Fast Breaks with Ja'Quan Newton

Ja’QUAN NEWTON

Ja’Quan Newton
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pa.

My hometown is very tough, very rough. Sometimes it’s hard to make it out, but basketball is the reason why I made it out and the reason I’m here today.

My family is wonderful. It was wonderful on my mother’s side, as well as my dad’s side. My whole family is just wonderful and I love them.

I started playing basketball probably when I was six or seven. That’s when I really started playing.

My high school was Neumann-Goretti High School. It was a great high school, and a Catholic high school. It was very educational and taught me a lot. And our basketball program was one of the best in the country, so it was great.

When I was younger I wanted to be an NBA player or an NFL player, but I took the basketball way.

The hardest part of being away from home is being away from my family. I just miss my family. My sisters and my brother, stuff like that.

Playing basketball has given me a lot. It’s given me the opportunity to meet other great basketball players, to meet great NBA players, to play against great NBA players and to travel around the world.

When I played basketball growing up I pretended to be no one really. I wasn’t that type of guy growing up that wanted to be somebody. My favorite player now is LeBron, though.

When I was introduced to Coach L I thought that he was a great guy. He’s very humble, very kind, very nice, and he’s always going to tell you the truth. I’ve trusted him since day one.

I’m a Hurricane because I love the city of Miami. I love the school, and it’s a great education. I love the campus and obviously I love the basketball program.

The U means a lot to me. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s going to be a part of my life forever.

The city of Coral Gables is nice and calm. It’s quiet, no violence. Where I’m from, it is very different. I love the city of Coral Gables.

Playing for Coach L at Miami, I’ve learned how to be a better leader, a better teammate, a better person and my IQ on the court has gotten better since playing for Coach L.

Once thing everyone should know about UM hoops is that we go out and play hard every night. We’re going to give it all we have got. We don’t care about individual stats and we just want to win for the team.

My favorite thing about the U family is how we are all a brotherhood. We are brothers and everybody just takes care of one another.

I’m closest on the team with Davon, Kamari and Amp.

I wear jersey number 0 because… well, I wanted to wear 20 because I was 20 my whole career, but somebody had it so I was trying to think what to do. I was either going to wear 2 or 0 and I just liked 0. So now I use it as 0 excuses. That’s why I wear it.

Dunking feels great. I’m not a guy that’s a crazy high flyer or anything like that, but if I get an open fast break or an open lane, I will dunk it and it just feels great. It gives me more energy. It gets me hyped and it gets the team hyped, the bench and everything.

If I wasn’t playing basketball I don’t know what I’d be doing.

Some of my personal goals are to be an NBA player. You always have got have a plan B obviously, but I always said growing up that I didn’t want a plan B, that I wanted to achieve my goal, and I’m going to do everything to achieve my goal.

I secretly wish that I was rich and that I had a whole bunch of money, like billions and I could do whatever I wanted to with it.

I like to play video games. I’m a big 2K basketball fan. I also play Madden, FIFA and UFC. I play against my teammates all the time. I can’t win at UFC since it’s a fighting game, but in 2K I got them.

My favorite holiday is Christmas, because you get a bunch of gifts.

Becoming a man is being responsible and taking advantage of things that have been given to you in life without messing it up. When you do something wrong you own up to it and you don’t make excuses. A man takes up to his responsibility; if you do something you do it. A man should never make excuses and a man should never have “no” in his vocabulary or “I can’t” do something.

After college I want to be an NBA player or a professional basketball player.