Lee can only sit back and watch as Drexel prevails
Out since late November with a torn ACL, Damion Lee learns his basketball lessons from a seat on the bench.
HE IS OUT EARLY for warmups with his teammates, is right there during layup lines and sits dutifully at the end of the bench during the games, supportive, believing, hoping for the best.
Damion Lee is an optimist. This season, he was certain, was going to be Drexel's time, a Colonial Athletic Association championship, an NCAA Tournament appearance and, who knows, maybe even the program's second NCAA win.
"I thought this was the year," Lee said a few minutes before Drexel played UNCW at the DAC last night.
Lee, starting his third year, was going to play with seniors Frantz Massenat and Chris Fouch. The possibilities seemed endless.
"I was just so excited," Lee said. "People even tried to nickname us the 'Legion of Doom' because you never really know what you're going to get. Both of them [Massenat and Fouch] will go down as top five players ever to play at Drexel."
Fouch and Massenat have scored 3,000 points between them. Lee is stuck on 960.
The Dragons lost by five at UCLA in their opener. They won at Rutgers by 11. They led Arizona, 27-10, after 15 minutes of the NIT season Tip-Off semis at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 27. They still led, 41-38, with 10 1/2 minutes left when Lee moved across the lane.
Lee felt a pop. He expected the worst, hoped for the best. He heard the worst. His right ACL was torn.
If he doesn't get hurt, do the Dragons beat Arizona?
"Yes," said the 6-6 Lee, who is anything but boastful.
Arizona came back to win, 66-62. Drexel won its next two games in triple overtime, got all the way to 7-2. Then, reality hit.
After beating UNCW, 61-50, last night, the Dragons are 12-10 overall, 4-5 in the CAA. With Lee, a first-team all-league player, the Dragons' best defender, a big, athletic wing who could play in just about any league, Drexel's record would be quite a bit better- 17-5, 18-4, something far north of what it is.
It can always be worse on the court. UNCW (6-17, 0-8) has not won for 2 months, 12 consecutive losses.
Like the Dragons, the Seahawks are competitive most games, losing by one at Delaware on Saturday, by seven at Towson. Only 16 days after losing to Drexel, 79-63, at home, they never let Drexel get comfortable. Drexel never trailed in the second half, but led by just a point with 8 minutes left. The final margin was the biggest of the game.
The Dragons got 31 combined from Fouch (16) and Massenat (15). They got another 17 from Tavon Allen off the bench. The Dragons shot 50 percent in the second half, were 16-for-17 from the foul line and turned it over only four times.
"I think the rules have helped," Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said of his team's lack of turnovers all season. "One of the things teams did to us last season, they beat us to death. And they let you do that."
Drexel has committed only 180 TOs in 22 games, 8.2 per game, tied with Wisconsin for best in the country.
"And the turnovers we're having aren't throwaways," Flint said. "There are what I call good and bad turnovers."
Lee had his surgery on Dec 12. Now, he rehabs and waits.
"I've actually taken the role of seeing it as a bit of a learning experience, just sitting here watching the game from a different angle," Lee said. "While you're on the court, you just can't really see too many things. Being on the sideline, I'm just sitting here soaking it all up. I feel like my basketball IQ is rapidly growing."
After the season, Drexel will apply for a medical redshirt on Lee's behalf. Lee will have two full seasons of eligibility left. And he plans to use them.
"I'm staying at Drexel for 2 more years," Lee said. "Drexel is my home."
Baltimore was his home for high school. He went to Calvert Hall before attending prep school. When he heard the CAA Tournament was moving to Baltimore, he was beyond excited.
"As soon as I found out, everyone was, like, the tournament is in Baltimore," Lee said. "I was in disbelief because it's been in Richmond the past 35 years."
Lee will be in Baltimore with his team next month. And there is always 2015.
"I know it's going to be in Baltimore again next year," Lee said.
The shame of it is that Lee won't get to play with Fouch and Massenat again. But he will play with Allen, Kazembe Abif and a solid recruiting class next season. And he will have still another season after that to turn what he imagined for this season into reality.