Although he had some help, give Tony Mayfield all the credit.
The 25-year-old Milwaukee native defied the odds to not only play Division I college basketball but also to graduate with a bachelor's degree in organizational leadership and a minor in computer technology.
To those who lost track of him since high school, that news is, to say the least, surprising.
Mayfield bounced around a number of high schools, didn't play more than a season and a half of high school basketball and when he left Milwaukee Vincent, his last school, he didn't have his diploma.
"It's changed drastically," Mayfield said of his life. "After going to school for a while, I got a different outlook on things. I got off the streets for a while and was just focused on graduating and playing ball and having a good time."
For the all the negatives that have become associated with summer basketball, there is still plenty of good that results from it. Mayfield's story is an example of that.
With the help of Curtis Weathers, who runs Stay in the Game, and former summer coach Ric Cobb, Mayfield received a scholarship to Tyler Junior College in Texas.
"We literally filmed him on the playground playing to get to a junior college so we could get somebody to take a look at the kid," Weathers said.
But first, they harped on the importance of getting his general equivalency diploma. They even hooked him up with a tutor, Dawn Haldin.
Mayfield starred at Tyler. He went on to play two years at Purdue, where he served as a tri-captain in his senior season, 1998-'99.
He spent the past school year completing his degree.
The chances of that happening without the help of people in the summer game are slim, Mayfield said.
"It probably wouldn't have happened at all," he said. "Summer basketball, it can be a big help, but right now they're having a lot of problems with it. But it can be a big help in a lot of ways. I know it helped me out a lot."
Many of the summer and Amateur Athletic Union programs in Milwaukee are community-based, non-profit organizations that use basketball as a tool to draw youths in for a more important message.
Summer basketball has caught the eye of the NCAA, which trimmed its recruiting calendar in an effort to get high school coaches more involved with the recruiting process and at the same time get away from some of the shady characters involved with the summer game.
But the new rules will affect only a small percentage of players. The bulk of them don't go to the next level.
"One of things we always stress in summer basketball is that we try to push these kids to education," said James Miller, executive director of the Milwaukee Police Athletic League. "I think if we had to look at the question about summer basketball, I think that (education) needs to be tied in a little more. . . . I think that is one of the main elements missing."
Although PAL teams play in AAU tournaments and at various times have had some of the top players in the Milwaukee area, their focus isn't basketball. The main objective is to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community - especially youths.
To that end, they offer opportunities to compete in a variety of sports as well as offer modeling and computer classes.
PAL serves about 3,000 to 4,000 youths, numbers that may increase after the completion of its new recreation facility on N. 24th and W. Burleigh St., a $45 million facility financed by public and private money.
Louis "Nicky" Johnson's Milwaukee Swish program doesn't have that kind a financing but it is based on similar principles.
Active throughout Milwaukee and the surrounding area, his program is one of the few with a grade-point average requirement (2.0).
At their banquet, participants were honored for their successes in forensics and spelling bees, for having grade-point averages above 3.0 and for community service. No basketball awards were given even though the Swish's 15-under team won its fourth AAU state title in April.
"I hope that some of them will come back and do the same thing I've done and give back to the community," said Johnson, a detective with the Milwaukee Police Department. "I know that these kids will come back. We emphasize it. They will be successful people and come back to this community."
Such programs are not the exclusive domain of the lower-profile organizations. The Wisconsin Playground Warriors, which is sponsored by Nike, is split purposely between suburban and city kids and uses the game as a unifying force. George Karl's Friends of Hoop program, which receives Adidas sponsorship, offers its players free classes to prepare for the ACT as well as tutoring.
However, most organizations do their work while receiving little or no fanfare. The Running Rebels, which have a year-round mentoring program, are one of those groups working behind the scenes.
"This person becomes a friend that this kid can call and say, 'I'm having trouble in math. I'm having in trouble with this girl, I don't know if I should keep liking her,' and he has a role model he can confide in," said Victor Barnett, who runs the Rebels. "You don't get that from somebody you see every now and then."