Archdeacon: For Jordan Derkack, a story of bumps

Goosebumps.

Good-natured, verbal bumps from his teammates.

When it was all over, the 6-foot-5 senior guard had 15 points, 14 rebounds and three assists to lead the Dayton Flyers to a 63-56 victory over Fordham Wednesday at UD Arena.

His all-out effort — along with the rise-to-the-moment play of Jaiun Simon who came off the bench to score a career-high 11 points and add sorely needed muscle inside — helped offset the absence of Dayton’s two most prominent big men.

Amaël L’Etang, the Flyers 7-foot-1 sophomore from France, was on crutches Wednesday after suffering a lower leg injury in practice a couple of days earlier.

And Malcolm Thomas, the 6-foot-8 transfer from Villanova who was really coming into his own in mid-December with a pair of double-digit scoring efforts, several rim-rattling dunks that enlivened the sold-out crowds and some physical presence inside — spent the game with a black walking boot on his left foot.

He had been injured in a spill beneath the basket during the loss to Liberty five days before Christmas.

Although Fordham had never beaten the Flyers at UD Arena — and with Wednesday’s loss they are now 0-18 — they came into the game with three formidable big men.

Rikus Schulte, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound forward from Germany, would finish with 14 rebounds. Akira Jacobs, a 6-foot-10 forward from Japan, ended up with 12 points and 6-foot-11 Jack Whitbourne from Australia had 12 rebounds.

It was against that trio that Derkack, with those peach colored high tops he said he’ll wear “until they rot” and his old school brand of ball — muscling himself into position, diving on the floor, often showing more “want to” as he called it, than the next guy — provided the Flyers with much of the answer that they needed in this game.

Flyers coach Anthony Grant said Derkack — whose college career took him to Merrimack and Rutgers before UD — “makes winning plays … He’s a winning player.”

But to be that when you are neither a towering presence or an above-the-rim high flier requires some bumps and bruises.

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

Against the Rams that was especially the case on one play beneath the basket when Derkack was upended by a crossbody block.

He landed hard on the flat of his back and just lay on the court a few seconds as concerned teammates huddled around him and the crowd quieted some in concern.

Then, like a cartoon character, he popped back up and was on his way to his first double-double as a Dayton Flyer.

He has had other high mark games at his previous stops including 34 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds and five steals against Long Island when he was at Merrimack two years ago.

And playing for Rutgers last season — where he got limited minutes and usually came off the bench — he had 26 points against Michigan State and 16 versus Notre Dame.

Efforts like those and some of the ones he’s already had for the 10-4 Flyers this season led him to talk about “goosebumps” after Wednesday’s game.

‘It’s incredible’

His dad, Gene, who was a bruising, 6-foot-6 forward at Florida International University, said his son was 5-foot-8 as a sophomore.

And Wednesday, Jordan said he was just “6-foot-1 and probably 150 (pounds) soaking wet” when he came out of Colonia High School in New Jersey

“I had no offers coming out of high school and prep school,” he said Wednesday, though that was a slight exaggeration.

Marist did make a late offer in the summer after his senior year.

He chose instead “to bet on himself” as his dad put it and go to a prep school for a year to up his profile.

Although he added height and weight that season, it didn’t work as well as he hoped and produced just two offers.

One was to Merrimack, where he soon showed everyone what they had missed.

He started 20 games his first season and in his second year he became the Northeast Conference Player of the Year and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Looking for a bigger stage, he entered the transfer portal and said he ended up with some 150 offers and chose Rutgers, which is just 20 minutes from his hometown of Colonia.

Although he had some memorable outings with the Scarlet Knights, he started just 10 of 31 games and averaged 5.7 points per game.

Wanting a better fit, he entered the portal again, had another 100 or so invites and this time chose Dayton, where he’s now a starter, averaging 8.2 PPG and leads the team in assists.

For a while, his burrow-into-the-paint style helped him lead the nation in his ability to get fouled and get to the free throw line.

“I think about it sometimes and kind of get goosebumps,” Derkack said after the game.

“I came from not having anything, then one coach gave me a shot and now I’m playing in front of 13,000 in a sold-out arena every game. It’s incredible.

“I credit my parents and the coaches who have coached me along the way.”

His parents, Gene and Jenny, not only passed on athletic genes to their three children, but they instilled in them a code a personal accountability,

Gene scored 1,146 points at FIU, where he played for South Florida’s legendary coach, Shakey Rodriguez, who also coached Anthony Grant at Miami Senior High.

But Gene’s biggest score in college was winning the heart of Jenny Lieb, a standout soccer player from Saint Louis, who became an All American at FIU while enduring two torn ACL injuries.

Besides Jordan, the Derkacks have two other kids with impressive athletic resumes.

Aiden, a 6-foot-7 high school senior, recently committed to Providence. A few days ago, he helped lead his team to win a big showcase tournament in Washington, D.C.

And Jordan’s sister Taylor, who is Colonia High’s all-time career scorer with 2,082 points, now is with the UMass women’s team though in two seasons she hasn’t played for them.

She tore her ACL last year, rehabbed and now has torn it again.

Just as their mom fought her way through two such injuries, she will too, Jordan believes.

And that leads to the lessons the Derkacks instilled in their kids.

A while back, Jordan told me how he remembers doing 5K and mile runs with his mom and dad when he was just a little guy.

Although always trailing them, he said he was pulled forward by the mantra they had drummed into him beforehand:

“They said once you start, you can’t stop. You can walk, but you cannot quit.”

Gene told me another guiding principle was that their kids should “Give their all … We tried to stress, the more you put into something, the more you get out of it.”

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

‘And the Hokas’

As for the friendly teammate needling and those verbal bumps, Derkack said he’s especially heard them since he returned from Christmas break and they even surfaced at the postgame press conference as he sat next to Simon.

When each player was asked what he got for Christmas, Simon said his mom gave him a massage gun.

Derkack said he got a few things:

“From Santa, I got sweatshirts and sweatpants.

“My aunt got me a really cool red and white striped shirt that I’ll wear soon in the locker room.”

A grinning Simon leaned over and whispered: “And the Hokas.”

“Oh yeah,” Derkack said. “I got a pair of Hokas.”

He was referring to the comfortable sneakers that originated in France, but said his teammates didn’t appreciate them the way he did:

“These guys are clowning me for wearing Hokas, but me and Coach Grant think they’re the most comfortable shoes.”

Before the players headed back to the dressing room they were asked if they made New Year’s resolutions. Neither said he did.

“No,” Simon said. “They last like a week and then everybody goes back to their regular life.”

And for Jordan Derkack that means a basketball life with bruises:

Physical ones.

The goosebump kind.

And the good-natured verbal bumps from teammates when he wears his “most comfortable” Hokas.