NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — David Laury isn’t exactly B.A. Baracus or Royce White when it comes to airplanes, but he certainly isn’t a big fan.
“I just don’t like it, I feel like I’m not in control of what’s going on,” the 6-foot-8, 240-pound Laury, who has flown reluctantly many times, told SNY.tv Monday following practice at Iona.
On Wednesday afternoon, Laury and the No. 15 Gaels will board an airplane at Westchester County Airport for Dayton, Ohio in order to meet No. 2 Ohio State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Friday at 7:15 p.m.
For a man who moved more than 20 times as a child and later made 10 stops in six states at various high schools, prep schools, junior colleges and colleges, one more flight to the Big Dance will be a welcome trip.
“It’s a blessing, I’m just excited to finally be able to play college basketball and get to play in the NCAA Tournament is going to be a feeling that I can’t put in words,” said Laury, 22.
That Laury is here is a testament to his strength and determination in overcoming long odds. As a child, The Star-Ledger previously reported, Laury moved often, shuttling around between his mother’s home in New Jersey, his grandmother’s home in Virginia, back to his mother’s before a stop at his father’s home in Jersey and then on to his Godparents.
He attended three high schools, with basketball always a driving force in his life, always a potential route to something bigger and better.
“We moved around a lot, I couldn’t control that,” he said. “Things that happened were beyond my control.”
Laury said he lived in early childhood with his two siblings and sometimes friends in a room in his mother’s homes in East Orange and Orange, N.J.
“The place I lived at had limited space,” he said. “And on top of that, if her friends didn’t have anything, she would always be feeding them or letting them come stay with us and we just didn’t have space to begin with so that would add more problems.”
That ultimately led to him moving out to live with his father and, after the two had problems, then his Godparents.
Once before his sophomore year, Vaughn Williams, Laury’s Godfather and the father of Laury’s teammate, Corey Williams at Burlington County, took the two boys shopping for clothes and Laury cried.
“That was the first time I’ve been ever taken school shopping,” Laury told SNY.tv, echoing the story he told the Ledger.
“He said, ‘This is the first time somebody ever took me school shopping,’” Vaughn Williams told the paper. “It was emotional. I felt bad that he had to go through that.”
His seemingly endless journey from one school to another nearly came to an abrupt halt three years ago when he nearly gave up basketball after coming back home to New Jersey from Western Kentucky University.
“I was supposed to go to Western Kentucky, I was there for two weeks,” he said of his time at the school in 2009. “People don’t know the real story but I didn’t clear the [NCAA] Clearinghouse…I was contemplating whether I would give [basketball] up.”
Laury still can’t understand how he didn’t clear the Clearinghouse.
“My grades from NIA Prep didn’t clear the Clearinghouse and a student who was NIA Prep with me (Y’Von Raymond), he took three of the same courses at NIA Prep and he cleared so I don’t know,” he recalled.
Alif Muhammad, the head of NIA Prep, said Laury’s classwork was “incomplete and unacceptable,” while Raymond “took care of business.”
Now Muhammad says he’s “proud” of Laury.
“He has matured and is a better person,” Muhammad said.
Still, in 2009 up on his return from Western Kentucky, Laury didn’t want to attend junior college because he had been told that “it was bad and you lose two years and such and such.”
He ended up at Ocean Academy, a postgraduate outfit in New Jersey where he took SAT prep class but attended no classes. He said he got a lot of bad advice.
“The people where I come from are not good people,” he said. “Not a lot of people are genuinely good people. Everybody has ulterior motives.”
He added: “It’s like the way I grew up, nobody was going to do anything for you unless it was going to benefit them.”
While at Ocean Academy, Laury first committed to Iona in November 2009, but changed course when Kevin Willard took the Seton Hall job the following spring.
He then committed to UMass in April of 2010, but couldn’t go because he still wasn’t eligible.
“I was all set to go,” he said.
Laury committed in October 2011 and sat out a year before suiting up this past January. He has been a more than suitable replacement for former Iona forward Michael Glover, averaging 13.1 points and 10.4 rebounds, while providing an inside presence to balance out the perimeter scoring of guards Lamont “Momo” Jones and Sean Armand.
“Obviously, he was on a difficult journey for many years until he got some stability in his life,” Cluess said. “And I think the fact that he’s been here and had that year to academically get settled and get used to college life and expectations and all that, I think he’s a more grounded kid right now and more focused than what he was. He’s got a long way to go in developing both on and off the court, but I’m really happy with the strides he’s making and I think he’ll be a big part of our program as we continue to move forward with him.”
While facing a hostile atmosphere and a heavily favored opponent, Cluess wants Laury to study Ohio State forward Deshaun Thomas up close, thinking he can learn a thing or two from the Buckeyes star.
“I want David to look at him and say, how hard do you need to work to be anywhere near what this kid is, and I’m hoping that lights a fire in Dave with his future,” Cluess said.
Of course, in order to see Thomas in person and get a glimpse of what he could be, Laury must first board an airplane.
Just the latest step in his own personal basketball odyssey.
Photo: Daily News
