As a freshman, not many people expected much from Cleveland Melvin. But halfway through his first year, Melvin has turned into one of the Blue Demons’ most potent scorers.
After coming off the bench for the first nine games of the season, Head Coach Oliver Purnell inserted Melvin into the starting lineup. Since then, the Baltimore native has averaged 19.7 points per game.
But Melvin is far from surprised. When asked if he thought he would be starting as a freshman, he smiled, and confidently replied, “Yeah.”
Purnell sees that confidence too.
“I think the biggest thing is experience, and understanding the system,” he said of Melvin’s progress. “As that happens, he’s able to play better. Sometimes when you have so many things on your mind, you’re trying to figure out what to do, that can really slow you down in terms of just being able to do what you can do on the court.
“So things are kind of freeing up for him, and as a result, his athletic ability’s coming to bear. He’s a quick jumper, quick off his feet. [He has the] ability to score in the post. Some of those things, he’s really freed up to do.”
At 6-foot-8-inches and 210 pounds, Melvin is tall and lengthy-two attributes he has been able to take advantage of since his mother brought him to a Baltimore recreation center when he was only five years old.
“She just took me there and basically wanted me to play,” he said. “I was young and I didn’t really know how to play. But I was learning. I was just big, so I just rebounded and blocked shots.”
By the age of 13, Melvin was already six feet tall, he said. And even as he has added inches, he has maintained the quickness that makes it difficult for other power forwards to guard him. Sometimes the older players have to remind the young freshman of that.
“They just told me to use my quickness and athleticism against bigger guys,” Melvin said. “Because it is, in the Big East, bigger guys on the court. So just use my quickness to get by them.”
Junior Jeremiah Kelly said it is about reminding the younger players like Melvin to play to their strengths.
“It’s just letting them know, it’s a long season,” Kelly said. “Don’t be timid, you know. Play your game and your style of play. Play the way you want to play.”
But that also means adapting and getting better, which Melvin is used to.
He would stay late after practice during middle school and high school, dribbling, handling the ball, shooting-he worked to improve all of it. Now, he looks up to NBA player Rudy Gay for his varied skill set.
“He just has that smooth touch, smooth shot,” Melvin said. “And he can hit the 3, and that’s what I’m working on now.”
Purnell will be happy to hear that, since he has asked Melvin to play away from the basket a bit more. But for Purnell, he sees more of a maturation within the system than a changed player since the season began.
“I think he’s probably shooting the ball a little bit better from the outside, but I don’t think he’s necessarily been doing a whole lot of things a lot differently; he’s just understanding where to plug them in,” Purnell said. “A lot of times you’ll have a skill level, the sort of things you can do, whether it be taking people off the bounce, or shooting the outside shot or whatever.
“It’s just knowing when to do it. He’s got a real good feel for that, where the offense will kind of come to him as opposed to forcing it.”
Melvin is also used to winning though.
His high school team went 24-0 his senior year, and won the state championship. With a 6-10 record, the team is not even close to that winning mark. But Melvin said the losing does not wear on him.
“I told my team, just keep our heads up,” he said. “At one point we’re gonna keep fighting and we’re gonna get a win. We just got to keep our heads up every game. We got to have that intensity, attitude and togetherness.”
And an improving Melvin would certainly help.
“It just takes a lot of experience,” Purnell said of his improvement. “It’s not that he was bad [at the start of the year]. It’s just that he’s so much better [now].”
So much for expectations.