The Hokie From Pahokee: How Zabian Dowdell Has Led The Renaissance of Virginia Tech Basketball

He is Virginia Tech’s leading scorer. He is first team All ACC. He is one of the best guards in college basketball.

He is Zabian Dowdell. And he has been a key figure in making Virginia Tech basketball matter again.

In his four years in Blacksburg, Dowdell has played a primary role in taking a team that was a perennial bottom-feeder in the Big East before he arrived to an ACC contender and NCAA tournament team in his senior season.

But, how did a moderately recruited high school player from Florida become the face of the revitalization of Virginia Tech basketball?

From Pahokee to Blacksburg

A native of Pahokee, Fla., Dowdell grew up in an athletic family. Like him, all three of his siblings – two older half-brothers, Bernard and Jermaine Jackson, and a younger sister, Tamara Dowdell – played basketball, the same sport their mother played.

It seems Isabelle McDonald, a former high school player, passed some of her basketball skills onto her children. All four children earned Division I college basketball scholarships and Jermaine, Tamara and Zabian were all-state players in high school.

But, despite his all-state status, an ankle injury Dowdell suffered in the summer prior to his senior season at Christopher Maxon High School slowed his recruiting offers. Before that, Connecticut, Miami and Stanford had shown interest in the talented guard. But, the injury caused them all to back off.

“I try to use that as motivation, being that a lot of the schools passed up on me,” Dowdell said. “But, at the same time, you really can’t blame those guys because who wants to have a player who was been injured in high school. I used it as motivation but I looked at it both ways. I’ve kind of moved on from that.”

Dowdell, a four-year starter and team captain, did not let the injury slow him down in his senior year in high school. He averaged 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds per game, which earned him all-state honors for the second straight season.

He ended up receiving scholarship offers from South Florida, East Carolina and Florida Atlantic. He was about to except South Florida’s offer when the team’s head coach left for another job.

That coach was Seth Greenberg. And that job was head men’s basketball coach at Virginia Tech.

Dowdell decided to follow the man who had been recruiting him for the past year to Blacksburg.

“It was a tough (decision to come to Tech),” Dowdell said. “Of course a lot of things went into it. I just saw it as an opportunity to play with a guy I trusted in a conference that was known as one of the best in the nation.”

Greenberg remembered the potential he saw in Dowdell, which is why he brought him to Tech:

“He had a great work ethnic and attitude. He loved the game. He was thin but had really long arms. He was very skilled; he had the ability to create separation and get in the lane even though he didn’t have the strength at times to do it.”

Dowdell signed with the Hokies, who were in the Big East at the time, on April 16, 2003. He was Greenberg’s first signee at Tech and the last to join the 2003 recruiting class, which included Jamon Gordon and Coleman Collins.

The Sunshine State Boys

When Dowdell arrived in Blacksburg, he joined a program that was coming off back-to-back-to-back losing seasons. After joining the Big East for the 2000-01 season, the Hokies had gone three straight years without qualifying for the conference tournament – their best finish was a conference mark of 4-12.

Dowdell, like the other new players, hoped to change that. One of those new players was Gordon, a fellow Floridian who would become Dowdell’s backcourt mate.

Their teammate Markus Sailes, who started at Tech a season earlier as a freshman and red-shirted Dowdell and Gordon’s sophomore season due to injury, recalled when the duo arrived:

“Zabian came in – no facial hair, skinny,” Sailes said. “Jamon came in skinny – he always had the facial hair. But they were just young, high-pitched guys just always talking. They were real arrogant. They came in saying it was going to be the takeover and they were going to do this and that. And they’ve came in and they’ve done it. ”

It didn’t take long for Dowdell and Gordon to form a bond both on and off the basketball court. They have been roommates for all four years of their Virginia Tech careers.

“When I first met (Gordon),” Dowdell said, “we clicked right away. It was strange the way I was able to open up to him. We had a conversation and I was telling him things that I couldn’t tell my friends back home.

“I knew it would be good to get a chance to play with him for four years. It’s been everything that I’ve expected and more.”

