Shaw A Shooting Star On The South Side

By Brendan Murphy
ESPN.com

Before Shaw became the next great hope for Chicago basketball, he was message board fodder for the city's prep basketball enthusiast. And quite a few die-hards opined where he should and would go -- to high school.

Shaw, ESPN's No. 8 player in the Class of 2011, says there was only one choice: to follow in his brother David's footsteps and play at De La Salle on the city's South Side.

"It was a lot of pressure on me coming out of eighth grade," Shaw said. "Everybody was like 'why are you going there?' and this and that."

De La Salle coach Tom White knew Shaw before he was a 6-foot-8 phenom. White remembers him as the "normal-sized kid" who would hang around basketball camps with David -- who now plays at St. Mary's College in Winona, Minn. -- during the summer. That was before he hit a middle-school growth spurt that allowed him to enter high school as a 6-foot-6 freshman.

De La Salle Institute

Mike Shaw is the top-rated sophomore in Illinois.

"I already knew I felt comfortable [at De La Salle]" he said.

"Coach White told me we never knew you were going to be 6-8, we wanted you to come here from the very beginning."

In the coming years, Shaw's talent could elevate De La Salle, a solid program, to spectacular heights. As a freshman, Shaw averaged 10.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game in helping De La Salle to its second consecutive Chicago Catholic League title.

In a game against Mt. Carmel -- with the league title on the line -- he showed the heart and grit that goes with his immense talent.

"My defining moment with Michael Shaw is last year, in the Catholic League Championship on an away court against a team that had all seniors, he had his front tooth broken in half during the game," White said. "Then he came back in the fourth quarter, grabbed four rebounds, two blocked shots and went four for four from the free-throw line. … That was a heck of a freshman move right there."

After that game, the Meteors were riding high. Perhaps a little too high; they lost to that same Mt. Carmel team a few weeks later in the state tournament.

"We beat them two times during the season," Shaw said. "I think that third time everybody wasn't focused and playing hard. It was the worst loss of my life. I took it real hard, and I went to the gym the next day and played hard and took it all out."

At 6-8, Shaw towers above most of the opposition. But he isn't a back-to-the-basket big man. Shaw is capable of scoring from the inside and the outside, and he'll likely play on the wing in college.

De La Salle senior point guard Derrick Needham said Shaw is a team-oriented star.

"He's definitely not a shooting machine," said Needham, who is getting recruited by several mid-majors including Loyola (Chicago) and New Orleans. "Once we give him the ball, he's a great passer. He can pass the ball from the high post and kick it out from the low-post. He has a point guard's vision, basically."

For as much talent as he has, Shaw is a student of the game. Coaches and teammates say he's always willing to run that extra lap and is very receptive to instruction.

"He's coachable, [and] he's a good student," White said. "I know he's only 15, but he's older than that. He's always played up one or two or three levels."

White says he has gotten letters from nearly every major college program. Coaches from several schools -- including Florida, Illinois, USC, Purdue and Kentucky -- have stopped in to watch Shaw play.

Even with all that interest, Shaw has no plans to announce a college decision any time soon. Instead, he wants to focus on the present.

"Right now, I don't really know. I am just trying to get better," Shaw said. "I am focused on trying to get better and trying to get my schoolwork done so I can get to the college level.

"You can have all the talent in the world, if you don't get the grades, you can't do nothing."

Shaw takes pride in being from Chicago. As the next big thing in Windy City hoops, he knows many people have high expectations for him.

"It's a good feeling," Shaw said. "Everybody always talks about how Chicago's got such good basketball players. I remember when I was younger I used to look up at Derrick Rose and all of them and watch their games. The fact is that I am like them now."

With all that hype, White wants to make sure his sophomore sensation doesn't get ahead of himself.

De La Salle Institute

Shaw averaged almost two blocks a game as a freshman.

Growing up in Englewood, a neighborhood that has one of the highest crime rates in the city, Shaw is surrounded by distractions. He sees Rose, whom he has worked out with, as a good role model. Rose was able to rise above the hype and distractions to make his basketball dreams come true.

"You look at all the success he got, how he came from the hood, that's where I am at. … I [live] on one of the worst blocks in Chicago," Shaw said. "I am lucky to have the talent that God gave me to be a basketball player. If that can take me to college and anything else, that's what I am trying to do. I am trying to take care of my family."

After his strong showing as a freshman, Shaw continued to generate buzz on the AAU circuit with the Mac Irvin Fire. He says playing against tough competition on a national stage increased his desire to succeed.

"I've been out there now," he said. "I've seen all the competition and I understand that I want to be the best, you can't take any days off. Every time I am doing something there's always somebody watching. Off the court and on the court, there's always somebody watching I still got to be a young man and a good role model."