Dewan Does It
By Andy Fledderjohann
HurricaneSports.com
What a difference a year makes.
A year ago at this time, Dewan Huell was middling through a challenging freshman season with the Miami men’s basketball team. At 6-foot-11, the Miami native came in with big expectations as a five-star recruit and a 2016 McDonald’s All-American, but he struggled in his first season in the rugged Atlantic Coast Conference.
Determined to turn things around, Huell put his 2017 offseason to good use. He worked diligently in the weight room to beef up his slender frame, adding about 20 pounds of muscle. He also put in extra hours on the court to hone and develop his game, often in the gym on his own at 5:30 a.m. to get up some extra shots.
The result? An impressive sophomore season.
Huell leads the nationally-ranked Hurricanes in scoring at 13.9 points per game this season, a huge development for a team that already had big expectations. He has scored in double figures in 12 of Miami’s first 15 games, including a career-high 23-point effort in the Canes’ Nov. 29 win at then-No. 12 Minnesota. He had six double-figure outputs during his freshman year, but only one in ACC play.
“I just work harder now and have a better work ethic,” Huell said. “I’ve put in a lot more work. That’s really all it is, and it’s showing. I didn’t work how I should have worked as a freshman.”
Huell has more than doubled his freshman numbers in both scoring and rebounding. He leads the ACC in field-goal percentage (.656) and also ranks among the top 20 players in the league in rebounding. Huell also is playing significantly more minutes, averaging 25.5 per game, including nearly 30 per game in ACC play.
“I worked out with a lot of the guys on the team as well as by myself, probably about six hours a day,” Huell said. “When you’re a freshman, you don’t know what you’re going up against every night, but when you’re a sophomore, you’ve been through the process and you know what’s going to happen so you can prepare for it better than a freshman.”
Huell’s maturity in both the physical and mental aspects of the college game has been a big revelation this season, particularly for the coaching staff.
“I think Dewan Huell has really understood what college basketball is all about, which is you come in as a freshman, no matter how good you are, no matter what your credentials are, there are areas of your game you can work on and improve, and he has really devoted a lot of time in what we call ‘unrequired,'” Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga said. “Required time is practice; you’ve got to be at practice so everybody comes to practice, but unrequired is ‘hey what are you going to do on your own?’ And this summer Dewan Huell was in the gym at 5:30 in the morning for an hour and a half each day shooting on his own, working on his skills.
“It clearly shows that hard work pays off because he’s really developed a good game. He’s playing at a high level at both ends of the court, and I love the progress that he’s made. He’s having a great sophomore year.”
Huell’s teammates also have noticed the differences after his offseason work.
“With Dewan, I think it’s all about confidence,” junior guard Anthony Lawrence II said. “I think he could have done this last year, but he didn’t have a lot of confidence. He worked hard all summer, and now you can see it. It’s helped us a lot. He’s our leading scorer right now. His back-to-the-basket game has really improved. He’s got a nice jump hook, an improved drive to the basket, and his decisions all around are better.”
While the Miami coaches and Huell’s teammates have been pleased with Huell’s impressive progress, he continues to work hard. His main goal remains the same, with the focus centered back on the team.
“The goal is to win,” Huell said. “I just want to win. We’re not even close to our ceiling yet.”