“They’re like Frick and Frack,” Greenberg said. “You don’t see Zabian without Jamon; you don’t see Jamon without Zabian. They’re two in the same. I think the greatest thing is that they really have a deep respect and appreciation for what the other brings to the table.”

On the court, Dowdell said Gordon has made his job a lot easier:

“Just to be able to have someone out there that you don’t have to worry about and to have another leader out there with you, it just makes (my) load a lot lighter. I definitely know that because of him, I’ve had some of the success that I’ve had. Because of me, he’s had some of the success that he’s had. It goes hand-in-hand.”

Greenberg, who often refers to Dowdell as the heart of the team and Gordon as the soul of the team, said they deserve all the credit they receive.

“I’m not surprised (at their success),” Greenberg said. “It’s something that, as a coach, I’m very proud of. I’m proud that they came in with little or no fanfare and they were never given anything but they’ve earned everything they’ve received. It’s a great story. It’s not where you’re rated and it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.

“I think (Gordon and Dowdell) were the architects of the renaissance of Virginia Tech basketball as we moved into the ACC.”

The Start of the Renaissance: Earning Respect

When Dowdell arrived on campus, Virginia Tech basketball was an afterthought. The team had not been competitive and, at a school with a top-tier football program, success in basketball was seemingly not on the minds of the fans. The Hokies struggled to draw people into Cassell Coliseum, including students.

So, before Virginia Tech could build a winner in basketball, it had to build a competitor – a team that was worth watching night in and night out. The progress was slow. There were setbacks. But, step by step, the team improved during Dowdell’s career. And he improved right along with it.

In his first season, he started 28 of Tech’s 29 games (missed one game due to a death in his family). He averaged almost 11 points a game and helped the Hokies qualify for their first ever Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden with a 7-9 conference record.

Tech defeated Rutgers, a team it had lost to by 33 points earlier that season, in the first-round of the tournament before losing to Pittsburgh in the second round. They finished their final season in the Big East with a 15-14 record.

Then came the move to the ACC.

Dowdell continued to improve his stats. He averaged 14.4 points per game in his sophomore season as Tech surprised the entire ACC, going 8-8 in the conference and earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament. His performance earned him an honorable mention for All ACC.

In what proved to be the season’s defining moment, Dowdell hit a game-winning three pointer in the closing seconds to lead Tech to a 67-65 upset of #7 Duke at Cassell Coliseum. A raucous student crowd stormed the court in what was one of the most memorable games in Virginia Tech history.

Despite being knocked out in the first round of the ACC tournament, the Hokies qualified for the NIT that year – their first postseason birth since the 1996 NCAA tournament. They defeated Temple at home in the first round before losing at Memphis in the second round to cap off a 16-14 season.

After two winning seasons and a surprising inaugural ACC campaign, the fans started to respond. Game by game, Cassell Coliseum was getting fuller and louder. Tech’s average home attendance soared from 6,342 the previous year to 9,405 in the 2004-05 season, which was the highest attendance increase in the nation.

Meanwhile, Dowdell was emerging as the leader on a team that was finally earning some respect.

“It was definitely something that we wanted to accomplish – being respectable,” Dowdell said. “For the most part, I think we’ve done a gob job of working toward that and keeping that in mind the whole time we’ve been here. When we go home, we’re doing things in the gym, trying to improve.

“And just remembering where we came from. Our freshman year was a tough year. Last year was a tough year for everyone. I just think this team has had a good mindset of improving every year.”

The Renaissance Takes a Step Back: A Season of Tragedy

As Dowdell said, his junior season was a tough one. While the team struggled on the court, it faced tragedy off the court.

The bad news hit before the 2005-06 season even started. Senior Allen Calloway was diagnosed with cancer in July. At the end of August, sophomore Deron Washington’s mother was forced to leave her home in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina destroyed it. She moved to Blacksburg.

In October, sophomore Wynton Witherspoon fractured his foot. The injury caused Witherspoon to contemplate red-shirting the season to be with his mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier that year. But, he decided against it.

