FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Saying DeShawn Gory was lightly recruited out of high school is an understatement.<\/p>\n
The Victorville native, who moved to a prep school in Phoenix for his senior year to raise his recruiting profile, was overlooked almost entirely.<\/p>\n
“I talked to almost every Mountain West school, and none of them offered me [a scholarship],” Gory said.<\/p>\n
Only two Division 1 programs in the country did, and when one of them pulled the scholarship, Fresno State was Gory’s only hope to play D1 college basketball.<\/p>\n
It was also his chance to prove himself.<\/p>\n
“Conference play has been heart-to-heart to me,” Gory said. “Every team, I’ve been wanting to play against super bad… and make sure I let them know they should’ve recruited me.”<\/p>\n
With his arsenal of mid-range floaters, leaning layups and fast-break dunks, Gory has blossomed into a bona fide star for Fresno State men’s basketball – as a freshman.<\/p>\n
In the month of January, he’s averaging 17.6 points and 10 rebounds per game while making over 50% of his shots.<\/p>\n
“He’s so athletic,” said senior Jake Heidbreder. “He can just jump over the top of people.”<\/p>\n
Gory knows when to lock in, and also, when to keep things light. <\/p>\n
He could be seen going full-tilt at practice one moment, then the next moment, he’s smiling and dancing and blocking teammates’ shots during shootaround. <\/p>\n
“I like to entertain my teammates and make sure everybody’s smiling,” Gory admits. “You’re going to see me smile on the court. You’re going to see me point to the crowd and be happy. I’m just a happy person and outgoing.”<\/p>\n
And when it’s time to put up extra shots, Gory is more than happy to do that, too.<\/p>\n
“I think the rareness is how hard he works,” said Fresno State head coach Vance Walberg. “He got more shots up than anybody in the summer. If you know DeShawn, he’s the first one in and last one to leave.”<\/p>\n
Part of that work ethic comes from being raised in a blue-collar family. Gory’s mother is a nurse and his father a truck driver.<\/p>\n
“Seeing my parents get up for work, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t get up and do something that I love,” Gory said. “Basketball is my job.”<\/p>\n
But the sport was not always his passion. He stopped playing in 4th grade and focused on track & field. Then, an unexpected growth spurt changed his life.<\/p>\n
“My mom is 5’9″ and my dad is 5’10”. I was 5’11” and then COVID hit,” Gory remembered. “I was in the house just sleeping all day, and then I was a freshman in high school and just randomly 6-foot-5. <\/p>\n
“My dad was like, ‘You’ve got to do something.’ And I was like, ‘Alright, let’s play basketball I guess.'”<\/p>\n
Since then, Gory has heard the doubters and not heard from colleges, all for one reason: he played at around 140 pounds in high school. <\/p>\n
Even now, listed at 165, the freshman is guarded by opponents that typically weigh over 200 pounds. Gory does not care for their trash talk.<\/p>\n
“They say ‘Oh, you’re too small’ or ‘You don’t deserve to be out here.’ Then I go and score and talk trash back.”<\/p>\n
Gory and the Bulldogs (9-11, 3-6 MW) return to action Saturday, Jan. 31 at Air Force for a noon tip-off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Saying DeShawn Gory was lightly recruited out of high school is an understatement. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-150501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}