Photo courtesy of @willie_anderson
Like most kids who pick up a basketball at a young age, Denzel Mahoney developed a love for the game, and dreamed to one day play it professionally. When he got to a point early in his college career, he made a decision to morph the dream into a goal he could strive to achieve.
That led to him transferring from Southeast Missouri State after two seasons to find a place he felt could develop his skills and give him a bigger stage to exhibit them. When it came time to pick a new home, Creighton stood out as the place best-suited for him. Mahoney chose the Bluejays over Ole Miss and Virginia Tech.
”I just wanted to push myself and I felt like going to the highest level and being in the Big East that I would get better each and every day,” he said.
“The main thing was Coach McDermott. He’s just a great coach and his resume speaks for itself in how he gets people to the NBA, and how he makes people better on and off the court.”
”The skill development was the biggest part. Creighton has a good record of taking underrated players and people that you haven’t really heard about and turning them into everyday pros.”
Listed at 6-foot-4 and 213 pounds, Mahoney played on the wing along with spending time at the four during his freshman and sophomore seasons at Southeast Missouri State. He averaged 17.0 points and 4.7 rebounds while shooting 45.6% from the field, 39.5% from three, and 82.6% at the free throw line in 64 career game (63 starts).
”I’m very versatile,” he said while describing his playing style. “I feel like I can do a lot of things that can help the team.“
A sit one/play two transfer, the Oviedo, Florida native will have to redshirt for 2018-19 season before becoming eligible for 2019-20 and 2020-21. However, he won’t be completely untested against power conference opposition when game time rolls back around. As a freshman, he played games at Indiana, at Illinois, and at fellow Big East foe DePaul. As a sophomore, he scored 23 points on 6-of-9 shooting at Kansas State.
Mahoney averaged 12.8 points in the four games and shot 48% from the field, including a 39% clip from beyond the arc.
It was actually the game against aforementioned Hoosiers at Assembly Hall that first opened his eyes to the possibility that he was good enough to play against elite talent. He scored 16 points while mixing it up with guys like James Blackmon, Jr. and current Los Angeles Laker, Thomas Bryant.
”They have NBA players,” Mahoney said. “Doing that showed me that I could actually play with these guys.”
With the recruitment behind him now comes the hardest part — waiting. He’ll practice and workout as hard as his teammates, but he won’t get to play an actual game with them for another 18 months.
“As a competitor that’s tough hearing that I have to sit out,” Mahoney said, “but after listening to the plan, it’s a good thing for my development and for getting accustomed to how Coach McDermott runs things.”
”I just have to keep the reason I left in my mind, and the reason why I’m going to Creighton. I have to keep thinking about that no matter how much it sucks that I can’t travel with the team or play in games. I just have to keep thinking about the end goal.”
While he’s focusing on the end goal, he’ll have a list of things he hopes to improve along the way in order to both help Creighton compete for another NCAA Tournament bid while also enhancing his professional prospects.
”I need to work on my ball handling and just get more comfortable with the ball. I need to be more vocal, too. I’m naturally a quiet guy, but I have to break out of the shell, especially in the Big East.”
See some highlights of what Denzel Mahoney can do:
