Reigning from Cincinnati, Michael Wilkison has been a four-year starter for the DePauw basketball team.
With the opportunity to play division-one basketball, he decided to take his talents to a small liberal arts college in pursuit of a life that contained his main passion, but still allowed him to focus on his life outside of basketball. This is what led to his decision to attend DePauw University.
"I chose DePauw University, because I wanted to be able to focus on my academics as well as my social life, while still being able to continue my basketball career at the collegiate level," Wilkison said.
An active member in the community as well as member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, Mike has been able to ï¬nd an e!ective balance during his four years at DePauw University.
As a highly coveted recruit out of high school, Mike knew that he had the talent to make an immediate impact at the college level. This ended up being true, as he started for the DePauw University basketball team as a ï¬rst-year.
Mike credits his immediate success at the college level to the senior class, which helped him ï¬t into the system that had already been solidiï¬ed. He also says that he would not have been able to be the key contributor he was his ï¬rst year without the guidance of head coach Bill Fenlon, as well as the rest of the coaching staff.
Learning from the lessons his teammates and coaches taught him his ï¬rst three years, Mike is now in the position of team captain and the senior leader of the team.
His goals as the leader of the team are to make sure everyone on the team understands the teams' ambitions, no one dwells on the past and everyone understands their importance to the team, whether that means playing signiï¬cant minutes in the games or preparing the team during practice.
"He's a great leader by example because he's such a good player on the court and never loses his composure" ï¬rst-year basketball player Nate Jahn said.
With the team o! to a 10-3 start to the 2013-2014 season, the DePauw University Men's basketball team is well on their way to Mike's ultimate goal of making the NCAA tournament for the ï¬rst time in his four-year career.
Wilkison understands that achieving this goal will require every player on the team to work hard and not take any opponent lightly.
"This will require the team to play every game to their highest ability and not take any opponent for granted."