Anthony Strickland summed up his teammate Darrell Lampley as an energetic scorer and an aggressive leader.
“He gets on us a lot,” Strickland said. “He’s very aggressive with the team when it comes to success. He’s also an aggressive player both offensively and defensively.”
Lampley is a 5-foot-10, 170-pound senior guard for the Eastern Michigan University
basketball team. He comes from Linden, New Jersey, but transferred from Lakeland
Community College to join the Eagles last season.
Lampley graduated from Linden High School where he played under coach Phil Colicchio while also participating in Amateur Athletic Union basketball for the New Jersey Road Runners. In his time at Linden, Lampley helped lead the team to two state championships.
During his senior campaign, he averaged 18 points and four assists to help lead the team to a 30-3 record and the group four state title.
Upon completion of his senior season, Lampley was named the MVP of the state championship and the conference’s player of the year while also earning All-State honors.
Lampley continued his education and basketball career at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City. In one season with St. Peters, he averaged 10 points and 1.9 rebounds.
Lampley then moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he played for Lakeland Community
College. While there, he earned a S.T.A.R. academic honor with a 3.0 GPA in 2009-10. He also averaged 17.9 points, which was good for sixth in the conference, and averaged a league-leading 6.8 assists. He finished fourth in the league for steals with 2.7 per game.
After a one-year tenure at Lakeland, Lampley made the decision to come to EMU.
“I came to EMU because I have family in the Detroit area and family in the Toledo area,” Lampley said. “It was just a better situation for me since I’m from New Jersey.”
Since coming to Eastern, Lampley has improved in many facets of his life and game.
He said he has grown up as an individual, in the classroom and as a basketball player. Two people who have been an example and impacted him in his transitions are his coaches Derrick McDowell and Benny White.
“(They) teach me how to be a man on and off the court as well as how to excel my basketball skills,” Lampley said. “They’re just good people.”
Lampley, who has been playing basketball since he was three years old, was led into the decision to pick up a basketball by his father. The competitive nature of the sport and his love for it are the things that keep him coming back to it.
“My favorite thing about basketball would have to be the adrenaline rush and just the love for the game,” Lampley said.
In his first season with the Eagles, Lampley finished third on the team in scoring with 6.3 points per game and led the team in assists with 3.6, which was good for the eighth spot in the Mid-American Conference. He was also ranked sixth in the MAC in assists/turnover ratio at 1.62.
So far this season, he averages a team-high 15.9 points and 2.8 assists. He recorded a career-high 37 points against Colgate on Dec. 1.
Though Lampley prefers to impact the game through his outstanding ability to score, deep down he would like to participate in another way. Lampley enjoys listening to R&B music as well as singing it.
According to Strickland he has a tendency to break out in song at any given moment, typically Trey Songz. He also said he could see Lampley performing the national anthem before a game at the Convocation Center.
“I see him standing on the E with the spotlight overhead, ‘oh say can you see,’” Strickland said. “He has on a denim jacket singing in a very low octave and out of
nowhere he spins and slides out in the middle of the E, ‘and the home of the BRAVE!’”
Maybe it is a sign of things to come.
In all seriousness, Strickland said Lampley is, “probably one of the most hard-working and talented players he has ever played with. He is also a great friend on and off the court.”
