Former KU forward Dwight Coleby speaks to The Star from Italy: ‘I am holding up well’
Dwight Coleby hears a knock at the door of his roomy, two-level apartment in Sassari, Italy. Without opening it, he greets a staff member of his Dinamo Sassari professional basketball team — a kind soul who has placed a bag of groceries just outside the entrance.
Coleby, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound, 26-year-old power forward from Nassau, Bahamas, gives hearty thanks for the delivery, then opens the door to retrieve the goods.
“We (he and delivery person) talk at a distance then they leave. We don’t get close to each other,” said Coleby, who along with the rest of his teammates has been on a government-ordered lockdown due to the COVID-19 coronavirus for eight — or is it nine, he wonders aloud — days.
“I think this is the eighth day,” Coleby, who would like to report he’s OK and actually doing fine, informed The Star in a phone interview Thursday.
“I am holding up well, watching how I’m eating and working out twice a day,” said Coleby, who places his food orders through his team when supplies run low.
One might wonder how Coleby, a power forward who had a redshirt year at Kansas, then played in 24 games in 2016-17 before transferring to Western Kentucky for his final collegiate season, is staying fit right now. He says his Italian teammates occupy other units in the apartment complex and, like them, he manages to work out in the confines of his apartment.
He says he’s actually able to head outside to the parking lot as long as no one else is around. He can’t leave the immediate area, of course.
“There is a parking lot gated in,” said Coleby, who actually will have to stay isolated longer than he expected. The Italian prime minister, according to CNBC.com, on Thursday extended Italy’s lockdown beyond the current end date to April 3 as the death toll (3,405 as of Thursday) spiked past that of China.
“I wake up early every day. It doesn’t matter if I go to sleep late or not. It just depends. I don’t sleep that much,” Coleby told The Star.
“I get up, go work out, do some running in the parking lot, come back and try to eat some food, cook food. I try to watch basketball, watch movies, try to cook more food later on, get another workout in. I watch something, read something, try to do something,” he said.
When Coleby is conditioning in the parking lot, he’ll sometimes see some of his Dinamo Sassari teammates. He resists any temptation to walk up to them to visit.
The recommendation in Italy is the same as it is in the U.S.: that individuals stay about six feet apart at all times to avoid possible contact with others who might have the virus.
“We try to talk, but it’s at a distance. We don’t get close to each other. I do my stuff when no one is out there, basically,” Coleby said.
Coleby will sometimes gaze out a window, stare in the distance and be reminded that he’s not the only one inconvenienced by the lockdown.
“Every time there are empty streets, empty,” Coleby said. “Nobody is moving too much. They are staying inside. You’ve got people outside sometimes.
“I think it could be everyone is taking it seriously over here and staying indoors. I don’t see any cars from the distance. You see people staying inside, sometimes on the balconies.”
Coleby said he “sees the numbers” and is saddened by them — “they keep going up” — but otherwise is fine mentally. He uses the WhatsApp phone app as well as FaceTime to speak with family members back in the Bahamas. He also talks often with his fiancee, who is in Atlanta, via the same methods.
“Everything is fine here. Everything feels normal for me, staying inside the house,” Coleby said. “Everything is good. It’s not like I’m seeing sick people or dead people around me. It’s not like that.”
Coleby actually started the season playing for ITU Basket Istanbul, a team in Turkey. He averaged 14.1 points and 7.4 rebounds in 15 games. So far he’s averaged 4.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in five games for Dinamo in Basketball Champions League contests. He’s also played for teams in Belgium and Japan.
“My contract got bought out. I came to Italy,” Coleby said, indicating he knows of no other former Jayhawks playing in Italy at this time.
His squad’s season was suspended after a recent game in Spain, one played with no spectators. The quarantine was announced immediately after the team’s charter returned from Spain. He decided to remain in Italy to see if the season might resume. No decision has been announced yet.
He’d have had a tough time leaving anyway during this time of worldwide crisis.
“If we start to practice, I’ll go to practice. At the rate it’s going now (with numbers of infection and deaths), I don’t know about that happening,” Coleby said of a possible resumption of basketball. “I think they still want the season to play on. It (season) ends in April.”
At this point, he might not be able to flee the country even if he wanted to.
“I think every country is banning flights from Italy,” he said. “It’d be hard for me to get home, I think. They say unless you are American, you can’t get in America.
“All flights are connected through America to get to the Bahamas. I don’t know if they are allowing flights at all. I don’t know (how to get out).”
Coleby had an eventful two years at KU. He suffered a knee injury in October 2015 after transferring from Mississippi and wasn’t able to practice with the Jayhawks during the 2015-16 season. In 2016-17, he averaged 5.6 minutes, 1.7 points and 1.8 rebounds with 12 blocks in 24 games. He appeared in the Jayhawks’ final nine games that season as he gained confidence in his surgically repaired knee.
Coleby scored three points, grabbed four rebounds and had one steal in nine important minutes during a 90-70 win over Michigan State in the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament. He filled in admirably for the foul-plagued Landen Lucas and was mobbed by teammates in a happy locker room afterward.
Lucas dubbed Coleby the MVP of that important contest.
“He deserves that because it’s been a rough go for him,” KU coach Bill Self said after the game. “His attitude is so good. He’s such a great kid. To see him respond like that … I just know our kids are so happy for him.”
“Definitely,” Coleby said when asked if he remembers the KU-Michigan State game. “I mean, it was a big deal to go to the Sweet 16 by beating Michigan State (KU would lose to Oregon in the Elite Eight). The team needed someone to step up. Coach put me in the game. I contributed to the win. That was huge for the whole basketball program.”
In search of more playing time, Coleby left Lawrence for Western Kentucky at season’s end that year. As he was at KU, he became a fan favorite. And he improved his numbers at WKU, averaging 11.1 points, 8 rebounds and 27.6 minutes.
“It was a good move for me, actually playing and getting back in the flow of the game,” Coleby, who noted that he’s tried to follow KU’s current team as much as possible.
“I saw the Baylor game,” he said of KU’s 64-61 win over BU on Feb. 22 in Waco, Texas. “Doke was going crazy,” he added of Udoka Azubuike who had 23 points, 19 rebounds and three blocked shots.
“They had a great season. They finished No. 1. That was awesome. I was looking forward to them winning the NCAA championship. Too bad they canceled it. It’s sad.”
Coleby actually helped recruit Azubuike, the 2019-20 Big 12 player of the year, to KU.
“I told Doke he had a future the first day he walked on campus,” Coleby said. “I took him out on his official visit (as his host). I told him he had unbelievable potential. You can’t be that big, jump that high and run that fast. That’s not even possible. It’s the first time I’ve seen that.
“I said, ‘You are going places. Keep working at it.’ He finally without being injured showed it. I’m proud of him.”
Coleby was asked if he had a message to fans at KU and WKU.
“My advice is stay calm and obey the rules,” Coleby said. “If they say stay inside, don’t go out and touch people. It (social distancing) helps a lot. Some people are slow to the fact it is a serious virus and don’t take it seriously. See all the numbers. See the deaths.”
He said those who are spiritual can “pray and ask the Lord for help and safety.
“I think everything happens for a reason,” he said.
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 10:11 AM with the headline "Former KU forward Dwight Coleby speaks to The Star from Italy: ‘I am holding up well’."
