BUDDY SYSTEM
Nova's Paschall followed friend Mitchell's lead to hoops stardom
SAN ANTONIO — Like most kids, Eric Paschall and Donovan Mitchell fantasized growing up about reaching the NBA and playing in the Final Four. They were long-shot dreams for a couple of kids from Westchester County who didn’t know any better how long the odds were at the time.
Unlike those of most kids, however, they were more than dreams. They have become reality, the NBA for Mitchell, and the Final Four this weekend in San Antonio for Paschall. The two childhood friends are living out those fantasies.
“It’s crazy to see what happened for me and him,” the sculpted 6-foot-8 Paschall said Thursday at the Alamadome, as Villanova prepared to face fellow No. 1 seed Kansas in the Final Four on Saturday night. “We would talk every day, talk about possibly going to the same school. That didn’t happen.”
Virtually everything else has.
Mitchell, after a stellar two-year career at Louisville, has taken the NBA by storm with the Jazz and is a top Rookie of the Year candidate alongside 76ers forward Ben Simmons. Paschall has been a key cog in Villanova’s return to the Final Four, a versatile and physical forward who had 12 points and a career-high 14 rebounds in the regional finals.
“I’m deeply proud of them,” said Rutgers guard Mike Williams, who grew up playing with Paschall and Mitchell. “For them to reach this plateau of basketball — they’re both at the highest levels possible — is amazing. We were growing up talking about this, talking about playing for a national championship, playing in the NBA, dreams that seem so farfetched.”
Mitchell and Paschall have remained close, frequently talking on the phone and watching each other’s games when time al- lows. They will talk trash. Mitchell insists Louisville would have beaten Villanova had they played last year. Each describes the other as his best friend.
“We always have each other’s back,” Paschall said.
The two grew up together in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., neighbors who became close friends. When Mitchell’s family moved to Elmsford, N.Y., they lost contact briefly before reuniting by chance at the age of 8 with the Riverside Hawks AAU program. They played together for the next several years, winning national championships with Riverside and The City. Initially, they struggled facing better competition than they were used to in Westchester.
“There’s an old saying: ‘If you’re the best player in the gym, you need to find an- other gym,’ ” Paschall’s father, Juan, said in a phone interview. “They weren’t top options on their team [at first], but because of that they both succeeded.”
“They were gym rats. They stayed in the hours and hours after everyone left,” longtime AAU coach Arjay Perovic recalled. “We had times we slept in the gym [before a tournament], and they would stay up all night working on their game.”
They often guarded each other in practice, taking pride in shutting down the other. The two liked to compete. Paschall was the first to dunk, at the age of 12, so Mitchell had to one-up him, by being the first to thrown down a windmill jam. Their video game battles in NBA2K became legendary.
“They’ve always pushed each other,” Paschall’s father said.
Paschall went to Dobbs Ferry High School for three years, before transferring to St. Thomas More in Oakdale, Conn., in the highly competitive New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC), in which Mitchell was playing with Brewster Academy of New Hampshire. Seeing how much better it had gotten for his friend to face better competition year-round made Paschall follow his path.
“Eric definitely saw what it did for Donovan, and that’s one of the reasons he was so hell-bent on getting into a prep school,” Juan Paschall said.
When Paschall decided to leave Fordham after his freshman season, he toyed with the idea of transferring to Louisville, to join forces with Mitchell, who did some recruiting of Paschall. But he instead wound up at Villanova, opting to take his own path rather than follow his close friend.
He wouldn’t mind following Mitchell to the NBA, though. Mitchell expects it.
“He’ll be here soon,” Mitchell said, “and I’m excited to talk trash when he gets here.”