Titans senior Milstead embraces opportunity
For much of Damari Milstead's basketball career, the senior point guard for Cal State Fullerton has heard good things about his abilities.
He's a good court leader, very good passer, exceptional defender, and savvy student of the game.
Good shooter? Not so much.
It didn't matter that he averaged 19.4 points per game as a three-time CIF title winner at Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward. He averaged 10.3 points at Grand Canyon University as a sophomore in 2019.
The first thing his new coach at Cal State Fullerton, Dedrique Taylor, said after Milstead transferred in from San Francisco, where his playing time dwindled, was to forget what anyone else had said about his shooting. Opportunity is everything.
“You don't win 21 games by accident,” Taylor said.
And Milstead has been the point guard all season for the 15th-seeded Titans (21-10), who won the Big West Tournament title and will play No. 2 seed Duke (28-6) in an NCAA Tournament West Region opener on Friday at 4:10 p.m. PT in Greenville, South Carolina.
On the eve of conference play, Taylor took Milstead aside and said he needed to forget all that and do the things that Taylor and the Fullerton coaches thought he could. Which included shooting the ball when the
Senior point guard Damari Milstead is a big reason Cal State Fullerton (21-10) is in the NCAA Tournament.
opportunity came.
And just like that ... Milstead scored 17 points in the Titans' first Big West game. He was in double digits for six consecutive games. After a pause during a tough four-game stretch, Milstead has scored 17, 18, 26, 24, 18 and 17 points in six of the last seven games.
“His leadership and experience has been a big part of our success,” Taylor said of Milstead. “He understood what kind of team we are when he arrived. He's been nothing short of the best true point guard in the league.”
“He was the coach I needed in my life,” Milstead said. “He's instilled a lot of confidence in me from the start, first by putting me at the point every game.
“He told me that whatever others said didn't matter, that I just had to have the confidence in that part of my game. And it taught me that you can create offense off defense, which is our game, and you can find
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Cal State Fullerton vs. Duke, NCAA Tournament first round, 4:10 p.m., truTV
shots if we're all working together.”
Milstead, like most college players, doesn't want his career to end after college. The season he's had — 12.1 ppg, shooting 43% overall and 38% from 3-point range, 3.1 rebounds per game and his assists and steals — will likely get him that opportunity.
Twenty-four of Taylor's players have played professionally, and the coach has connections across the globe.
“I don't think I'll ever make a better decision in my life,” Milstead said.
He and his teammates are not flummoxed at all to be facing one of the bluest of college basketball's blue blood programs on Friday. One of the most notable traits Taylor has created at Fullerton is his players' belief to compete every night, and not to get down when faced with adversity.
“Long Beach State did a lot to bother us in the first half,” Milstead said of Saturday's Big West title game. “But what makes us a team is that we still feel confident even when we go through a bad run.
“He reminded us that defense wins championships, and defense is the best part of our game. It's part of our reputation.”
And a reminder that what others say about you is never part of that reputation.