ACC-Big Ten Challenge schedule
Monday
Clemson at Minnesota
Wake Forest at Rutgers
Tuesday
No. 4 Maryland at No. 2 North Carolina
No. 5 Virginia at Ohio State
Michigan at NC State
Purdue at Pittsburgh
Northwestern at Virginia Tech
Miami (Fla.) at Nebraska
Wednesday
No. 14 Indiana at No. 7 Duke
No. 21 Louisville at No. 12 Michigan State
No. 13 Notre Dame at Illinois
No. 25 Wisconsin at Syracuse
Florida State at Iowa
Penn State at Boston College
The basketball achievements that Malcolm Brogdon is ticking off are significant. The fifth-year guard at Virginia and former Greater Atlanta Christian standout was named ACC preseason co-player of the year, along with North Carolina’s Marcus Paige.
He is the undisputed leader of a 12th-ranked team poised to return to contention in the ACC. The Cavaliers have won back-to-back ACC regular season titles and their first ACC tournament title (2014) since the Ralph Sampson era.
Brogdon just dropped 23 points on Lehigh to bring the Cavaliers (4-1) their fourth straight win after a jolting loss to George Washington to start the season. Virginia plays at Ohio State Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. as part of the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
But what is so unique about Brogdon is that the on-court accolades only tell a fraction of his story. His place in the ACC — and the college basketball landscape — is not complete without considering what he’s got going on between the ears.
Brogdon needed a redshirt year to work through surgery for a broken bone in his foot and he used the time to tailor a new academic plan in Virginia’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He has already graduated from UVA with a degree in history and is now in graduate school, working on an accelerated master’s program in public policy.
He has aspirations to change the world — literally — and third-world countries in Africa and South America, specifically.
“As I’m in graduate school, I’m figuring out different ways in which I can influence policy to change the conditions over there,” Brogdon said. “I might want to start a non-profit organization that focuses on poverty. But I might want to be a politician, because recently I’ve been taking classes that are enlightening me on how much politicians can change policy, like senators and governors. They can actually influence policy domestically but also influence policy that goes abroad.”
Brogdon, whose mother Jann Adams is a psychology professor and associate dean of math and sciences at Morehouse College, learned about world issues first-hand as a child. He traveled to Africa twice, first to Ghana when he was 10 and five years later to Malawi.
One scene in particular keeps coming back to him from their time in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
“We got on the bus and the people that were in charge of our trip were handing out food, boxes of rice and chicken,” Brogdon said. “I remember the people outside the bus could smell the food and they were banging on the windows because they were so hungry.”
Memories like those help explain both his drive and his current living conditions. Brogdon is one of the rare athletes at Virginia living in “The Lodge,” a prestigious but modest section of campus housing for accomplished Virginia graduate students. Among its former residents were Edgar Allan Poe and Woodrow Wilson.
The rooms have simply a bed, a desk, a sink, a heater and fireplace. There’s no air-conditioning or kitchen, and showers are located in a separate building. Brogdon said he typically showers at the basketball facilities so that’s not an issue. Otherwise he’s enjoying his new living quarters and the importance it places on academics.
Virginia coach Tony Bennett has done his part to support Brogdon’s academics goals, moving the team’s Monday practices back an hour to accommodate one of Brogdon’s graduate level seminars. Bennett realizes that, unlike many young athletes, basketball is a means for Brogdon, not an end.
“I think basketball is a tool for me,” Brogdon said. “It’s more of a platform for me to acquire resources that will help me in the future. (I’ll make) connections and also have a great time, but it’s also a platform for me to step into life, the real world and do something amazing.”
That platform could turn into a pretty successful run, too. Brogdon might not have some of the athletic gifts of an NBA lottery pick, but Bennett, who played two seasons for the Charlotte Hornets, believes he’s got everything else.
“He’s a winner,” Bennett said. “He’s physical. He guards the ball. He’s tough. He’s not way above the rim, (whatever) that means, but I think he sticks (in the NBA) if he stays healthy and continues to improve. It’s about the right fit at the right time — there’s no mistaking that — but that’s my belief and I don’t usually say that too much.”
Bennett was speaking at the annual ACC Operation Basketball during an hour-long session with the media, a large portion of which was spent talking about Brogdon and his talents both on and off the court.
“As you get into later first round picks, second round, it is changing,” Bennett said. “(NBA teams) are looking at the character of the player. We just spent the last 45 minutes talking about who he is as a person and as a player. Makes sense to me.”
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