RICHMOND, Va. -- De'Monte Buckingham is finally at a great place in his life.
"I've definitely been putting in a great place here and just put me in a great mindset throughout this whole year. So I'm definitely in an awesome space right now," Buckingham said.
Greatness was expected for De'Monte the minute he arrived at the University of Richmond after being a part of two State Championship teams in a three-year period at Henrico High School.
"I feel like I had a great freshman year, I impacted the game and the ways I wanted to in the ways he wanted me to. So I feel like that that for me. It was definitely a great year for me," Buckingham said.
De'Monte's great freshman season with the Spiders was capped when won the 2017 A-10 Rookie of the Year; only the 3rd player in program history to do that.
"I just have to go out there, just love the game, just have fun. And that's the mindset I tried to go in there with. And you know, it just it just helped me out throughout the whole year," Buckingham said.
Despite his individual success at Richmond, De'Monte wasn't totally happy.
"I wanted to transfer and be in a position where I put myself in a position where I could play, like guard," he said.
The transfer never happened. In April of 2018, De'Monte was dismissed from the Spiders Basketball team for his second violation of the Athletic Department's policy.
"To be honest, I definitely was at my lowest at the time throughout my whole basketball career, my life. I never like felt like that at all throughout my whole life," Buckingham shared.
What ultimately led De'Monte through was family.
"Just having my parents — both my parents around my both of my brothers — just keep talking to me and carried me telling me, 'No, everything's gonna be alright. This is something you do, something you love. God gonna put you back in a position where you are, you want to be.' And he did," he said.
De'Monte got a second chance at playing the game he loves 3,000 miles from home with the Roadrunners of Cal-State Bakersfield.
"So I ended up getting a conversation, a call with the head coach, which Rob Barnes you know, Mississippi native, definitely a Hall of Fame, no coach, so I got a call from him and had a great conversation with him," Buckingham said.
De'Monte's three years with Cal-State Bakersfield was very beneficial in his development both on and off the court.
"I was out there by myself, like no family," he said. "But just getting close with him and close with my teammates, I started you know, building a close, like trusting bond with them."
Just when De'Monte got back to being his old self and developed a connection with Coach Barnes and the team, COVID shutdown everything.
"I really was quiet. I didn't really say too much to anybody," he said.
The pandemic put De'Monte back in a place where he felt it was time to transfer from Cal-State Bakersfield and return back east to be closer to his family.
"That's really why my mind was like a little messed up because I'm like, 'OK, I just wasted a year' and then I had one more year left," Buckingham said.
De'Monte decided to leave Cal-State Bakersfield for Radford University to play for Coach Mike Jones.
"It was the easiest recruitment," Jones remembered. "It was almost like when I was in college, I failed organic chemistry twice and a third time I got an A. So it was same thing with Buck, I failed it twice — and then the last time it was easy."
But it was difficult choice given the relationship De'Monte built with Coach Rod Barnes.
"The way I explained that, he respected my decision. And he just told me, 'No, go do what I needed to do,'" Buckingham said. "And if I needed help with anything, like no matter what on off the court, he's gonna be there from regardless and he wasn't lying."
"It was more than basketball, it was, you know, just that relationship that we had established over the years," Jones said.
De'Monte called his short-lived time at Radford "definitely mind boggling."
Jones had left Radford to become the Head Coach at UNC-Greensboro.
"He basically just told me upfront, 'I want you to come with me. Is that something that you want to do?'" Buckingham said. "I didn't even give him no second guessing, I just told him, 'Yes, I'm coming with you.'"
Jones said he was confident De'Monte might want to come along, "so that made it easy."
In his one season at UNC-Greensboro, De'Monte achieved career highs in points, FG%, and 3-pt %.
"Obviously he's going to say I put in the work throughout the summer, which I did. But I still put that on him because he gave me the right mindset and right mentality to not even worry about like any mistakes," Buckingham said.
"The intangible leadership that he brings to our team, not just, you know, vocally not just by example, but just the encouragement piece with other guys on the team," Jones said.
With his college career now complete, De'Monte looks back at his journey, which had some obstacles along the way, that ultimately made him a stronger and better person.
"It's something I really want to do to change my life," Buckingham said. "So I just had to decide myself that I just got to keep working, working, working. That's just my mindset right now."
