It can be pretty easy to get caught up in hyperbole in sports.
The Patriots lose a regular season game and you can forget any chance of a Super Bowl. The Celtics put together a winning streak and you might as well pencil in banner No. 18. A high school or prep basketball player puts up a solid senior season and Division 1 programs are certain to come calling.
They’re all overreactions.
Well, except in that last example.
You don’t have to search very hard to see a kid performing well in college basketball, whose career on the hardwood included an important stop in North Central Massachusetts. Just look at the case of Cushing Academy alum David Duke.
The 6-foot-5 swingman is in the midst of his freshman season at Providence College and isn’t just taking in the sights during his rookie campaign. The Providence native hasn’t just played in all 10 games for the 7-3 Friars, he’s started them all.
A dynamic and athletic player who averaged 17 points per game in his final season at Cushing, Duke seems to be adjusting well to Division 1 hoops, putting up nearly eight points per contest on a talented Providence team. He scored a career-high 20 points in a Nov. 17 tilt against South Carolina as part of the Hall of Fame Tip Off in Uncasville, Connecticut.
And up next for Duke and the Friars? Another team with ties to local prep basketball: Central Connecticut on Sunday. The Blue Devils’ roster features junior guard Tyson Batiste, who honed his skills on South Street when Notre Dame Prep still hosted a premier preparatory basketball program.
Duke isn’t alone in representing Cushing well in Division 1 athletics. Wabissa Bede, Duke’s former teammate and currently a sophomore at No. 17 Virginia Tech, is averaging 3.4 points per game this season for the 8-1 Hokies. He’s started five games this season.
And on the ice, former Penguin David Cotton has 11 goals and seven assists for the Boston College ice hockey team, putting up big numbers through 14 games. The junior forward and Parker, Texas, native — a sixth -round draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2015 — leads the Eagles in both goals and points and was named Hockey East player of the month for November.
Looking through old media guides can be quite an adventure. While perusing the 1999-2000 Fitchburg State ice hockey guide, I stumbled across the bio of one Patrick Demsey.
I had known that Demsey, who went on to star as Mike Eruzione in the 2004 Walt Disney Productions film “Miracle,” played a pair of seasons in Fitchburg. What I wasn’t ready for was the harrowing haircut in the photo for the Danvers native: shaved on top, left a bit a long on the sides.
“I love that there is a pic of the monk cut I got. Awesome hazing rituals!!!” Demsey tweeted when made aware of the photo. He wasn’t alone in his plight. Several other underclassmen in the program had, um, unique hairstyles.
Demsey played a pair of seasons as a Falcon, scoring two goals and adding two assists in 47 career collegiate games before shifting his focus to acting. Billed as Patrick O’Brien Demsey, he portrayed Eruzione — the captain of the United States hockey team — in the film adaptation of the spectacular gold medal run by the U.S. in the 1980 Olympics.
Follow Nick Mallard on Twitter @n_mallard.
