the transfer portal. I still have hope and I’m looking for the right place for me. Once the transfer portal opens, all DI and DII college coaches will receive an email from me. It will arrive. There is no way in hell I would give up.”
Short is hoping the NCAA will grant him a waiver because his first two coaches were fired so he doesn’t have to sit out the season before playing with his new team.
If things don’t go that way, he’ll be willing to sign up for a year for the right program.
Short was asked if coaches would be wary of a player who has been on two teams so early in his career.
“That was definitely a concern that my mom raised,” he said. “My mom always makes sure I’m prepared for any situation, she always looks five or six steps ahead.
“Yeah, if they come here, they can definitely see what happened. But if they just call me for five minutes, I’m sure everything will be resolved quickly. There aren’t a lot of coaches who can’t understand that, “You get your head coach fired, and then you go to the next school and the head coach gets fired again.”
Short continues to support UWGB
Things didn’t work out for Short in Phoenix, but he still leads his hometown team and is happy to see the turnaround the team has enjoyed under first-year coach Sundance Wicks. .
Short watched the Super Bowl on Sunday with UWGB guard and former teammate Clarence Cummings III and plans to attend the game as well.
Return of UWGB:Sundance Wicks leads team in pursuit of best one-year turnaround in Division I history
“What Sundance did was unreal,” Short said. “I wished them nothing but luck and hoped they could turn the situation around, and they did. It’s amazing.
“Honestly, I’m not surprised. When the right coach and the right group of players with the right mindset put their mind to doing something, anything can happen.”