“I’d told myself I wasn’t going to look up into the crowd because I knew I’d see thousands of people, and I didn’t want to get nervous.
“But then I did it anyway and I thought, ‘Man, this is crazy. I’m out here playing against Indiana.’ ”
In fact, the just-turned-18 freshman for Wright State ended up the last-minute starting point guard for the Raiders against IU and played more minutes than any player on either team.
The Hoosiers toppled the young, injury-riddled WSU team, 67-44, and considering the circumstances that wasn’t a surprise.
But what happened to Matt Vest certainly was.
During a Friday practice veteran point guard N’Gai Evans suffered a strained knee ligament that would keep him from playing in the Raiders opener. And with back-up point guard Darian Cartharn lost for the year with a torn ACL, new WSU coach Billy Donlon had to make quick adjustments.
But any suggestion that young Vest — who a year ago was slated to be a walk-on, non-scholarship player this season — was a last resort was shot down by Donlon:
“Matt earned everything he got tonight. He’s a hard worker.”
That hard work showed when he had a better-than-expected season for Chaminade Julienne. He ended up with a scholarship and then set out to make the most of it.
His dad, Mark Vest, was a great Raiders player in the mid 1980s and is in the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame.
“He’s been around this program since we were putting pajamas on him when the game was over,” Mark said. “He always wanted to be a part of this. He always looked up to this program. Now that he has an opportunity to put on the uniform, he is a very proud player.”
It’s because of that that he handled himself better than expected Sunday night. He played 36 minutes, scored four points off two dunks, had four rebounds, an assist and didn’t have a turnover.
“I thought I’d be real nervous driving here, but I wasn’t,” he said. “I figure every day in practice I play against three of the best guards in our league — N’Gai, Troy (Tabler) and Vaughn (Duggins).”
Although he didn’t attack as much as his coach wanted, Vest did have a couple of attack plays, including a two-handed dunk that came on a second-half, breakaway and a pass from Cole Darling.
“I was pretty excited,” he said. “I just didn’t want to dribble it off my foot. I wanted to go up, hammer it in and make it count.”
He did more than that.
For one of the few times all night, he silenced that red-clad crowd of thousands.
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