Donavan Short leaving enters portal; brother Zane undecided
Zane, left, and Donavan Short played together this winter for UW-Green Bay. Donavan has entered the portal while Zane's future is still uncertain.
This story was updated on Saturday to include news on Zane Short
By Kelly Fenton
The Denmark News
DENMARK – When Donavan Short was making his decision where to play college basketball, loyalty to his hometown wound up taking top priority and he chose struggling UW-Green Bay over several high-profile schools, including Virginia Tech and USC.
But it turns out that newly hired Phoenix head coach Sundance Wicks wasn’t inclined to either reciprocate or reward that loyalty. As a result, Short, a former Denmark High School star, who along with brother and Phoenix teammate, Zane, helped the Vikings reach the state semifinals in 2019, has entered the college basketball portal. Zane, who has played through injuries at four colleges, is leaning toward focusing on his psychology degree with an eye toward a graduate degree in sports psychology.
“We had individual player meetings and the new coach said he wanted to put me on trial in the spring and talked about cutting me if it didn’t work out,” Short, a freshman, says. “I’m cool with the whole trial thing but it’s also a big risk factor for me because it would leave me with only three or four days to enter the portal at that point.
“If he would have said, yeah, I want you here but we’re going to have trials I might have been okay,” Short adds. “But I just felt there was a lack of want and I don’t want to be someplace I’m not wanted.”
It closes a chapter on a year of basketball starkly different from Short’s previous experience with the sport, taking him from successful AAU and Denmark High School programs where he excelled as one of the top players in Division 3 to a UWGB program in free fall where his playing time was limited and the losses piled up. The Phoenix went 3-29 and fired their coach mid-season. Short, meanwhile, managed just 8 minutes a game, scoring 2.1 points and grabbing 1.3 rebounds before an injury cut his season short in late January.
Short doesn’t know if he was the only Phoenix player being asked to re-prove himself. He does know that half or more of the roster has also entered the portal. Short says that 24 hours after he officially announced he began receiving interest from schools in Minnesota, Texas, Nebraska, Florida and even Hawaii. More are certain to reach out.
‘How Are You Going To Handle Adversity?’
Asked to speculate on why Wicks, a former assistant at Wyoming, might have taken such a harsh approach, Short speculates that he saw the record and may have decided to gut everything and start fresh.
“I have nothing but love for Green Bay,” Short says. “But sometimes things just don’t work out. My mom and brother are always telling me, ‘Control what you can control.’ But I still see the experience as a blessing, just to be able to put on that Green Bay jersey and to do that with my brother beside me, it’s been a surreal experience.”
Still, despite saying he’s “excited to move forward,” he also allows that it is “unfortunate” that he has to. Short knew coming to Green Bay that his playing time would be limited with a heralded sophomore eating up a lot of minutes at the five. The 6-10 Short was a perimeter wing at Denmark where he was able to utilize his shooting and driving skills to great effect. At Green Bay he played more of a traditional back-to-the-basket post, something he admits he was never quite comfortable with.
The losses piled up; Short’s playing time never grew; and then the bottom fell out with the firing of head coach Will Ryan followed by a knee-bone bruise that sidelined Short for the final fourth of the season. Even for the happy-go-lucky Short it began to wear.
“It was definitely difficult,” he admits. “I’m used to being on winning teams and now I’m injured and I can’t even help out. It was hard, but it taught me a lot. It’s a big thing, you know – how are you gonna handle adversity?”
Short says that he had every intention of remaining a Phoenix despite all the hardships this season. He came for a reason – to honor his hometown, to play in front of friends and family – and that hadn’t changed in his mind.
“I still wanted to be there,” he says. “It was not being wanted, though. I wanna go to a place that wants me. The location doesn’t matter. It just depends on if they want me.”
Older Brother Eyes Degree
Zane Short, who along with Donavan was a member of the 1,000-point club at Denmark and who was a three-time first-team all-conference player and a member of the all-state team his senior season, intimates his playing career may be over, though he hasn’t made a final decision.
A senior with two years of eligibility left, Zane says he’s already been able to live out special dreams.
“I’ve knocked everything out on my realistic bucket list for my career,” he says. “Playing with Donavan this last year and sharing the court at the Division 1 level with him at schools like Georgetown and Stanford, or even the schools in the Horizon League, was the best thing I could have had during my career.”
Zane calls himself “blessed” for the opportunities he’s received and still holds open the possibility of entering the portal. More than likely, he says, he’ll be content to chase his degrees and be a support system for Donavan and former Viking teammate and current West Virginia Mountaineer Patrick Suemnick as they move forward in their careers.
“I just know that third-grade Zane and even senior-year Zane would have never believed that I would have been able to do the things I did and see the places I’ve seen,” he says. “Being able to play the game I love past high school at the level I did was all I wanted. I’m thankful for the tough road I had.
“I think the lessons from it will prove very useful down the road in real life.”