During the season, the team was forced to deal with several deaths. A member of the Lynchburg, Va., family that was hosting Freshman A. D. Vassallo, a native of Puerto Rico, died in January. That same month, Senior Sean Harris lost his grandmother, who had raised him. Coleman Collins’ father died in February after battling lung cancer for nearly a year.

On the court, Dowdell tried to lead his team through these tragic times. His scoring average went up again – 15.3 points per game for the season – and he earned a second consecutive honorable mention for All ACC.

However, it wasn’t enough as the team struggled throughout the season. Tech suffered close loss after close loss, seemingly reflecting its off-court hardships. Twelve of the Hokies’ 16 losses were by six points or less, including a heartbreaker at Duke on a last second half-court heave by Shawn Dockery. Tech finished the season 4-12 in the ACC and 14-16 overall.

Dowdell and the rest of his teammates have used last season as motivation for this season. And so far, it seems to be working.

The Renaissance Realized: Defining a Legacy

In his final season, Dowdell has cemented his Virginia Tech basketball legacy through both his individual success and his team’s success. His career statistics are some of the most impressive in Virginia Tech men’s basketball history.

Dowdell’s points-per-game average has increased in each year of his Tech career. He stands seventh on Tech’s all-time scoring list and fifth on Tech’s all-time assists list going into the NCAA tournament.

But, Dowdell has always been more than just an offensive threat. On the defensive side, Dowdell has been a thief throughout his career – he is third on Tech’s all-time steals list. This season, he was second in the ACC, averaging 2.2 steals per game. Gordon, who is second on Tech’s the all-time steals list, was first with 2.7 per game.

Dowdell’s stellar individual performance – a career-best 18 points per game – has helped lead Tech – ranked as high as 16th during this year – to its best season in over a decade. With a 10-6 conference mark, the Hokies finished third in the ACC, earning a spot among the top echelon teams in the conference by beating traditional powerhouses Duke, North Carolina (twice) and Maryland. Tech With their home win over Boston College in February, the Hokies have defeated every ACC team at least once during Dowdell’s tenure.

Dowdell’s pivotal role in his team’s success has not gone unnoticed either.

The Virginia Tech guard was named first team Division I District Four All-District for 2007 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and is now eligible for the NABC All-America team. As mentioned previously, he was also named first team All ACC this season.

But despite all the accolades, Dowdell knows the season isn’t over. So, while he is proud of his team’s success, he tries not to reflect back too much.

“I think (reflecting) is something I’ll do later on,” Dowdell said. But right now, I’m really just trying to focus on the next game, the next day of practice. I’m trying to stay in the moment because if you look to far ahead then you lose focus of the things that you have to accomplish right now.

“I really don’t want to look back on what we’ve accomplished as a team or anything of that nature. I just want to try to make the most of what we have in front of us right now.”

What is in front of Dowdell and the Hokies is a chance to be a part of the most historic season in Virginia Tech basketball history. Having already won its first ever ACC tournament game, the team will also have a chance to make its mark in the NCAA tournament – the first for Tech since 1996.

The Hokies have had only one tournament appearance with two wins – back in 1967, Tech’s first ever trip to the NCAA tournament. Dowdell and his teammates hope to change that this year.

But regardless of how his career ends, Dowdell has already carved out a legacy at Virginia Tech. His career stats speak for themselves. However, there is something slightly more subtle that is indicative of his impact: He has earned a rhyming nickname that references his hometown in Florida and Virginia Tech’s unmistakable mascot.

“I kind of thought that was strange,” Dowdell said. People started calling me the Hokie from Pahokee. That was definitely something that I had a hard time getting used to. But, I kind of grew to love the name.”

And the fans have grown to love Dowdell. The Hokie from Pahokee has undoubtedly earned in spot in the collective memory of the Hokie faithful. When asked what he’d like that memory to be, Dowdell said:

“When people think of me, I would just like them to say that I was a hard worker and that I did whatever it took to win.”