Reaching for Greatness

With the Harvard men’s basketball team clinging to a one-game lead in the Ivy League standings, Crimson fans might have expected reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Keith Wright or former Ivy League Rookie of the Year Kyle Casey to come up big against Brown last weekend.

Instead, it was 220-pound freshman forward Steve Moundou-Missi who answered the call, leading Harvard to a 69-42 victory with 14 points, six rebounds, and four swats.

The Cameroonian has been an integral part of Harvard’s inside game this season, providing strong post defense and showing flashes of his athletic offensive skills. He has appeared in all 26 games for the Crimson and currently leads all Harvard rookies in points per game and minutes played per game.

But Moundou-Missi’s path to basketball has been a long one.

“At first, I didn’t like basketball because my parents played and I didn’t want to be like my parents,” Moundou-Missi said.

His father Jean Paul, who stands at 6’10”, and his mother Annette, who is 5’10”, both played basketball for the Cameroon national team.

“I always played soccer,” the freshman forward said. “It’s big in Cameroon. Growing up, I wanted to be a soccer player.”

Moundou-Missi, much like many of his fellow Cameroonians, fell in love at an early age with “the beautiful game” of soccer. A big fan of the Cameroon national team and its superstar Samuel Eto’o, Moundou-Missi admits to having a fierce passion for the game of soccer.

“Whenever I can afford to play [soccer], I do,” Moundou-Missi said. “Sometimes I even play with a basketball.”

The Yaounde, Cameroon native did not make the transition from soccer to basketball until a few years before he moved to the United States at age 16.

“I was introduced to basketball by my parents,” Moundou-Missi said. “They made me start playing basketball when I was 13 or 14. I attended camp in Cameroon...[and the coach there] was impressed. I made contact with the high school coach [at Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla.], Coach Sutton, and that’s how I came to [the United States].”

It wasn’t an easy transition for a 16-year-old who had lived in Cameroon all his life and spoke little English to move to the United States. Moundou-Missi attended boarding school and stayed with a host family on weekends.

“It was hard at the beginning,” Moundou-Missi admitted. “It was hard to be around people and not be able to say things you want to say. As the years go along, you don’t get used to it, but you do integrate more.”

Moundou-Missi still believes that although he made the switch to basketball, soccer has stayed with him.

“I can say that soccer influenced the way I play the game of basketball by improving my footwork,” he said. “Also, soccer is quite a physical sport. I think I got tougher as I was playing soccer. I now use that physical toughness to play basketball.”

Ugo Okam, his teammate at both Harvard and Montverde, seems to agree.

Okam praised Moundou-Missi’s footwork and “ability to post up and be strong. He has strong legs.... I think it’s because he played soccer growing up.”

Attending boarding school away from his family and away from his home country was a challenge for the forward, but at Montverde Academy, Moundou-Missi quickly found success in both the classroom and the gym.

“In high school we had something like [a list of] the top 10 GPAs. He was always on it,” Okam said. “He’s always been this smart.”

At Montverde Academy, Moundou-Missi captained the men’s basketball team as a senior and earned several regional and national awards, including a selection to the ESPN Rise All-America second team. He led the Eagles to a second place finish at the 2010 ESPN National High School Invitational and was named Lake County Player of the Year as a senior.

Moundou-Missi has taken his success at Montverde with him to Harvard. Juggling a rigorous course load that includes Physics 15b: “Electromagnetism” and Applied Math 21b: “Mathematical Methods in the Sciences” while playing basketball for a Crimson team that has stayed consistently near the top 25 teams in the country is no easy feat.

“School comes first, basketball second,” Moundou-Missi insisted. “When everything is right in school, then I can play basketball. I knew that coming to college, that my biggest issue was going to be my time management. The first semester was really hard for me because I had to go to school, focus in school, get work done, and then go to practice.”

Moundou-Missi has found success in the Crimson rotation under the guidance of Tommy Amaker and a veteran-filled Harvard squad, averaging five points per game and 3.5 rebounds per game.

“I call him the silent assassin,” junior guard Brandyn Curry said. “He’s a quiet kid, well-mannered, but on the basketball court, he’s another animal.”

Okam agrees that Moundou-Missi is generally quiet, adding that his classmate has a hidden sense of humor.

“He has a funny side to him,” Okam said. “He will make fun of my jumpshot and joke. Steve’s a really funny character.”

When asked how he is able to manage such a busy schedule, Moundou-Missi points to organization and self-discipline.

“What motivates me is…I always think about why I’m here,” Moundou-Missi said. “I feel like going to another country, going to school, and playing basketball at the same time, I always feel like if I don’t play hard…this would be for nothing. That’s why I try my best. I don’t want to regret anything.”

A recipient of Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors after a stellar performance on Jan. 28, Moundou-Missi continues to play a big role for Harvard, as the team tries to clinch the Ivy League title and make a strong case for its first NCAA tournament bid since 1946.

“I think sports is one of those things that gets you outside of yourself,” he said. “Once you play a sport and you like it a lot, you just…don’t think about anything else except what you’re doing at the moment. I don’t think about homework, I don’t think about math, I don’t think about any girls I talk to. I’m just focused on what I have to do to make my team better. I would do anything to get it done.”