FARMVILLE, Va. -- When
Jeylani Dublin was in middle school, his team won the New York City Championship in basketball. One of his teammates was Lance Stephenson, who would go on to star at the University of Cincinnati and is now in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers.Â
The road to Division I basketball for Dublin, now a redshirt junior forward for Longwood, was not as direct – but for the right reasons. Â
Raised by parents who stressed education, Dublin attended Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn. The school is known for its strong academics, but it had no basketball team for Dublin to play for.
So the product of Brooklyn played on travel teams during his first three years of high school.
"I played those three years for outside teams," he says. "I really loved the game of basketball and kept getting better and better. I wanted to play Division I basketball."
As a junior he realized his dreams of playing Division I basketball were hampered with no school team to play for, so he enrolled at the Millbrook School, a prep school in rural Dutchess County, New York.
Through the Boys and Girls Club of New York, which helps inner-city youth get into prep schools, Dublin took an academic test and did well. Coaches from the Millbrook School saw him play and he went there on a scholarship.
He repeated his junior year and in his second season at Millbrook the team played at a tournament in Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of basketball. It was there that Dublin was spotted by
Bill Reinson, then an assistant with the men's basketball team at Longwood and now the head women's coach.
Dublin paid a visit to Longwood and, with limited Division I opportunities, decided to enroll as a freshman in the fall of 2010. Again there was a challenge, as Dublin came to Farmville as a walk-on. While he came off the bench in 25 games as a rookie, he was awarded a scholarship prior to his sophomore year.
And while a key contributor on the court, Dublin has made his parents proud as a star in the classroom as well. The biology major is on track to graduate in the spring and hopes to attend graduate school for physical therapy next academic year.
"Just the way I attack basketball on the court, I attack my studies the same way," notes Dublin, sitting in the stands at Willett Hall after a recent Big South game.
That approach has impressed
Jayson Gee, the first-year head coach for the Lancers.
"He is certainly one of the top three or four character kids I have had in 25 years," says Gee, a long-time Division I assistant. "He has outstanding parents, who have obviously done an outstanding job."
"His attitude has never wavered, which I think is a compliment to his character," Gee adds. "There are not many kids who would be as positive. I coach him extremely hard. He is the kind of guy who takes a licking and keeps on ticking."
Dublin has been challenged this season as a reserve after he started 31 of 33 games last season, when he averaged 10.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per contest. Gee has him playing multiple positions and Dublin has responded with a scoring average of 11.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per contest in his first 25 games off the bench, playing an average of 18.7 minutes.
"In (prep) school I was more of a jump shooter and a slasher to the basket," says Dublin. "Since I came to Longwood, I have had to play a certain role. I am more of a bruiser now. I had to switch up my game a little bit. Coach definitely tells me I am the sixth man coming off the bench. Even though I am not a starter, I am a starter in his eyes. He wants me to work on some things defensively so I can help the team out much more."
Off the court Dublin has hosted possible recruits and has gained honors as one of the top biology students on campus. He is also part of the Longwood Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and attended the Big South SAAC Leadership Conference in North Carolina in 2012.
"I got to meet athletes from different schools and see what their schools were like," he says.
Maya Ozery, Director of Athletics Academic Services, has been impressed with Dublin. "He is very focused. He knows he wants to go to graduate school," she says. "He is a really positive guy and he has a really positive effect on other people. He is a role model and he does everything he is asked to do. He is a good person to represent our athletic department."
Dublin said some of the highlights of his Longwood career were playing against the Morris twins (Markieff and Marcus) at the University of Kansas and facing off last season at Georgetown against Otto Porter, Jr., a first-round draft pick of the Washington Wizards in 2013. Another milestone came earlier this season when Longwood won at Texas Christian for the Lancers' first win over a team from a big-time conference.
But perhaps the biggest highlight was also a personal one. "My biggest change was getting that scholarship. I showed the coaches the hard work I put in over the summer," he says. And he has continued to do just that since then.
Editor's Note: Special consultant David Driver is a Virginia native and has covered college sports in the state for more than 20 years. He has been a staff writer for newspapers in Arlington, Springfield and Harrisonburg and has contributed to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Washington Post, Stafford County Sun and The Potomac News in Woodbridge. He was also the first sports editor for the daily Baltimore Examiner. He will continue contributing special feature content to longwoodlancers.com throughout the 2013-14 academic year as well. A former Division III baseball player at Eastern Mennonite University, David can be reached at www.davidsdriver.com.
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