Hello: LaVonte Dority

As already announced, Chicago Foreman product LaVonte Dority is transferring to Valpo after originally playing for the University of South Florida.  A highly ranked point guard coming out of high school, Dority will get two more years in a better environment to realize his admittedly excellent potential.  ESPN lists him as 6’1″, 185; Rivals as 6’0″, 180; Scout, 6’0″, 185.  USF originally listed him as 6’0″, 180; this year, 6’1″, 195.  Consensus: Mike Jones-sized, just with drastically different hair (from MJ, obviously, but also from himself:  check out the junior year HS and college styles upon styles).

Video

Unfortunately, there is not as much video as you might think there would be of a transfer from a Big East school.  (Actually, given that he’s transferred due to lack of PT, maybe you would suspect exactly that.)  Luckily he was a highly recruited Chicago prospect, so there is a little bit.  Unluckily, it is about two and a half years old now.

High School

In this preseason video, Dority and his Foreman teammates are interviewed about the upcoming season, Dority’s senior year.  Dority is interviewed at the 4:37 mark (“last but not least…certainly not least”) and talks about the reasons he selected USF.  Interestingly, when asked to predict the team’s year, he cited the need for “hard defense”!  The interviewer then asks him why everyone’s talking about him, and he responds honestly but unaffectedly–not bad for an 18-year old!

This interview video with Dan Poneman of IllinoisHSBasketball.com, begins with three excellent highlight reel plays in Full Package league games:

1. First, Dority takes a pass on the wing at the 3-point line, and drives to the basket for a layup off the opposite glass.
2. Next, while bringing the ball up quickly, he abruptly stops, with enviable ease, and launches a beautiful 3-point ball.
3. Finally, after coming up with a rebound, Dority drives back upcourt so quickly that the defense is not set, and he makes them pay by unleashing a bullet pass from the halfcourt line for an easy lay-in.  (Couple that with the fact that it’s hard to tell one jersey from another in these games–and the fact these surely are one-time teammates–and his court vision is quite impressive.  And of course, he would only have honed such skills the last three intervening seasons…

In other Full Package League highlights (a ‘league’ designed to get recruits more exposure), fast forward to 0:52 to see a baseline drive for the reverse layup. At 1:06 he shows good hands in coming up with a loose ball and taking it upcourt.  You can also see two of the three aforementioned highlights as well.

College

Unfortunately the only highlights of his biggest game are from the opposing side (Vermont), but here is the postgame press conference–start at the 1:54 mark to hear his thoughts on (finally) getting to play and the game’s controversial last play (at the 0:51 mark on this video).

High School Career

At Edwin G. Foreman High, he was one of four co-captains, all D-I signees (Mike McCall/St Louis; Tommy Woolridge/Eastern Illinois; Eddie Denard/UIC), on a team that went 26-4 their senior year.  Undefeated in the vaunted Public League (10-0), they were ranked #12 in the state and #256 in the nation at one time, but lost to Whitney Young in the sectional final (if you watched the Poneman interview, Dority correctly identifies Young as their biggest threat…unfortunately his second prediction of who would win was not as on target).  Region fans will note that they defeated Gary West Side 60-48 in their lone game against non-Illinois schools.

Dority’s numbers on the year: 12.9 PPG (second on a really good team), 4.5 APG (2nd) , 2.8 RPG , 1.8 SPG.  Shooting percentages: 45%/2, 36%/3, 72%/FT.  Of note is that he acquired just 1.75 fouls a game.  Important caveat: his USF bio claims high school stats which are far inflated from these, but looking at his game-by-game box score, he only broke 20 points maybe twice.  Although, since six of their thirty games are not listed, I suppose it’s possible…he would just have had to average 31 points, 12 assists, and 9 boards in the unlisted games–none of which were single-game totals he even approached otherwise…so…cue the L&O: Criminal Intent episode with Jim from The Office, if you know what I mean (“Mad Hops”).  The reverential reading is that those were his junior year stats, perhaps?  Of some import is a AST to TO ratio of around 2.35 (again, not all games included).  His AAU team was the Indiana Elite–“under the hood of” Chicago Elite.

Originally recruited (ESPN claims at least four offers in fall of junior year) by Wisconsin, Indiana, New Mexico, and Baylor–so he was no stranger to the Drew family, as at one time the Bears were labeled “the one to beat in the race for Dority’s services“– but there were even rumors of a Kansas offer (!), among others. After Baylor changed direction, IU was the leader ($, info in header), but it is possible (if unlikely) they never officially offered, as that would have been smack in the middle of their roster flux (let’s just call that the “House-Creaning”).

ESPN ranked LaVonte a 3 star and the #40 point guard prospect, declaring him to have “a college ready body that will allow him to make an immediate impact at the next level” ($, info in header).  A three-star to Scout as well, he was ranked #48 at PG.   Scout described him as a “big and physical guard” but added that “he struggled from behind the arc and should work to improve this area of his game“. To Rivals he was but an unranked 3-star.  Speaking of Kansas, the aforementioned Dan Poneman of IllinoisHSBasketball compared him to Sherron Collins (!) and gives the most detailed (free) scouting report (bearing in mind, however that this is halfway through his junior season of high school):

Dority is a very smart player, a great passer, and makes very smart decisions, as he has been Foreman’s starting varsity point guard since his first game as a freshman. He is a hard worker and a great vocal leader on and off the floor, plays hard all the time, and leaves it all out of the court every game. He is very explosive and almost unstoppable when taking the ball to the hoop (though he draws a lot of charges when he drops his head or shoulder), and is great at finishing with both hands and at getting to the free-throw line (he was a combined 17-23 from the line against New Treir (sic) and TF North). He is a stellar ball handler, and makes up for his underwhelming quickness by having some crafty crossovers in his arsenal.

