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Jan. 22, 2009

BELLINGHAM, Wash -

by Ashley Mitchell, The Western Front

BELLINGHAM, Wash. --- Equipped with endless optimism, a knack for drawing contact and an abundance of physical power, Western Washington University junior forward Michael Duty has brought new energy to the men's basketball team.

"[Duty] has an outstanding profile in basketball," Western head coach Brad Jackson said about the 6-foot-6-inch forward. "He brings and demands toughness, is excellent around the hoop and really loves the game for the game."

Duty, a general studies major, is averaging 10.4 points and 5.2 rebounds for the Vikings.

Duty said his father, who coached a children's indoor recreational basketball league, was the first to introduce him to basketball. He started playing in a recreation league at age five. Duty said he first noticed his skill when he started playing with the Catholic Youth Organization during his elementary school days.

"I was always the best player on the team," Duty said. "I was also always the tallest."

Duty attended O'Dea High School in Seattle, a school known as a perennial powerhouse in basketball. Under the eye of coach Phil Lumpkin, O'Dea won five state titles, most recently in 2007.

Duty helped lead his high school team to the Class 3A state championship two years in a row, with a runner-up finish in 2006.

"[Duty] was one of the only people to dunk on us at a game," said Washington State University senior Jimmy Froio, who attended Bishop Blanchet High School, a rival of O'Dea.

"He could jump really high and got all the rebounds," Froio said. "He was one of the most athletic people we played against."

Duty said he was the best player on the freshman team and was quickly pulled up to the junior varsity, a rare opportunity because of the school's solid athletic reputation.

"I played center for O'Dea," Duty said. "Back then, I was one of the tallest guys on the team. When I got into college though, that all changed."

After graduating from O'Dea, Duty received a scholarship to play basketball at Wagner College in New York. He played on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I team for one semester, but things did not work out with the coach or the school, he said.

"It was different playing in college," Duty said. "The players move a lot faster and are a lot tougher. There's way more competition."

After leaving New York, Duty moved home and attended Bellevue Community College (BCC) where he played for the Bulldogs while working toward his associate degree. While at BCC, Duty helped the basketball team place seventh at the Northwest Athletic Association of Community College (NWAACC) post-season tournament and played in an NWAACC sophomore all-star game.

"It was sort of a step down," Duty said. "I went from O'Dea, up to a Division I team at Wagner and then down to play at BCC. But I didn't care, I just wanted to play."

After BCC, Duty was offered a walk-on spot at Idaho State University, but the head coach took a coaching job down in San Francisco. It was then that he made the last-minute decision to play at Western, he said.

"[Duty] e-mailed me and I was aware of how he played at O'Dea," Jackson said. "We were excited to get him on our team."

Western junior point guard Morris Anderson, who played with Duty previously on an Amateur Athletic Union team in 2003, said Duty is the goofy one on the team.

"He is always making people laugh," Anderson said. "But in his game, he's a big physical guy with big shoulders. He gets all the rebounds and likes to run people over."

Duty's constant presence on the court is one of his strongest assets to his game, Jackson said.

"[Duty] is a very physical kind of guy; he dishes out more than he takes, which is good," Jackson said. "He really just loves the game and comes everyday ready to play and it rubs off on his teammates."

After graduating from Western, Duty said he hopes to continue playing basketball. He is looking to play for the Bellingham Slam, an international basketball league team. Western assistant coach Tony Dominguez has connections to the Slam, which may help get Duty on the team, Duty said.

"I don't really care where I play," he said. "I just want to keep playing and maybe earn a little money doing it."