West Virginia guard McNeil comes full circle against Bellarmine
For Sean McNeil the matchup against Bellarmine had been circled on his calendar for quite some time.
That’s because the school is a major part to the Kentucky native’s journey to Morgantown.
After leading Cooper High School to a state finals appearance and averaging 15 points per game, Bellarmine which was then one of the nation’s top NCAA Division II programs offered McNeil a scholarship. He would take head coach Scott Davenport up on the opportunity but it was short lived.
That’s because after only a few days, McNeil, who was worried about academics and other personal matters, made the decision to leave the basketball program altogether.
“I just felt like I wasn’t really ready,” McNeil admitted.
That led to some difficult conversations in the office of Davenport, who had invested the time in recruiting McNeil to Bellarmine but was losing him from the program before his career really started.
McNeil returned home with no plan at first, but after some time away eventually found his path and it should come as no surprise that it started on the basketball court. He spent all of his time working out and becoming a better player to try to rectify his decision to give up his scholarship.
He also started taking classes at Gateway Community and Technical College in order to put himself in the right spot academically to make another attempt at following his dream of playing basketball.
Eventually that work led him to Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, where he earned first team NJCAA Division II all-American honors averaging 29.7 points per contest. Schools such as West Virginia started paying attention and eventually his path led to the highest level of college basketball.
It’s hard not to think how different things might have been had McNeil just remained at Bellarmine but it’s hard to argue what has unfolded since to bring him to this point.
“My mom and dad weren’t very pleased with me when I decided to leave within 48 hours but I joke with them now and I tell them that I knew it was going to play out like this,” he said.
That brings us to Tuesday night when McNeil came full circle playing the same Bellarmine team with the same head coach except sporting a West Virginia jersey. The Knights had since elevated themselves to the Division one level and allowed McNeil to square off against his former club.
There wasn’t any hard feelings, but it was a chance to show how far he had come.
“I decided to leave and do what I did and some conversations were had in his office that I definitely remembered going into tonight,” McNeil said.
It was fitting that McNeil scored the first 4 points of the contest and finished the game with 14 on 6-14 shooting across 32-minutes. The final result was an easy win for the Mountaineers.
It’s been a long road for McNeil, but one that has him on a path toward his goals.
“I was definitely ready for this one coming into this one. I wanted this one bad,” he added.
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