BOULDER — For years, pundits have tried labeling the University of Colorado the “Harvard of the West.” In the case of Colorado’s star freshman guard, Spencer Dinwiddie, they had a chance to match up against the Harvard of the East.
For insight into what kind of kid is Dinwiddie, the 2011 Los Angeles city section player of the year narrowed his choice to Colorado and Harvard.
But how do you recruit against a school with $32 billion in endowments, 75 Nobel laureates and 62 living billionaires?
“You don’t go education versus education,” CU coach Tad Boyle said. “You go basketball and education versus basketball and education.”
Dinwiddie bought it and is already showing signs of becoming the “all-conference-type player” Boyle said he can build his program around. Dinwiddie plays off guard and is one of four Buffs averaging in double figures (11.5 points per game). He has made 19-of-37 3-pointers this season.
Academics? Consider that Dinwiddie is majoring in integrative physiology. Will a Colorado degree lead to a Nobel Prize? Not likely, although being the son of a mom with a Ph.D. in education gives him the pedigree. But getting rich? At Colorado, that’s a possibility.
“The biggest thing for me was I love (Harvard’s) academics and I had a friend going there, but when I look at what I want to accomplish, which is to be a pro, I felt this was the place to be,” Dinwiddie said. “And I get to play in the Pac-12, and it’s no secret. I want to be the best player in the Pac-12.”
Actually, Harvard wasn’t Boyle’s only recruiting opponent. Dinwiddie grew up in Woodland Hills, Calif., wanting to go to Southern California, his mom’s alma mater. That quest ended in 2009 when Tim Floyd resigned under fire and Kevin O’Neill replaced him. But that fall, on the last day of contact, Oct. 8, UCLA coach Ben Howland made a home visit. UCLA had hardly been in the picture. Boyle knew Dinwiddie wanted to play close to home. Joining the Pac-12 helped Colorado, but Colorado isn’t home.
“I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” Boyle said. “If they offer him a scholarship, we’re screwed.”
UCLA did, but it came right after Dinwiddie’s Colorado visit and after Boyle wowed him and his parents. (“I was so sold on Coach Boyle,” said his mom, Stephanie.) For UCLA, it was too little too late.
“Initially I did want to stay home,” Dinwiddie said, “but when you weigh your options, Colorado’s the girl you’ve been with and you love her and UCLA is that really hot girl that just tempts you. You can’t leave your wife for just a hot girl that’s trying to tempt you a little bit.”
A college freshman showing romantic morality is as rare as a dorm steak. But Dinwiddie was always more advanced for his age. Take basketball. As an infant, he would wad up his napkin after eating and, from his toddler chair, loft 3s into the trash can — with surprisingly fine rotation.
Soon he was 3 years old beating 4- and 6-year-olds in a Y league, winning 3-point contests at a 7-foot rim.
They had a prodigy on their hands. Then one day early in the sixth grade, he came home with a red eye. They treated him for pinkeye, but it only got worse. After three or four weeks it was diagnosed as uveitis, an inflammation of the eye’s middle layer and a disease responsible for 10 percent of the blindness in the U.S.
“We had no clue what we were up against,” Stephanie said.
His parents treated it for 2 ½ years, giving their son weekly injections. They told no one, not even his coaches, who must’ve wondered why he started driving to the rim and dishing more than taking outside shots.
“Honestly, basketball wasn’t the first thing on my mind,” he said. “I was just worried about seeing.”
It eventually went away, leaving him with an odd eye set. He sees colors well with his right eye, and vision and distance well with his left.
“It’s only crazy when you close one eye,” he said.
With that behind him, he became a bona fide star in California. His parents let him go to powerhouse Taft High instead of the more scholarly but Division III Harvard-Westlake, his mom’s choice, only if he maintained a 3.5 GPA his freshman year.
Nine Taft players earned Division I scholarships his junior year. As a senior, he led Taft to a 29-3 record and the city championship while averaging 11.2 points, 7.7 assists and 3.1 rebounds.
“I’ve watched him since he was 12 years old,” said Derrick Taylor, his coach and neighbor across the street. “He has a high level of intelligence. He gets it. He’s super, super bright. You combine good basketball skills and intelligence, those are two big dynamics.”
His lone weakness growing up was a lack of strength. As a freshman, he was 5-foot-9, 108 pounds despite world-class protein pounding. Every morning his dad made him a breakfast of four eggs with ham and cheese, biscuits and two potatoes. After school he’d down a protein shake. By the time he was graduated, he was 6-5, 175 and he now weighs 190 pounds. But how did he convince his scholarly parents that Colorado really is the “Harvard of the West”?
“My mom has always stressed to maximize academics,” he said. “At the same time they always told me I could do anything I wanted.”
That in itself is pretty intelligent too.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299, jhenderson@denverpost.com or
