03-10-2015, 04:39 PM
If you weren't aware of his childhood:
http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/m-baskb...15aag.html
http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/m-baskb...15aag.html
Quote:By Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI - If it had been up to Mick Cronin, Octavius Ellis never would have been dismissed from the University of Cincinnati basketball program in 2012.
But when Ellis was involved in a May brawl at a downtown nightclub six months after he had been suspended for his role in a fight near the end of the Dec. 10, 2011 Crosstown Shootout at Xavier, Cronin said, "My hand was forced."
Ellis began his road back to UC by enrolling in Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas, where he played for coach Kris Baumann, a friend of Cronin's. His mission was two-fold: to improve as a basketball player and to learn how to deal with anger issues that have plagued him for most of his life.
He said he always hoped he could return to UC "to prove to everybody that I'm a good person, not a bad person, and that I can help this team win."
Ellis, a 6-foot-10 junior post player, has succeeded on both counts. After two years at Trinity Valley, he returned to UC last summer with two years of eligibility remaining. He has started all 31 of the Bearcats' games this season and leads UC in scoring with 10.0 points per game, in rebounding with 7.3 per game and in blocked shots with 66. On Tuesday, he was named second-team all-American Athletic Conference.
"I can't even imagine where we would be without him," Cronin said.
More importantly, Ellis has made progress controlling the issues that forced him to leave UC. He has been ejected from two games for flagrant fouls when he shoved an opposing player as he went up for a layup, but beyond those two instances, according to Cronin, "He has had no issues. I see guys baiting him constantly on the court, trying to bait him into things, and he walks away from it all the time."
Ellis' anger problems apparently stem from a horrific incident he witnessed as a child. When he was 10 years old, he and his sisters, Sedondra and Nissa, were in their Memphis house on the night of April 23, 2004, when their stepfather, Kevin Rudd, shot and killed their mother, Traceye Ellis-Rudd.
"I heard it and walked into it," Ellis said.
He saw his mother lying on the floor bleeding. According to court documents, he then chased Rudd as he ran out of the house and threw rocks at him. Rudd turned himself in the next day and was convicted of first-degree murder.
The conviction was overturned and a mistrial was declared after a judge ruled that jurors were improperly made aware during the trial of a previous manslaughter charge against Rudd, who eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Ellis' mother and was sentenced in 2008 to 15 years in prison.
Ellis, 22, was raised by his grandmother, Flossie Ellis - "We've got a good bond," he says - but has struggled to get past what he saw that night.
"In high school, I used to want my mom to be at my games," Ellis said. "I had friends who had their mothers at the game and I used to think, `I wish my mom was here.' I used to let that get in the way of me playing. Sometimes I would just go into a rage. I've worked on it. My attitude has gotten way better than it was two or three years ago."
Cronin first recruited Ellis out of Memphis' Whitehaven High School because he believed Ellis had a chance to become an impact player. He needed to get stronger and work hard to get the most out of his ability, but his potential was obvious. He comes from good athletic genes. His father, Jerrell Horne, whom he didn't meet until he was a junior in high school, played basketball at Memphis in 1993 and 1994. His cousin, Donta Ellis, plays for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.
Some coaches prefer not to have to deal with the kind of issues Ellis was dealing with, even if the player in question is talented. But when Cronin learned about his mother's death and the problems it had created for Ellis, instead of pulling back from recruiting him, he became more interested.
"To be honest, it attracted me to him," Cronin said. "I loved his potential as a player because of his size and his ability. I thought he had a big, competitive spirit. But then when I found out what he had had to go through, I wanted to help him.
"I had no reservations because I spent time with him as a person, because I knew he was a great person. I met his grandmother and his sister. He's got wonderful people who love him, who are first-class people. I was 100 percent confident that he was a great kid."
When then-athletic director Whit Babcock told Cronin he would have to dismiss Ellis from the program, Cronin said, "it was the toughest thing I've had to do as a coach because of the way it happened. I knew that he was a great guy and I knew that he was going to become a great player. I wanted to be a part of him growing up and getting through his issues. The one good thing that came from him leaving was that we told him at the time that we knew he would get to go start and play a lot of minutes (at Trinity Valley) and that was going to help him."
Ellis became a first-team junior college All-American after he averaged 14.8 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.2 blocked shots last season at Trinity Valley, even though, he said leaving UC for Athens, Texas, to play junior college basketball was a difficult transition for him. During his first year there, he texted UC associate head coach Larry Davis and asked him what he had to do to return to Cincinnati.
He was told by both Cronin and Davis that if he returned to UC, he would not only have to learn to control his anger, he would have to be a leader on a team with a lot of young players.
"He's done that, to his credit," Davis said. "Tay has come a long way in terms of being mature and not flying off the handle. People have worked with him really hard on that and he's bought into it and he's done a good job with that in controlling his emotions."
The father of a 1-year-old son, Jayce, Ellis says the biggest thing he has learned during the past few years is, "Don't react first. Always think before you react. It was hard to learn, but you see that life has more in front of you instead of just fighting all the time. I just look forward to trying to do better for me and my family and my son."
In November, 2013, Ellis signed with Arizona State because at the time Cronin wasn't sure he would have a place for him. If Ellis were to return to UC, Cronin said, he wanted to make sure the situation was right for him. If he didn't return, he wanted him to play for a coach like Arizona State's Herb Sendek, whom Cronin trusted would help him.
"I told Herb Sendek to recruit him," Cronin said, "because I knew Herb was a great person. We needed him to get through both years of junior college and we weren't in a position to sign him early. I wanted to see how much we really needed him before we signed him and I wanted him to play two years."
But Ellis' first choice was always to return to UC, so after Cronin decided that the Bearcats and Ellis would be a good match, he returned to Cincinnati, eager to show everyone how much he had grown.
Current UC athletic director Mike Bohn met with Ellis before he enrolled and asked him to sign a ball that he had signed when he was at UC the first time. His first signature was small scrunched up. But his second was written in large, bold strokes.
"To me, that was in indication of his growth," Bohn said.
Ellis has been helped by professional counseling, Cronin said, both when he was at UC the first time and since his return.
"He understands that it's not good for him (to lose control) and not good for the team," Cronin said. "And he cares about what people think. We're so hard on young people today, especially the ones in the public eye. Some kids, just like the rest of us, need a chance to grow up and figure things out."
Ellis says he's confident that he has overcome his anger issues. He still thinks about his mother, of course, but now he tries to channel those thoughts in a positive way.
"I try not to let that affect me on the court because I know deep down inside that's what she would want me to do is go out and play basketball and just have fun," Ellis said, "so I try not to let that ruin me on the court and try not to think about. But it's my mother, so...."
Anyone who has lost his mother, even under far less trying circumstances, would surely understand. Cronin's mother, Peggy, died of cancer 10 years ago. She grew up in a house that was located on what is now the UC baseball field next to Fifth Third Arena.
"Every time I'm standing in Fifth Third Arena during the national anthem, I'm looking directly toward the house she grew up in on first base," Cronin said. "I think about her during the entire national anthem, so how could he not think about his mother? You can't even begin to imagine what he goes through."