It’s still 20 minutes before tip-off, but for Tywain McKee, his game already has started.
He’s bouncing across the court in excitement, working Coppin Center like President Obama. The senior guard high fives teammates and gives a referee a gentle fist pump or pat on the rear end. He’ll progress through warm-ups seamlessly, dribbling the ball between his legs before flipping it through the hoop.
On the court, McKee, 22, is one of the few players in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference who has the chance to play the game professionally. Off the court, he’s overcome growing up in a crime-ridden neighborhood in South Philadelphia, where he’d dribble past drug dealers and gang members to reach his home away from home: the basketball courts at 10th and Lombard streets.
“He was at the court every day,” said McKee’s brother, Robert, who plays forward for Baltimore City Community College. “No exaggeration: We’d be shoveling and raking leaves, shoveling snow, just to play. We were on the court, cold, rain, no matter. He really worked hard, and it paid off.”
Paid off? That’s an understatement considering where he is today. McKee’s future on the court was in jeopardy as a senior at Bartram High in 2004, where he would have earned a scholarship to play at Temple, but failed to qualify academically.
But McKee received a second chance when Temple coach Don Chaney persuaded Coppin State coach Ron “Fang” Mitchell to give McKee a spot in the Eagles’ nest. Mitchell, however, extended the offer under one condition: McKee had to pay his own way.
“Tywain is a special kind of kid who needed someone to nurture him,” Mitchell said. “He grew up without a father and he really needed somebody to be there.”
McKee used a student loan to play for the 2004-05 school year, during which he practiced with the team, but did not play in games. He was so good Mitchell awarded him a scholarship at the end of the season — and McKee has proven to be one of the school’s greatest investments.
He set the school’s all-time scoring record with his 22 points against Howard on Monday, surpassing Reggie Isaac’s mark of 1,938 on a driving layup with six minutes, 19 seconds left in the game.
“I’m really speechless,” McKee said. “I’ve never had a goal like this.”
McKee’s 22 points against the Bison marked the ninth time this season he’s scored at least 20 for Coppin State (5-15, 3-4). He’s scored 374 points –at least 242 more than any of his teammates — and is on pace to become the first player in school history to lead the team in scoring four straight years.
“He always had a ball in his hand,” said Elicia McKee, Tywain’s mom, as she watched from stands. “I put the ball in his hand at like 4 or 5, and he hasn’t stopped.”
And he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. After all, it’s still very much all he knows.
“All I could ever do was just play ball. I just played ball all day,” said McKee, who averages a team-high 18.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assist per game. “It was a bad neighborhood, and I had to choose something. I chose ball. I was a skinny, scrawny kid. People didn’t know about me, for real. I think they know now.”
