The Basketeers

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Mason, Grant, statue, DJ, and BW

 

Grant started it.

In the fall of 2021, one of the eighteen new students in my first-semester writing course was a smiley young basketball player from Springfield, Missouri, named Grant Harper. Improbably enough, he seemed just as eager to talk proper comma placement as he was to talk hoops after class, so it wasn't long before he recruited his best friends on the team, a pair of fellow frosh hoopers named Mason Ballay and Dwight "DJ" Newsome, to join him in my spring writing course. They all started hanging out after class, sometimes to talk about the readings and their papers (and proper comma placement), but more often to dish on the latest NBA and sports gossip. When I offered a new course called "Hollywood Hoop Dreams" the next spring, my Three Basketeers all signed up, leading to more thoughtful papers and conversations in class, after class, in my office, on the court after games, and more.

When two of the Basketeers, Grant and Mason, sadly let us know that they were heading back home after their sophomore years to finish up their undergraduate work elsewhere, I put together some highlight reels as going-away gifts. The third, DJ, stuck around and has now almost finished his fourth and final year in the Eutectic purple-and-gold, so his reel is more of a graduation than a going-away gift. Each and every one of these reels has been a labor of love and a gesture of gratitude for a trio of young men who may have bonded over basketball but who will remain friends, it seems safe to predict, because their real bond is the honesty and integrity they bring to everything they do.




Grant, the Playmaker

Mason, the Sniper

DJ, the Glider-Slasher



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