Umude has come a long way, and he’s brought his group with him

Guys who are 6-6 and blessed with quickness and coordination tend to do well in basketball no matter what other factors are involved around them.

To a great degree that’s the case for Stanley Umude and the University of South Dakota basketball team. The trick, then, is to get the most out of that talent and get the most out of the process. When surrounded by new teammates, learn to adjust, learn to improve and learn to grow as a player and as a person.

USD men’s coach Todd Lee didn’t recruit Umude, nor did he coach him for his freshman season but has been overseeing his progress since then. And Umude, as the seasons have advanced, has been Lee’s best player.

How is that all going? Well, this is what the coach said when asked about Umude’s prospects as a future professional player.

“He’s not going to walk on any court and be out-physicaled as far as ability,” Lee said. “And then he’s a great kid. A great person. Guys like Stanley – and I’ve coached a lot of them in my time working in pro ball – play professional basketball for as long as they want to play it. That’s what everybody is looking for in that business: The guy who is talented, will work hard and is a great person.”

There’s a decision still to be made on that, of course. Umude can come back for another season if he wants. Certainly, the Coyotes would want him back based on Lee’s assessment of his lone senior.

Now is not the time to do the deep-dive into that kind of a question, however. The Coyotes (12-9, 10-3 Summit) have a pair of games this weekend in Vermillion against North Dakota State with the possibility of a top seed in the Summit League Tournament part of the not-too-distant future.

The potential for Umude to move on is undeniably there, however, because he’s a genuine future pro player. The level is yet to be determined, but when you ask Umude what his plans are, he’s not just talking and dreaming. He will be able to earn a living in the game. It’s just a matter of when.

Either way, Umude is in the midst a memorable career with the Coyotes.

After playing sparingly as a freshman for former coach Craig Smith, who had a team loaded with upperclassmen at the time, Umude took a significant step forward as a sophomore.

It’s not like he came out of nowhere exactly, but few who followed the team closely would have anticipated the dramatic jump he had in store for them.

In fact, no one in college basketball that year made a bigger jump statistically. His 14.4 points-per-game average was the highest improvement in the nation among Division I players who stayed at the same school.

By the end of the year, it all made sense that he would score 28 points in a loss to Kansas early during the 2018-19 season. That night, though, it qualified as new territory.

The Jayhawks were the top-ranked team in the nation that night at Allen Fieldhouse and eventually pulled away in the second half. Afterward, it was clear the Coyotes were a little overmatched but it was also clear that Umude didn’t look out of place at all against what was then considered the best team in the nation.

After the game, Kansas coach Bill Self said this:

Not all the games thereafter went as well, but it was against Kansas the Coyotes got an indication of the kind of quality they’d be getting out of him the rest of the way.

In a sense, it was both a confirmation of his ability and the kind of confidence-builder that doesn’t come along every season.

“I had some people from back home talking to me like ‘What’s up? It’s your sophomore year. Why aren’t you scoring more points?’” Umude remembered. “And I remember telling them it only takes one game -- and it’s just a matter of time."

It was fun to be able to show his friends back in San Antonio that things were, indeed, different now. But far more than that, he was able to show himself the same thing.

“It was a big confidence-booster for me,” Umude said. “I was always telling myself what I was capable of doing but then I actually went out and did it. It influenced the rest of my college career. I’m not saying it just took that game to get me going, but I was very grateful it took place on that kind of a stage.”

Umude is averaging 20.9 points and 7.4 rebounds for the Coyotes this year while his roommate, A.J. Plitzuweit, is averaging 18.9 points. That’s a lot of scoring under one roof.

Coach Lee has put more than the basketball in the hands of his only senior. He’s also looked to him as a leader on a roster that has undergone dramatic changes from year-to-year.

“Last year I told him: ‘Stanley, this is your group,’” Lee said. “And he’s really taken it to heart. He talks to guys, he encourages them – he’s a leader. He’s done a great job with that.”

Last summer there were a lot of new teammates headed to USD. The pandemic made the process of getting to know new guys more difficult, but having a senior like Umude helped make the adjustments a little more graceful.

“We’ve become brothers,” Umude said. “Anything that happens on the court – maybe you get mad – but it all comes from love on this team. We’re a close group. I think that’s a big reason for our success.”