Penn more than just hoops for Patrick Lucas-Perry

And here’s the starting line-up for your Michigan State Spartans.

From Grand Blanc, Michigan, number 30… Patrick Lucas-Perry!

Months before entering into his senior season at Flint Powers, sophomore Patrick Lucas-Perry was flying high, with dreams of playing an hour away from home in Spartan green.

Entertaining offers from schools like Michigan State, who needed a point guard to round out its recruiting class, Lucas-Perry was a sharp-shooting commodity.

Not that this was anything new for ‘PLP’. His father played for Dick Vitale at Detroit. His older sister, Victoria, finished her career at Michigan State with the eleventh most points in team history. And his brother, Laval, started his collegiate career under Lute Olson at Arizona.

But just when Lucas-Perry needed to show off his skills on the court to recruiters, his body offered a refusal in the form of an ACL injury during an AAU contest over the summer.

“I intended to go to Michigan State,” Lucas-Perry said. “But things didn’t work out the way I had planned.”

What followed after was a defining time in Patrick’s life.

“The injury made him realize that basketball is a means to an end,” Laval said. “Basketball can get you places, but you need to know when to say, ‘Hey, there’s something more than basketball.’”

To learn just what that something was, Patrick looked to his older brother.

Growing up, Patrick learned the game from different angles by way of each member of his family.

“He had a teaching zone,” Laval said. “Where he could learn what it means to be an athlete and a student athlete.”

Patrick learned to play tough by taking on his bigger older brother.

“I was like Mini-Me,” Patrick said.

“I was the one that grew in the family, and Patrick became that small guard,” Laval said. “I could check small. He could check big.”

Just as he learned about basketball’s physical nature from his brother, Patrick also looked to him for advice about life, especially in the wake of his ACL injury.

Laval had learned the hard way that basketball isn’t the be all end all.

In his four years playing collegiate ball, Laval played at three different schools. He left Arizona after his freshman year and transferred to Michigan before being excused from the Wolverines for a violation of team rules. He then finished out his career at Oakland University in Michigan.

“I talked to him every day, about the good and the great, the good and the bad,” Laval said. “I told him everything about my career and what he can learn from it.”

Ultimately, both through his own hardships and learning from his brother’s trials, Patrick became more consistent both on and off the court.

And Laval wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I took him on, basically was a mentor, a role model towards him,” Laval said. “I want him to be better than me in anything that he does.”

So, when Patrick made the decision to come to Penn, Laval couldn’t have been happier.

“Education is something they can’t take away from you,” Laval said. “When he tore his ACL, school became the number one priority.”

In Patrick’s eyes, he has the best of both worlds at Penn.

“I’m here for a reason. I made this decision,” Patrick said. “And if I could do it all over again, I definitely would.”

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