Coming out of Philadelphia's Simon Gratz High School last year, Malik Alvin had an important decision to make.
With Temple and La Salle recruiting him, the basketball star definitely had the opportunity to play close to home. A look at some prominent alumni of the Nicetown school might have shown that it was a no-lose situation. After all, former Bulldogs Aaron McKie and Mardy Collins took their game to the NBA via the Owls program, while Rasheed Wallace honed his skills far away at North Carolina.
But Alvin and those close to him knew that it wasn't a sure thing either way. Alvin wanted out.
In committing to UTEP, he chose quite possibly the farthest thing out there from the North Philadelphia playgrounds where he grew up playing.
"It was mainly to get away," Alvin said. "To get away from people to focus on my school work."
Now, even though he is 2,100 miles away from the tough Philadelphia streets in a Texas border town, the Quakers will still have to see him, and that's not a good thing. Alvin was a first-team all-Public League guard for the undefeated conference champions.
While he averaged better than 15 points per game in each of his last two seasons, it is the goal of his college coach to transform the freshman into his more natural role.
"Being 5-foot-10, 5-11, he's going to have to make that transition from being a tremendous scorer to a tremendous point guard, so it's going to be an adjustment," Miners coach Tony Barbee said.
So far, so good for Alvin, who played 11 minutes off the bench in UTEP's most recent exhibition game. And Gratz coach Leonard Poole feels that the transition will be an easy one for his former standout.
"Here, he did a lot of point guard play for us," Poole said of his guard, who also averaged eight assists last year. "He's a big-time scorer. Make no mistake about that. But he also passes well, and he handles the ball well."
In addition to the praise, Alvin is hearing plenty of advice from his former coach, who speaks with him about once a week.
They don't always talk basketball, however.
"I've been telling him basically to keep his nose clean," Poole said. "Go to school, know what you're down there for, and that's books and basketball."
With basketball, he could have gotten in anywhere. Two miles from home or 2,000.
But the ability to focus on the rest of his life trumps one thing that Alvin did admit - being at home.
"I miss Philly," he said.
Still, no regrets from him or one of his biggest supporters.
"I think it was the right decision," Poole said. "He felt he wouldn't be able to excel academically if he stayed here. Everybody that was concerned: the academic sports counselors, his parents as well as myself agreed with him. Everybody was on the same page, so he went away."
For some, the pursuit of dreams takes them through the historic palaces of college basketball, whether it be the Dean Dome, Rupp Arena or anywhere else with banners filling up the rafters. For others, the dream keeps them closer to home.
For Malik Alvin, following a dream means leaving home behind for an unknown city on the Mexican border.
And he's just fine with that.
