Former Pitt hoops player DeGroat shines

If you saw him, you might recognize him.

Walking the streets of Oakland, basketball in hand,… If you saw him, you might recognize him.

Walking the streets of Oakland, basketball in hand, he’s likely heading toward the gym – a place he can’t seem to escape.

He walks through Pitt, his alma mater, and thinks about what’s to come.

Maybe you’ve heard his name.

He’s John DeGroat. And his whole life, he’s had to believe.

DeGroat, who played basketball at Pitt for two years, spent this past year playing for the Pittsburgh Xplosion of the Continental Basketball Association.

His life since high school has been loaded with basketball. But it hasn’t always been like that.

When DeGroat was born, he was in a tough spot. Born in Albany, N.Y., DeGroat bounced around from place to place. Before he turned 7, he was exposed to violence and crime most people have never seen.

DeGroat landed in a group home before finally finding a foster family that fit him well. It was then, at the age of 15, that he discovered basketball.

It proved to be a savior.

“When I got out of the group homes, I started playing,” DeGroat said. “I wanted to do everything my brothers and sisters were doing, and they played.”

So DeGroat picked up a basketball and fell in love with it. Since then, he’s had trouble putting it down.

DeGroat made his high school’s junior varsity team in his first year and, by the end of his freshman year, he was playing with varsity.

When DeGroat graduated, he was a star.

He headed to Northeastern Junior College in Colorado, where he continued to excel. After two solid seasons there, he was labeled the No. 1-ranked junior college shooting guard by NBAdraft.net and earned a scholarship to Pitt.

At Pitt, DeGroat ran head-on into a wall of frustration. Although he loved the school, he played fewer minutes than expected and didn’t play as well as he thought he could have.

But Pitt was loaded with talent, and DeGroat didn’t have much of a choice but to keep his head up and do everything in his power to succeed.

“You can’t always be the star,” he said.

“That’s when being a team player comes in.”

His senior year, DeGroat averaged 2.9 points in 10.7 minutes per game. Despite starting almost every game, he spent a lot of his time on the bench.

Once he graduated, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

After juggling the ideas of work and basketball (he has associate’s degree in administration of justice), he realized he couldn’t get away from the game he loved. He knew he had to play.

“I just couldn’t stay out of the gym,” DeGroat said.

“So I stayed there.”

DeGroat traveled overseas where he played on teams in Finland, Ireland and Hungary. After a successful stint outside the United States, he came back to Pittsburgh and began playing with the Xplosion. He joined ex-Pitt players Carl Krauser and Antonio Graves on the roster.

That’s when he started turning heads.

Unlike his time at Pitt, when Krauser got much of the attention, DeGroat became the go-to guy.

He led the Xplosion in points, minutes played, rebounds and steals. He started 31 of 41 games and was selected to the CBA All-Star Game.

A lot of people – including NBA scouts – were surprised. But not DeGroat.

“[My ability] has always been there,” he said.

“The main thing is I never stopped believing I could make something of myself.”

DeGroat said he wants to continue to improve and eventually get to the NBA.

Carlos Knox, who played a short time in the NBA before injuries forced him to retire, coached DeGroat with the Xplosion.

Knox said there’s no reason DeGroat can’t succeed at the next level.

“He was such a mismatch [in the CBA],” Knox said.

“I just told him to go ahead and make the team go. He did.”

Knox said he’s been contacted on several occasions by the head scout of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, inquiring about DeGroat and showing a lot of interest.

DeGroat said he plans on going through some tryouts this summer and possibly heading overseas again.

“I’m definitely trying to keep going higher and higher,” he said.

And from now on, he’s not the only one who believes.