She’s ready for fresh air, wide-open spaces, and a brand-new basketball challenge.
South Shore junior point guard Destiny Philoxy verbally committed to the University of Massachusetts last week. Life in Amherst will be decidedly different from Canarsie, but the Lady Vikings star is excited for the next step.
“I visited last month, and there were so many trees and it was all wide open,” said Philoxy, who averaged 8.1 points per game and 3.5 assists last season. “There weren’t any buildings, just kind of a big, huge campus. But I like that a lot, and I’m kind of looking forward to a new challenge.”
Philoxy first started talking with the team in August, just a few months after the Minutewomen hired new head coach Tory Verdi. It didn’t take long for Philoxy to realize UMass was the program for her, especially after meeting with Verdi.
“When I first met him, he told me, ‘Remember we saw you when no one else did,’ ” Philoxy said. “And that stuck in my head for a while. So I wanted to go there. They’re a good team, number one, and coach and I really hit it off.”
Philoxy visited the campus in November. She didn’t get to meet everyone on the roster, but she did spend a few moments with senior guard Alyx Stiff. The two discussed the future of the program, what Philoxy could bring to the team, and — most importantly — jersey numbers.
“We actually talked about how I would take her jersey number if I came to the school,” Philoxy said. “That was pretty cool, and it made me feel comfortable.”
Philoxy still has plenty of high-school basketball left in front of her — including a run at a third-straight Public Schools Athletic League championship with South Shore this winter — but the backcourt star is already thinking big when it comes to her goals at the college level.
“I want to start off big,” Philoxy said. “I think I could start as rookie of the year and play some point guard. I just want to show people that players from New York can play at this next level.”
Philoxy also drew interest from Virginia Commonwealth University, Fordham, Quinnipiac, Wagner, and American. She couldn’t shake the draw to UMass, however, and the prospect of playing in the Atlantic-10 was simply too good to pass up.
“I just want to show the rest of the country that I’m a dominant point guard,” Philoxy said. “And that I’m a solid, all-around player at this level.”
The lefty guard already hit her stride with the Lady Vikings this season, the offensive spark for South Shore, but the commitment is a weight off her shoulders. She knows what’s next, and now she can simply focus on winning championships.
“I was struggling, kind of knowing that I’d have to pick through some of these colleges,” Philoxy said. “I just knew that UMass was the right one for me. So that made it easier.”
