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Matthew Lee shook his head. No, even he couldn’t have imagined this three years ago.
Not when he was still searching for an opportunity, weighing Division II options and just looking for a shot to prove he was worthy of being on a Division I roster.
“I never would have dreamt of anything like this,” the Saint Peter’s starting point guard said this week as the 15th-seeded Peacocks prepared for their Sweet 16 clash with No. 3 Purdue on Friday in Philadelphia. “How my career was going after high school was a little shaky. I had a few doubts.”
Lee didn’t have many options, but he wasn’t ready to give up on his Division I goal following a four-year career at Dohn Prep in Ohio in which he scored more than 1,000 points. A friend of his, Giovanni Santiago, had recently visited Saint Peter’s, and during that visit, it was suggested to the staff by Sanitago’s brother, Luis, that Lee could make sense for them. Saint Peter’s brought him in to open gyms that summer while he stayed with family in the area to see what he could do.
“I tried to win the coaches over and show them what I’m all about,” said Lee, a junior.
Every time he was invited, Lee did something to impress the coaches. He gave maximum effort. He made the extra pass. He hit shots. He defended like his basketball life depended on it.
“It was almost like he treated every day like it was a tryout,” assistant coach Ryan Whalen recalled. “I don’t know if we fully grasped what we were getting when we said, ‘Yes, you can be a walk-on.’ ”
By the middle of Lee’s freshman year, he was put on scholarship. When he was given the news, he cried. Then he called his parents, and they all cried together.
“I felt like I was good enough to go Division I,” he said. “I was playing against a lot of highly recruited people in high school, and I was playing very well against them. So I thought I should have a chance.”
It was an emotional moment for Lee, who grew up in his father’s famous footsteps. Butch Lee, a New York City high school basketball standout out of DeWitt Clinton in The Bronx, was a superstar in college, leading Marquette to the 1977 national championship as the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. He was drafted in the first round (10th overall) by the Hawks, becoming the first player of Puerto Rican descent to play in the NBA.
Now, the 6-foot Matthew is having a big March of his own. In the NCAA Tournament, Matthew has been an integral part of the Peacocks’ stunning run — averaging 6.5 points, four assists and just one turnover with his dad in the stands.
“I have a business here in Puerto Rico and I can’t even do any work,” Butch, back home in San Juan, Puerto Rico, told The Post. “It’s been a crazy ride right now.”
Butch said he hasn’t offered his son much advice, because to him it seems like Matthew is in control. The elder Lee can’t help but brag to all of his friends. Whenever they asked about his son in recent years, and Butch told them Matthew was playing for Saint Peter’s, they asked if that was Division I school and where it was located.
They know now. Everyone does.
“It’s almost like, ‘I told you so,’ ” Butch said. “Right now it’s a good feeling. He answered all the questions.”
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