The big man will be honored for Senior NIght prior to the Penn State game. 'He’s the oil that keeps the machine going.'
Jerry Carino|Asbury Park Press
As a struggling redshirt freshman, Myles Johnson was getting an earful from Rutgers’ basketball coaches during one practice in the fall of 2017.
The guy ahead of him on the depth chart, Shaq Doorson, could have stayed out of it. He didn’t.
“I was messing up, I didn’t really know much, and Shaq put his hand on my shoulder and told me I was going to be fine,” Johnson said. “It was a little thing, but it meant a lot, and I still remember it.”
Little things. That’s Doorson’s legacy. The Scarlet Knights’ most underappreciated player— his statistics of 3.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game telljust a fraction of the story— will be honored during Senior Night ceremonies prior to Wednesday’s game against Penn State (7 p.m., Big Ten Network). It’s fitting that the big man will get sent off by a sold-out RAC. You could make a case no one in a scarlet uniform has done more to set the tone for the program’s turnaround.
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“Shaq really embodies what it means to be a Scarlet Knight,” sophom*ore guard Geo Baker said. “He’s been though the most struggles of all of us. We always talk about how we want to change the culture, and it really starts with him.”
Why?
“Shaq’s a good dude,” Baker said. “When you’re building a team and bringing in a bunch of new guys, you don’t really know how the chemistry is going to be. But when you have a captain and a senior as welcoming as Shaq, it brings everybody together. That’s something people don’t really understand.”
Doorson took the long road to this point. He came over from Amsterdam, recruited to Rutgers by a guy who coached him in high school in the Canary Islands— Greg “Shoes” Vetrone. He overcame a broken foot that cost him one full season and painfully lingered into another, slepton beds that were too small for his 7-foot-, 265-pound frame, endured a coaching change after Eddie Jordan got fired, and declined opportunities to play this postgrad season elsewhere.
“We talked about it (transferring),” his mom, Carmen Warmert said. “In my heart I wished he would stay at Rutgers, but it was his decision, and he did. If he didn’t have confidence in (coaches) Steve Pikiell and Jay Young, he wouldn’t have stayed.”
Doorson has started all 28 games this winter, often engaging in what amounts to hand-to-hand combat against some of the nation’s premier postmen.
“He gets the hard assignments,” Pikiell said. “Everyone in this league has a big guy who is outstanding. We can guard those guys one-on-one with him, which takes a lot of pressure off our other guys. He brings a lot of intangibles that you don’t see; you’ve really got to watch film to appreciate them.”
For example, Doorsonis a big reason why Rutgers is one of the league’s top rebounding teams.
“When you watch tape you’ll see that he might not get the rebound, but he’ll take two guys out (so a teammate can get it),” Vetrone explained. “Coach (Pikiell) makes a point of the little things in film session, to show how valuable Shaq is.”
Vetrone called him “the anchor” of Rutgers’ stout defense and added, “The word I use for him is ‘reliable.’ The dude is reliable game-in, game-out.”
Doorson’s coaches and teammates also laud him as a strong communicator who calls out defensive assignments from the paint.
“He talks on every screen so our guards don’t get blown up (by slamming into a developing screen),” Johnson explained. “He’s the oil that keeps the machine going.”
Oil is a perfect analogy. Rutgers is enjoying a breakthrough campaign at 14-14 overall and 7-11 in the Big Ten. Not everyone can score 20-plus points or make highlight reels. The image of Doorson, grime up to his elbows, pouring the oil into the engine just about sums it up.
“Making sure other people can’t score is a pride thing,” he said. “It might not show up on the stat sheet, or the fans might not notice, but the only thing that matters is my teammates notice.”
They’ll be the ones who appreciate Wednesday’s ceremony the most. Aswill Doorson’s parents, who have flown in from the Netherlands. They lauded the job Rutgers’ coaches have done with their son, from Pikiell to Young to Vetrone. When you live in another country, you’re really entrusting those coaches to serve in loco parentis.
“He went from home as a young boy and when is see him now he’s a grown man,” dad Et Doorson said. “He learned a lot at Rutgers, he matured, and now he’s ready for the next step.”
That likely will be Europe. Because he’s European, Doorson won’t be subject to quotas some of the best leagues have regarding Americans. Plus, at his size and with his attitude, there will be plenty of offers.
That comes later. For the moment, Doorson is grateful that he stuck around to see this this day.
“I could see where the program was headed,” he said. “I think I made right choice, as you can see now. The Rutgers basketball era has started this season. I can’t wait to see what happens with this program.”
Whatever happens, his big fingerprints will be all over it.
Staff Writer Jerry Carino: jcarino@gannettnj.com.
