Eighty miles across the Mississippi River is the small village of Tamaroa, Ill. Home to about 750 people, it’s a place where everybody knows everybody. The town has what it needs: a post office, a grain mill, a gas station, a grocery store, a cemetery and a tavern. Tamaroa is, in short, quintessential “small town U.S.A.”
That may not sound like much to you, but for Kyle Cassity, that’s home. It was in tiny Tamaroa that Cassity came to love the game of basketball. And in a place where there is not much to do, basketball can be the hottest ticket in town.
Cassity suited up on the varsity squad for the Pinkneyville Panthers all four years of high school. In those four years, his No. 23 scored 1,319 points (641 as a senior) to rank fourth all-time at the tradition-laden school. The young guard averaged 8.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, and led his team to a fourth-place finish in the 2008 Illinois state tournament.
This passion for basketball would grab the attention of Vanderbilt, Michigan and Arkansas State, and earn Cassity a Class-AA first-team All-State selection by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.
It also grabbed the attention of Rick Majerus, newly minted head coach at Saint Louis University, who described Cassity as a “fierce competitor” who gets the game. For Cassity, the call from Majerus meant a chance to be part of something special.
“You hear a lot about Coach [Majerus] and how he is, but the most important thing for me is, he wins,” Cassity said. “I knew he was a great teacher [of the game].”
In the span of two years, Cassity would go from small-town ball to big-city hoops. He’s also now part of a core of sophomores leading SLU to prominence in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Hailing from Tamaroa has just but one setback, though, according to Cassity.
“From high school to college, [basketball] is definitely different. Coming from southern Illinois, the game is nothing like Division-I ball. I knew that Kevin [Lisch] would be in front of me, which was good.
“I got experience from them, and it gave me a chance to play a little bit as a freshman and get ready for this [year], where I’ve been on the floor more and there’s more offense.”
More offense is exactly what Majerus brought Cassity to SLU to produce. Perhaps because of Lisch, Cassity didn’t blossom his freshman year in the way that some had expected; on the year, he had just 48 points, though he played in 30 games. He also has shown some reluctance to take a shot, which Majerus calls “disgusting.”
Cassity says he doesn’t really feel the pressure to take every shot, but to “ … take what comes to you, that’s what we all try to do. We work the ball around and try to find the open shot.”
Lately though, Cassity has showed a lot more assertiveness with the ball. Against Duquense on Jan. 13, he put up 15 points, and had a career-high 18 points against Kennesaw State on Nov. 22. This season, the Tamaroa guard is averaging 5.6 points per game (compared to 1.6 points last season) and has taken 87 shots, 11 more than last year’s total. Since the start of A-10 play, No. 23 seems to have found his stride.
“With conference [play] I got off to a good start,” Cassity said. “I feel comfortable, and got my confidence back coming off those games where I shot well and knocked a few down. Those games help the next time I have the ball and take a shot.”
Shooting isn’t the only stat that’s changed; Cassity has 47 assists and 50 rebounds thus far; that’s good for second and fourth, respectively, on the team. He’s also seen the court for more minutes than anyone, with the exception of sophomore captain Kwamain Mitchell.
Cassity finds himself in an ironic position. Because of SLU’s youth, he, as only a sophomore, has been thrown into the role of mentor to freshmen Christian Salecich and Justin John. That’s a position Cassity feels comfortable in, as he has a great example to follow with Lisch’s mentoring last season. “I enjoy playing and who we’re playing with,” he said. “This is a good group of guys and we’re all excited to play every day.”
For No. 23, his dreams of being part of something big are becoming a reality. SLU is 3-2 in A-10 play, their best conference start since joining the league. And while he knows that the future is bright and he’s in good hands with Majerus, Cassity is well aware that hard work will still be needed to succeed.
“I need to be more assertive and work on my middle game instead of taking a three-pointer or a lay-up … but things are looking up. There are a lot of people who didn’t think it could happen, but we thought we could.
“We just come out and play our game. Things have been going our way, and things are going well.”