According to Indystar.com
Butler coach Brad Stevens calls him a gym rat. A greater testament to Mack’s devotion was when he resembled a disoriented gym bat
As a 5-year-old, little Shelvin wanted to dunk so badly that he leaped from a chair toward a 7-foot goal. He got caught in the net. By his teeth. He was rushed to a Lexington, Ky., hospital for a root canal.
“I thought he would be done with basketball,” said his mother, Victoria Guy. “It did not stop him at all.”
The 6-3 sophomore guard will try to be unstoppable when his No. 5-seeded Bulldogs (30-4) meet No. 1 seed Syracuse (30-4) in a Thursday semifinal of the NCAA West Regional at Salt Lake City.
Mack is second in scoring (14.1) and assists (3.1) for Butler and was chosen to the All-Horizon League first team. He equaled a career high of 25 points, including seven 3-pointers, in a 77-59 win over Texas-El Paso in the NCAA first round.
If you want tattoos, trash talk, behind-the-back passes or slam dunks, Mack is not your man. He represents fundamental basketball. He is someone “you just enjoy having on your team,” Stevens said.
Mack’s mother credited her grandmother — Shelvin’s great-grandmother — for her son’s humility. He has always been that way, she said.
One of the rare times Mack’s mother disciplined her teenage son was when he received a “C” on a midterm. She benched him for the next game. He cried, and the coach pleaded to let him play. Mother stood firm. Shelvin needed to keep up with his grades.
“He’s better than that,” she told the coach.
Turns out he was a better ballplayer than many believed, too.
He emerged from relative obscurity when, as a senior at Bryan Station High School, he averaged 23.7 points for a 30-3 team that reached No. 1 in Kentucky. It was unusual for Mack to be the star. He had been content to be part of the cast.
Two recruiters once visited an open gym and left disappointed because Mack didn’t dominate. His coach, Champ Ligon, said Mack didn’t do so because he was trying to make teammates better.
Mack played summers for Cincinnati’s D-I Greyhounds. That AAU club featured future NBA players O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker, along with high school All-Americans William Buford (Ohio State) and Darius Miller (Kentucky).
However, Mack caught the attention of then-assistant coach Brandon Miller of Butler. Mack visited Butler and liked the coaches, family environment, small campus, proximity to home and opportunity to play. But he couldn’t make up his mind on a college. He asked his mother to decide.
“This is your life you’re talking about,” she told him. “You have to make the decision.”
He committed to Butler, sticking by that
“This is your life you’re talking about,” she told him. “You have to make the decision.”
even when the hometown Kentucky Wildcats showed interest. When Mack totaled 40 points in two games between Indiana and Kentucky All-Stars in June 2008, it was clear he was for real.
“You have to go out there and work hard every day and prove people wrong,” he said.
His personal traits, as well as skill, allowed him to join Butler teammate Gordon Hayward on Team USA for July’s under-19 World Championship. Mack went to tryouts only because other candidates were injured or declined invitations, and he wasn’t a standout.
Coincidentally, chairing the selection committee was coach Jim Boeheim of Syracuse. Boeheim said Mack was better than he showed. Mack won over the committee with a work ethic evidenced by arriving early for practice and staying late.
“He just loves the game,” Stevens said.
Boeheim’s observation proved prescient. Mack became team captain, point guard and a steadying influence on the first USA team to win since 1991. In nine games, he averaged 5.9 points and 1.9 assists.
Now, Mack is in the Sweet Sixteen, just like his hometown Kentucky Wildcats, whose roster includes pal Darius Miller, who beat him out for Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball. The two text and talk regularly.
Not that anyone will see a big-headed Mack. Not with Mom on alert.
“He needs to remain humble and remember the struggles he’s gone through,” his mother said.
No one would suspect Mack’s most striking feature — a broad smile making him easy to identify among U.S. players celebrating a gold medal — came at such cost. The dentist made sure there were no gold teeth.
