Augsburg's Devean George: Dreams lost, dreams found

A shorter version of this story will appear in the Spring 1999 issue of the Augsburg Now.
For more on Devean George's career, click here!

Devean George: Dreams lost, dreams found

Pictured at right: Devean George goes up for a shot during a February 1999 game against St. Thomas at Augsburg's Si Melby Hall. George, two-time MIAC Most Valuable Player, is being considered for a possible pro basketball career (Photo by Charles Walbridge for Augsburg Sports Information).

By Don Stoner, Augsburg College Sports Information Coordinator

MINNEAPOLIS -- Sometimes, realism has a bad way of chipping away at your dreams.

That was the case for Devean George, whom, like any basketball-playing kid growing up, thought he had a shot at playing professional basketball in the NBA.

But for a 6-foot, 3-inch kid playing at Benilde-St. Margaret High School in Minneapolis, the dreams didn't seem to have much chance of fruition during his senior year. No Division I colleges were calling for a small guard from a high school team that lost more games than it won during his prep career.

So he decided to enroll at Augsburg College, just a few miles away from his home in north Minneapolis, and play basketball at the Division III school.

"I thought the dream was lost, that I'd just concentrate on getting a degree," he said. "Coach (Brian) Ammann told us at our first practice that he doesn't produce pro basketball players, he produces professionals in the business world and professionals in education."

The young kid's dreams of playing professionally seemed to slip away.

But sometimes, realism has a good way of restoring your dreams.

As his college career progressed, George continued to grow, from a 6-3 college freshman to a 6-8 senior. He moved from a shooting-guard position to a power-forward slot. He became one of the best players ever to play college basketball in Minnesota history.

And the dreams of playing professional basketball returned with a flourish.

Now, NBA teams are inquiring about George, who became one of a handful of players at any college level in Minnesota to score at least 2,000 career points while pulling down 800 career rebounds. He's been contacted and/or scouted by several NBA teams, including his hometown team, the Minnesota Timberwolves. This week, he will be one of just two Division III players to compete at the Portsmouth Invitational, a 64-player scouting camp for the best college basketball players in the nation. The camp will be held March 31-April 3 in Portsmouth, Va.

If he succeeds, he could become the first player from a Division III school drafted by an NBA team since 1991, when Lamont Strothers of Christopher Newport (Va.) was drafted by the Golden State Warriors.

Not bad for a player whose dreams were seemingly lost, but now seem closer than ever.

Along the way, his Augsburg squad improved from year to year, and closed out his career with consecutive Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season championships and berths in the NCAA Division III national playoffs. This year, the Auggies won their first-ever Division III playoff game, beating traditional small-college power Nebraska Wesleyan 102-91 at Augsburg's Si Melby Hall on March 4. The dream of making the Final Four ended two days later, with a 85-53 loss to eventual national champion Wisconsin-Platteville.

Augsburg finished 24-4, one of the best records in school history. The Auggies went 19-1 in MIAC play, just the second time in school history an Auggie squad has lost just one game in conference play. Over his last two years, Augsburg won 46 games while losing just eight (37-3 in conference games).

"This team got better and better every year since I was a freshman, which was great for us as a team," George said. "Each year, we make goals and we've surpassed them each year. This year, our goal was to win the conference, make the national playoffs and go far in the playoffs. We wanted to go a lot farther than we ended up, and how we ended up (against Platteville) was disappointing. But the fact that they (Platteville) won the national championship took a little bit of the pain away."

George wasn't thought of as a dominating player when he began his career at Augsburg. In fact, he was considered a junior-varsity player, relegated to the bench for the first seven varsity games of his college career.

Eventually, he earned a starting position on Ammann's Auggie squad, and as he continued to grow, his play continued to improve. George was named to the All-MIAC Rookie Team after his freshman year. He led the team in scoring and rebounding each year after that, earning All-MIAC honors each year and Most Valuable Player honors from the conference his junior and senior years.

"I continued to grow physically, but I was still able to keep my guard skills up," he said. "I was able to keep my ball-handling skills going, even though it was more physical inside. It made me more of a versatile player instead of just being a forward."

After his sophomore year, he had an opportunity to transfer to a Division I program, but chose instead to stay at Augsburg. His junior year was his breakout season, as he finished seventh in the Division III national statistics in scoring (25.5 points per game) and 28th in rebounding (10.1 rebounds per game). George earned Division III All-America honors from several organizations and publications.

