College basketball

'Overcoming' a theme of Louisville star's life

It was years before Taquan Dean had a stable family or future.

By GREG AUMAN
Published February 12, 2005

This time a year ago, Taquan Dean wasn't himself.

The 6-foot-3 guard went 3-for-14 from the field as Louisville lost at Charlotte, the start of a four-game streak that would turn a promising 17-3 team into a 20-10 squad that would lose in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

He knew he was hurting, his play suffering from a lingering injury initially thought to be a groin pull.

"The pain just never went away," said Dean, whose first name is pronounced tie-KWON. "I played the whole season with it, just tried to be tough for the team."

In June, Dean had surgery for a double hernia, with doctors repairing two tears in his abdominal wall. They told him it could be career-ending, warned him not to rush back.

Basketball was one more thing life could take away from him, but it was still the one thing that could motivate him above all others. Now back as one of college basketball's most feared outside shooters, Dean has endured a lifetime of persevering through pain and loss, so his success this season shouldn't be any kind of surprise.

"I'm definitely ahead of schedule," Dean said this week as the No. 9 Cardinals prepared for today's home game against South Florida. "And I have a new respect for basketball. I'm playing every game like it's my last."

Dean found organized basketball in the seventh grade, and to say he found a home on those courts is as cruel as it is true.

Growing up in Red Bank, N.J., Dean never knew his father, and his life changed at age 6 when his mother, Felicia, died. He had walked up to her to ask for something while she was lying down, and she said she would get it for him in a minute. She never got up.

He and his two brothers went to live with his grandparents, but soon after, his grandfather died, and within a year he had lost his grandmother. Next they stayed with an uncle, who died when Dean was 9.

Ask him about the pressure he faces in a big game and he'll tell you that basketball isn't pressure, that hitting a big shot in the closing seconds on the road isn't courageous. Courage is his aunt, Louise Carter, taking him in and making room for him in a small, crowded apartment. Pressure is what she faced, working as a cleaning woman, trying to earn enough to give a child his fourth home in four years.

"I grew up by myself," Dean said. "I never had anything, really had nobody to look up to. So I find it easy to stay humble."

Carter lived in Neptune, about 15 minutes down the Jersey shoreline but a world away from the tough streets of Red Bank, where drugs and crime were pervasive. After his freshman year at Neptune High, he was taken in by Kevin and Jackie Owens, who he now considers his parents.

"Even though they're not blood, they're my family," Dean said. "They're a blessing."

The Owens aren't the only family Dean has found. His Louisville teammates are like brothers, and when fellow junior Francisco Garcia found out his brother had been shot and killed in the south Bronx last season, it bonded two friends closer than anything on a basketball court could.

Garcia and Dean were two of Louisville's captains last season as sophomores, and now they lead a Cardinals team that, despite an 85-68 loss to Memphis on Wednesday, is Conference USA's best shot at a Final Four run this season. Like USF, Louisville (20-4, 8-2) will move to the Big East next season, putting one of the game's best perimeter shooters in an even bigger spotlight.

"He has always been a great deep-range shooter," coach Rick Pitino said. "That was his forte coming in, but he's developed. He's a much better defensive player, a much better passer."

Pitino's offense calls for well-rounded players, asking all five to be able to distribute the ball as readily as they shoot it. Garcia, who at 6 feet 7 is something of a point forward, leads the team with 97 assists in 24 games, and he is usually hyped as Louisville's best player. Pitino calls Dean Robin to Garcia's Batman, and it's Dean, as point guard, who has the team's best assist-to-turnover ratio (62-38).

"We don't have a dominant ball-handler, so everybody has to be able to pass, everybody has to be a triple threat," Pitino said.

Not that Dean still isn't dangerous on the perimeter. He's hitting 46.9 percent on 3-pointers, and of the eight players in Division I connecting at a better clip, only one has taken as many shots. After hitting 61 3s as a freshman and 71 last season, he already has 72.

As good as he has been, averaging 14.3 points, he said he's still recovering from his surgery. His rehabilitation robbed him of his usual summer tuneup, so he's just now finding a rhythm most college players have by December, a scary thought for what he could do in the postseason.

"I'm getting better as the season comes along," he said. "Last year, I couldn't say that."

Dean remembers tough times much longer ago, when he had nobody in the stands to watch him play. He also remembers how his cousin, Raheem Carter, earned a basketball scholarship to Seton Hall and motivated him just by reminding him what was possible.

"That was my model," Dean said, eager to be an inspiration himself. "He pushed me."

Dean is pushing others now and has Louisville poised for its first Sweet 16 appearance in eight years. Pitino can talk about the changes he has seen in the 21-year-old, but he also knows the character that was there the day he set foot on campus.

"With Taquan, it all starts with a positive attitude," he said. "He's been a leader for us, and he's a leader by example, but most of all, he's just a very nice young man."

[Last modified February 12, 2005, 00:25:13]