Vikings point guard Tim Douglas has taken on a leadership role at Portland State. After playing two seasons at the University of Portland he decided to transfer to PSU for the 2012–13 season per NCAA transfer rules.
“He’s been a leader from day one. Even when he sat out last year, he emerges a leader of our team and still is right now, and those are hard to find. He’s got great leadership qualities and he has helped shape who we are as a team,” said head coach Tyler Geving.
During Douglas’ career at University of Portland he averaged 8.5 points and 3.0 assists per game and scored a career high of 27 points on the road against PSU in December 2010. Why make the decision to play for PSU? Douglas said, “I like Portland State, their campus, their academics and the basketball program.” And when asked how he likes the team so far he said, “I love the Vikings, I love the team, I love my teammates and I love the style of play we have. We are just starting to click, so it’s fun.”
Douglas is from Cerritos, Calif., and has been playing basketball since the age of three. He and his younger brother attended Mayfair High School together. In high school Douglas led his team to a 19–10 overall record and a conference title. He was a two-year starter at point guard for the Suburban League and earned first team honors as a junior after averaging 14.0 points per game. He was also named Suburban League Most Valuable Player in 2010.
When asked about his experience playing in the Suburban League, he said, “I would say it was a pretty good year of basketball, I had fun with my teammates.”
In the sixth grade Douglas came to PSU to play in a tournament. “That was the first time that I’ve been [to Portland] other than school [college].” He became comfortable with the city and it was a second home for him once he started college.
“It seemed like a cool place to live and I’d have a chance to get away from home a little bit, but not be too far away to where I couldn’t go back if I really needed to.”
Although he was one of the youngest on the team at the time, Douglas was named team captain at the University of Portland. “Being a younger guy on the team and being named captain—it definitely taught me a lot. I had to grow up pretty quickly and I learned to transfer the skills that I learned there, both good and bad, to improve my leadership abilities.” He added, “You can learn something from everywhere you go, whether it is good or bad, and turn it into a positive in some way, shape or form.”
Now a Viking, Douglas contributes on a nightly basis, averaging 13.6 points and 3.8 assists per game. Geving said, “We ask him a lot, we ask him to score, we ask him to pass, we ask him to be a leader. It’s not necessarily how many points we want him to score, it is mostly what we want out of him in leadership, and obviously he is a good overall player. But his leadership is off the chart.”
Along with focusing on basketball, Douglas has been taking some challenging courses in the pre-med program; he aspires to be a doctor in the future. “It’s tough. It’s tough because not only do I get to go to class, but the classes that I do go to are not easy.” He added, “Life as a student-athlete is definitely a full-time job, I would say.”
Before a career in medicine Douglas hopes to reach his goal of playing in the NBA. Which player is he often compared to? “I’ve heard a few different players, some of my teammates or different people say Tony Parker or Chris Paul,” Douglas said. “I grew up watching those guys definitely. I like watching all of the point guards, I like to take a little bit of something from everyone. But I would definitely say Chris Paul [is someone I grew up watching] because he is not a big guy and finds a way to dominate every aspect of the game. So he’s definitely an idol of mine.”
Both basketball and education are important to Douglas. Although he has a passion for basketball, he knows the importance of education. “College was something that I was going to do regardless of if I was going to play basketball or not, but basketball of course helped me to get here. But I won’t be able to play forever unfortunately…I have to have an education to fall back on.”
Douglas said one of the best pieces of advice someone has given him is, “to live life the way that I want to live it because you only have one. So, make sure that I don’t have any regrets as far as pursuing my dreams.”