Potential issues:

The form on his outside shot is good but he doesn’t have a very quick release and needs a decent amount of time to get it off. His three point shot and mid-range game are inconsistent, but if he can start to hit those with consistency he could be scary-good offensively.

But wait, there’s more:

Unlike outside the arc, Lavonte has a very quick release in the mid range and is great at getting off quick jumpers after a crossover or between the legs dribble. Dority is great in transition and is the ideal guard to lead a fast break. He sees the floor very well and makes sound decisions but does not defer to his teammates when he doesn’t have to. He is crafty in his finishing abilities when driving at the defender and is great at finishing with contact. He is good in passing lanes and on help defense, and gets a decent amount of steals (he averaged about 2 per game in the three games at Proviso West) and plays very hard on the defensive end, though the aforementioned underwhelming quickness hurts him when he is guarding faster point guards. He is also a good rebounding guard, as he averaged almost 4 rebounds per game in the Proviso West tournament and came up with some boards at crucial times in the CPS tournament.

And finally:

He adds to all of that by not only playing as a passionate, fierce competitor, but also being one of the nicest and most respectful kids I know. He has passion in his eyes when he is on the court and a smile on his face when he is off of it.

College Career

Days before his 18th birthday he committed to USF to play under Coach Stan Heath (or, since we’re into bad jokes, as Scout put it, “Dority Will Run With the Bulls“, $).  In a freshman year where he saw just 149 minutes in 26 games (just under 6 minutes per game, 75% of Vucic-land this past year), he scored 18 points total.

This past year, Dority started the first seven games but played just three minutes total in the next two games when Anthony Collins returned from injury, and facing a second year set to play out like the first, decided to transfer from a team that would eventually lose to OHIO in the third second* round of the tournament (*because sorry.  play-in games do not count…unless we make one some day).  Even before Collins returned, you can watch his minutes decline, almost comically, from 30 in the first, to 11 in the seventh, then 1 and 2 thereafter.  In the games he started, he averaged 19 minutes and 3.9 points, shooting 23 / 50 / 100 in admittedly small sample sizes, and a 2.28 assist-to-turnover.  For his USF career, he averaged 8 minutes and 3.1 PPG over 35 games, shooting 27 / 39 / 100 with just a 1.28 assist-to-turnover.  (Now, once you quit your team, apparently to ESPN at least, you cease to exist until you officially have a new team, but thankfully Yahoo saved me from self-calculation of all of his career college stats…just the real %s and ratios.)

In the second video on this link, at the 4:05 mark, Coach Heath talks about being sorry to see Dority go.  (MONEY QUOTE:  (shakes head) “He’s a fantastic kid.”)  LaVonte has six brothers and sisters, and will turn 21 just before the new season tips off.  Was originally interested in business/management; when at USF, majored in communications.  (So, probably, meteorology, right? : )

You might remember him from such players as (YMRHFSPA):

Jarryd Loyd but with slightly more of a look to shoot than pass.  Perhaps a skinnier Brandon McPherson? (Let’s all continue to observe the moratorium on Jimmie Miles comparisons.)

Dority on his second recruitment

Oren on Dority

Post-Trib, same

Interview with Mike Pudlow on transfer & future (scroll to “Valpo’s Latest Star Recruit”)

What this means for next season:

All of this of course assumes that finishing his associate’s degree, in community college, Dority will become eligible no later than second semester, not yet a done deal.  Obviously LaVonte will at least share time at the point with Buggs–though it would be hard to imagine him unseating basically a three-year starter, perhaps he has the talent and size to supplant him for crunch-time minutes.  Dority averaged 3.37 pf/40 min for college, not great for a guard but better than Buggs in that department (Buggs is 5.18 pf/40 for his career!!–meaning if you left him in the whole game, your starting point guard, on average, would foul out with a minute and a half still to play). Furthermore, Dority had ‘only’ 2.94 pf/40 in games playing starter’s minutes.

At any rate, he’s excellent to have aboard.  Though he can also play a little shooting guard, we seem to perpetually have a plethora of those available, and his minutes at first will likely be only those Buggs doesn’t get, unless Dority shows himself to be clearly the better shooter.  Though that was said to be a liability in high school, his stats from his senior year of high school onward show either a greatly improved shooter or a much more careful decision-maker. Either way…given that Buggs is 49 / 24 / 44 for his career, let’s hope Dority’s a better shooter, and although smaller sample size caveats apply, let me repeat that at USF he shot 23 / 50 / 100 in starter’s minutes and 27 / 39 / 100 career.  I know–let’s have LaVonte shoot everything from outside the arc and at the stripe, and Erik everything else!

What this means for the future:

Even after the vaunted class of 2013 graduates, the cupboard will hardly be bare when VU could start an all-transfer lineup of Dority and Jordan Coleman at 1 & 2, Alex Rossi at the 3, and Capobianco & Fernandez in the frontcourt–three seniors and two juniors in a starting five the year after supposedly everyone and their Australian brother graduates!  And that’s assuming no other additions (beyond Yeo and Davidson), which at this point would seem fairly impossible.  In 2013-14, Dority could–and perhaps should, given his early hype–be the best point guard in the Horizon League.