"It just shows how mentally tough he is” — Dishman returns for seventh season of college basketball after taking the long road back
Sam Doughton, MT Athletics
11/2/2022
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Watching DeAndre Dishman just take the court in winter of 2022 almost tells his whole story in images. One has to look closely, whether it be on the court at the Murphy Center, at the Star in Arlington, Texas, or across the monitor to a gym in Daytona Beach, Fla.
But look closely. and you can see the bits of equipment that get him through games. A soft shoulder pad on his left arm, a thick, soft knee brace on his left knee. He doesn’t wear everything every game, that’s the way injuries, even those healed, sometimes go. Great one day, something you need to take care of the next.
For Dishman, now entering his seventh year of collegiate basketball, his fifth as a member of the Middle Tennessee men’s basketball program, has suffered many a setback in his career, dating back to his days as a high school student on the AAU circuit, attempting to convert his skills as a big man and his elite athleticism to a play as a 6-foot-6 guard.
Blue Raider fans who watched Dishman last season, running the offense from the top of the key while making circus layups around bigs with half a foot on his size, seeing the prep star Dishman was might’ve come as a surprise.
“It was actually crazy,” Dishman said of his athleticism at the time. “A lot of the times, I would surprise myself. There's times I would jump to shoot a layup and I'm just up there and dunk it, just from being there, not even having the want to really try to that.”
After a great junior year of ball in high school, with plenty of mid-major offers already in the fold, Dishman’s senior season was set to be a big one for his future in college. But when he came down funny in warmups for his first game of the season at Bryan Station High School, the first of many roadblocks came in his way.
He would commit to Eastern Kentucky, playing well for the Colonels over two seasons, before a coaching change made him feel like a fresh start was best, in a pre-portal reality in men’s basketball. Which meant while he was forced to sit out the 2018-19 season at MTSU, waiting once again to see the court.
The moment he finally got the chance, on a preseason tour to Costa Rica Another knee injury would rob him of the chance to be on the court, wiping out all of 2019-20. By the time the COVID season of 2020-21 came around, playing in empty arenas, Dishman was not the athletic player he was in high school.
“Those are some hard moments for anybody, particularly an accomplished athlete, having to go two consecutive years off not being able to play,” MTSU head coach Nick McDevitt said. “You're about to be out there, and then you have a serious knee injury. And then that third year, you're out there, but you're very different than you were the last time you were on that floor. It just shows how mentally tough he is.”
The jumping ability he had to go over people in the post, to go around people, was limited. His ability to hold his own in the post, already a challenge at his smaller height, would have to be remade.
“I knew that I couldn't do some of the things I could do before, as far as being able to be in a certain position and get high off the ground, being able to explode in certain situations,” Dishman said. “As I went on through my first year, the COVID year, it was like a rehab season for me. It was a little shorter, I didn't play as many games. My first time back in over 1,000 days. It was a really important season, and as I went on, my game adjusted.”
The explosive moves over the top became finding angles around taller players. A reduced ability to bulk up in the paint without his explosion led to more play outside of the paint, where his passing ability built up during his perimeter during high school coming across more readily. It was focusing on scouting, exploiting opposing defense’s skillsets, using quickness rather than height.
Slowly, but surely, he found his way at the 5 for MTSU. With no games more impactful than those in the postseason, where he averaged over 16 points a game during the Blue Raiders’ run to the C-USA semifinals and the CBI final over the last couple of weeks during the season.
"He left everything out on the floor, every game,” McDevitt said. “You knew how much he cared about winning, cared about his teammates, cared about Middle Tennessee. He was a dominant horse down the stretch. It was a glimpse of what Dish has always been.”
My first time back in over 1,000 days. It was a really important season, and as I went on, my game adjusted.DeAndre Dishman
A big part of that jump, Dishman notes, is that he felt his legs come back. His explosion, fleeting at best over the past two seasons, was ever present. Layups were now dunks. And though he thought, at the time, his run to the CBI finals would be his last bit of college basketball, with his graduation in May a final endcap to his career, that feeling above the rim stuck with him.
McDevitt saw the uncertainty in Dishman but knew he had done everything they asked of him when they recruited him. Help rebuild a program, help win a division title, graduate. They couldn’t ask anything more.
But to be sure, they definitely wanted him back.
“You tell me what you want to do, and I will support you, in whatever way we can,” McDevitt recalled telling Dishman. “Obviously, we want you back.”
That made the decision even easier for Dishman when the time came.
“As I was thinking about it over the summer, I'd seen the explosiveness that I gained back, I had some big dunks down the stretch in some big games, and it gave me a momentum boost that if I could work ever harder that I could carry it over into this season,” Dishman said.
He is back, with only the brace on his left knee these days. Watching film with assistant coach Wes Long, working with Christian Fussell and Jared Coleman-Jones in the post, three contrasting styles that Dishman hopes will cause problems for teams this season. It all has Dishman with big expectations for the year ahead.
“I'm expecting us to have just as good a season as we had last season, if not even better,” Dishman said. “I think we have the ability to be even better at the things we were great at last year. We can go from a good pressing team to a really special team with the press. We've got a lot of guys that can play.”
