User:Dean12t/sandbox

Dean was a hard worker at Virginia, and a good student who graduated in 4 years. He was one of the few players who never missed even a single practice in his entire Virginia Career. Dean was 7'4" Ralph Sampson's practice opponent for 3 of his 4 years. Every day at practice Dean was given the tough assignment of guarding Ralph, and Dean never backed down from having to face Ralph every day in practice, day in and day out.  It was Dean's goal was to work as hard as he could against the All-American Center, to get Ralph ready for the next game and worked as hard as he could to make a contribution to the team's success.  Dean brought a winning attitude and impressive resume to Virginia, his high school team won an astounding 49 straight games and back to back State Championships, where Dean was a First Team All-State Selection.  Dean had plenty of Scholarship offers from all over the country but chose Virginia because of it's Academic reputation and he was attracted to the quality of competition that the ACC had to offer.  Dean was a throwback in some regards because he knew that there was more to life than the game of basketball, and he worked as hard in the classroom as he did on the court to graduate in 4 years, and Dean embodied the true spirit of the student- athlete. One of Dean's claims to fame is having blocked one of Ralph's shots in practice, a jump shot which was maybe a first for Ralph (Ralph must of been having an off day) and Dean also dunked on Ralph one time in practice, and there were plenty of witnesses. Dean, although outmanned by the All-American Ralph, was never out worked by him. Dean was relentless, and gave his all on every play, each and every day. All Dean's hard work payed off, because although having played a support role for most of his career at Virginia, Dean got the starting nod his Senior year, and started several games, two of them against ACC Conference foes the Duke Blue Devils and also the Clemson Tigers.