A Redeemed Armon Bassett Leads Cinderella Ohio

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Ohio Bobcats, 14th-seeded conquerors of Georgetown and unlikely second-round opponent of Tennessee, may be a mid-major team. But Armon Bassett is not a mid-major player.

"I've played at Cameron Indoor Stadium," Bassett said Friday, the day after he led the Bobcats to the biggest upset so far in this year's NCAA tournament. "I've played a lot of places. So playing against a big-conference team like that, you just go out there and believe in yourself, and that's what I did and hoped my teammates would just feed off of that."

It's been a while since Bassett was playing in places like Cameron Indoor, since he was a hotshot Indiana freshman and sophomore who played in big-conference arenas against Big Ten and other big-conference foes every night. His road from that world to the mid-major underdog world in which he now finds himself was rocky and difficult. But he's found a home in Ohio, with a coach who's known him since he was 13 years old and teammates who treat him like a superstar.

"I do feed off him," said freshman point guard D.J. Cooper, another of the speedy, hot-shooting Ohio guards who shocked the favored Hoyas on Thursday night. "I see him playing with just a lot of energy and confidence, so I just try and do the same thing. Just follow in his footsteps."

When you learn a little bit about Bassett's story, it sounds bizarre that he finds himself in a position to be admired and emulated. But sports is full of redemption stories, and Bassett, a 23-year-old junior who's on his third college, may just have turned himself into one.



Share Initially recruited to play at Indiana, Bassett was kicked off the team in the wake of the scandal-marred Kelvin Sampson era in 2008. Amid reports that he failed drug tests, Bassett transferred to UAB but didn't stay long. By the end of 2008, he'd washed out at two different schools and was looking for someone who could offer him a fresh start when few seemed so inclined.

Fortunately, he found an old friend.

"He was looking for someone he could trust," Ohio coach John Groce said.

Groce was that person. Groce's stepbrother, Travis Steele, was Bassett's AAU coach when Bassett was a troubled 13-year-old kid from a tough background. Steele, Groce and their whole family -- including Groce's late grandmother -- got to know Bassett and his mother, Anita Burks.

"Armon has been through a lot of adversity in his life," Groce said Friday. "I know you're alluding to Indiana and UAB, but some of it dates back even before that."

The friendship that formed between the two families 10 years ago meant that Groce was always looking out for Bassett. He tried to recruit him to Ohio out of high school, but Bassett picked Indiana, where Steele was on the coaching staff. When Bassett was looking for a new school in late 2008 and early 2009, Steele talked to his stepbrother, who brought Bassett to campus and had some long talks with him.

"We started having some dialogue to see if it made sense, and if both of us were going to be on the same page in terms of what we were trying to do and expectations and that sort of thing," Groce said. "Once I felt like it was a good fit, then we made the decision. I was just fortunate that I've known him a long time."

That good fortune is in full flower now, as Bassett and Groce find themselves on a Cinderella college hoops run. Seeded ninth in the MAC tournament, the Bobcats won four straight games -- two in overtime -- to claim the conference title and the MAC's automatic bid. They then rolled Georgetown on Thursday, and now they face Tennessee on Saturday afternoon for a chance at the Sweet Sixteen.

It's hard to imagine them getting this far without Bassett, who scored 119 points in the Bobcats' four MAC tournament games, was named that tournament's MVP and poured in 32 on Thursday against the Hoyas. Not only is he the team's best player -- he's its unquestioned leader. Cooper answered 10 different questions while seated next to Bassett at Friday's news conference, and he began six of them with some variation of the phrase, "As Armon just said ..."

Bassett is handling it all like a natural, and when he looks back on the path he took to get here, he says all of his difficulties have helped him.

"I got into a little trouble along the way, and I had to go through a long time with my name, nothing but bad stuff being written about me," Bassett said. "It just made me a stronger person. And I have to thank coach Groce for giving me a chance to play. I've just got to be thankful, really."

His teammates are thankful he ended up in Ohio, and so is his coach. But as somebody who's known Bassett for a decade and knows more about what the kid has been through than any of us do or probably ever will, Groce is something else too -- proud.

"From where he started to where he is now and all the different things he's been through," Groce said. "I'm thrilled that he's had this opportunity to grow and to improve, not only as a basketball player while he's been at Ohio, but also as a person through this process."