The fact that he was earning more national and in-state attention put more pressure on him, and his team, to succeed in his senior year, George admitted.

"This year was a lot harder than before," he said. "It was tougher because I wasn't a marked man with all the media attention until this year.

"Until now, I had never been in the 'spotlight.' In high school, I played for a below-average team and I wasn't the kind of player I am now. Even now, I'm not getting a lot of national attention, though. I've been able to sneak up on people."

This year, however, George sparkled on both the conference and national level. He led the conference in both scoring and rebounding, earning his second-straight conference MVP award. George scored in double figures in every game of his senior year (92 times in his 96-game career), and had 21 double-doubles (points-rebounds, 37 in his career), including a streak of 12 straight games before the final-game loss to Wisconsin-Platteville.

Along the way, he came within 13 points of breaking the school's all-time scoring record, held by his coach, Ammann. Ammann scored 2,271 points in 106 career games (21.4 ppg), while George finished with 2,258 points in just 96 career games. George's 23.5 career points-per-game average is the best in school history.

He also finished second all-time in rebounding, with 868 career rebounds (9.0 per game), second to Dan Anderson, who pulled down an incredible 1,211 rebounds from 1961-65.

"I don't think there's a Division III player in the country that can handle him one-on-one," Ammann told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "At our level, you don't get a kid with his type of combination -- athletic ability and desire."

Pictured at left: Devean George slam-dunks the ball during an Augsburg game with Concordia-Moorhead during the 1996-97 season. George was one of the first "above-the-rim" players in MIAC men's basketball (Photo by Charles Walbridge for Augsburg Sports Information).

Not only did George earn accolades within the Augsburg community, but his stature has grown nationally. Considered one of the best players in the nation in Division III basketball, coaches in the Midwest raved about the player who has become part of a sea change in MIAC men's basketball -- from the traditional below-the-rim game to more of a transition, playmaking style.

"I'm not sure what it takes to be an NBA player, but if those guys are dramatically better athletes than George, then they must be unbelievably talented at that level. In the past five years, I haven't seen anybody do the things he's done in our league," Gustavus Adolphus coach Mark Hanson told the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

"You just pick your poison with him. Is it going to be the three or is it going to be a post-up inside? He's such a good talent offensively. He could play at many levels, that's for sure," said St. Olaf coach Dan Kosmoski in an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

It's those accolades, combined with persistence from his supporters, that earned George a chance to make his dreams of playing professional basketball come true. Even Clem Haskins, the coach at the University of Minnesota, lobbied on George's behalf to the selection committee for the Portsmouth Invitational.

Now, it's up to George. If he succeeds at Portsmouth, he may have an opportunity to play in the other pre-draft camps, in Phoenix, Ariz., and Chicago, where the competition is even more difficult. The two-round NBA Draft will be held June 30 in Washington, D.C.

"I never thought this would be happening," George said. "As a youngster, everybody thinks they want to play in the NBA, but I thought it wouldn't be happening to me.

"Being able to go to the camps is the main thing. If I do well at these camps, then people will believe that the numbers I've put up won't be a fluke. They may think twice, instead of just saying that I'm just a Division III player.

"There's no pressure on me. I've really got nothing to lose."

Last summer, George had the opportunity to play with several NBA players in summer leagues in the Twin Cities and Chicago and held his own against them, though he knows he will need to improve his play for the upcoming tryout camps in order to make the impact necessary for a Division III player to make the big-time.

"The first couple of years, I was more of a passive player and even now, people say I'm a little passive. I've tried to be more aggressive in my play," said George, who would likely play as a shooting guard as a pro. "I've continued to grow physically, but I've still been able to keep my guard skills, the ball-handling and the physical play. I've tried to become more of a versatile player."

Away from basketball, George is a quiet, unassuming person, a marked difference from the flashy persona he can show on the court. He will graduate in May from Augsburg with a degree in marketing and communications, and plans to use his marketing skills to work with people in the business world when his basketball career ends.

But for now, he hopes to succeed in the game he has dreamed of playing ever since he was a kid growing up in north Minneapolis.

"Five years from now, I hope I'm playing basketball somewhere, I don't even care where it's at. Basketball is basketball," he said. "I just love the game. I've played basketball for free all my life, and I'd love to be paid for what I do at the next level. It would be a dream come true."