Kyle Fuller (basketball)

Kyle Fuller
College	Vanderbilt University
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Sport	Basketball
Position	Point Guard
Class	2014
Nickname	Zoom
Career	2010–2014
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	188 lb (85 kg)
Nationality	American
Born	January 27, 1992 (age 23) Compton, California
High school	Rancho Verde High School

Kyle Alejandro Fuller Jr. (born January 27, 1992) also known as "Zoom Fuller", is an Peruvian-American basketball point guard and author. He played basketball for the Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team with his senior season in 2013-2014.

High School Career

Fuller excelled athletically and academically at Rancho Verde High School in Moreno Valley, California. As a senior, Fuller was All-State and Conference MVP as he averaged 27.6 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals while maintaining a 3.4 GPA. He is the winningest basketball player in Rancho Verde history.^[1] Fuller was rated as the number 34 point guard and given a scout grade of 91 in the class of 2010 by espn.com who described him as "one of the more prolific scorers out west." ^[2] He committed to play college basketball for Vanderbilt, turning down scholarship offers from California, Marquette and UCLA.^[3]

College career

After quiet Freshman and Sophomore years Fuller became the starter for Vanderbilt at Point Guard his Junior Season. Fuller attributed the change in his status on the team due to an improved work ethic resulting from a desire to honor his fathers memory after his death that May. Fuller told USA Today that he was thinking about transferring, unhappy due to his lack of playing time when his sick father changed his mind "My dad told me I'm not a quitter," Fuller said. "He told me I'm going to fight for everything I've got. He said he didn't want to see me leave a good university, especially when you have a skill set to play at a high DI university. You're going to stay and there you're going to play."^[4] Starting at Point Guard Junior Year Fuller averaged 8.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.^[5] Fuller earned Southeastern Conference Player of the Week for his performance against Xavier during which he scored 25 points including all 12 of Vanderbilt's points in overtime, leading them to a 66-64 Victory.^[6] Fuller returned to his starting role at the point guard position for his senior season in 2013-2014. He averaged 11.0 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game, qualifying him for second in the Southeastern Conference in assists per game.^[7] He recorded double-doubles against Kentucky and Tennessee with 17 points and 10 assists against Kentucky and 12 points and 10 assists against Tennessee.^[8] On January 16 Fuller scored 22 points against Missouri including 8 in the final sixty five seconds to help seal a 78-75 Victory for the Commodores.^[9]

Career Highlights

Points: 25, at Xavier (12/6/12)
Rebounds: 9, vs. Ole Miss (1/22/14)
Assists: 10, 2x, last vs. Tennessee (2/5/14)
Blocks: 1, 4x, last vs. Missouri (1/16/14)
Steals: 3, 2x, last vs. MTSU (12/21/12)^[1]

Below The Rim

On August 19, 2014 Fuller announced that he was writing a book titled "Below The Rim" that would reveal "the dirty side" of college basketball. In a follow up interview with The Tennessean Fuller explained that the book would give an inside look at the life of an elite college athletes and hoped the book would be funny, outrageous and controversial.

On September 3, 2014 Vanderbilt student newspaper The Vanderbilt Hustler released an interview with Fuller about the book as well as the first excerpt from the book titled "Dixieland" about a racially fueled altercation occurring at a party at Lipscomb University. The story also mentions that he was called the "N-Word" by a fan while at the free throw line during a game against University of Georgia. The excerpt sparked controversy at Lipscomb, a local Christian School where some students expressed their anger over the story in an article posted on The Lumination Network; Lipscomb's student news service. Sam Smith, Lipscomb's Dean of Campus Life made a statement on the excerpt saying "If this happened we need to take serious looks of what is going on. So we’re asking questions, but it’s still a very, very tough pill to swallow that this is really a possibility of something that happened on our campus."

On November 24, 2014 Fuller released his second excerpt, called "Suitcase Girl", through Brobible.com. The excerpt details an incident from his playing days in which his girlfriend is about to catch him cheating so he hides the girl he is hooking up with in a suitcase. "Suitcase Girl" was well received garnering a positive review from Sports Illustrated who said they "thoroughly enjoyed" the story, as well as Barstool Sports and TheLadBible.com.

On December 16, 2014 Deadspin released an investigative report suggesting that the Vanderbilt Men's Basketball Program may have attempted to Kill "Below The Rim." The report contains texts and emails allegedly sent from Vanderbilt men's basketball coach Kevin Stallings as well as Head of Basketball Operations Dan Cage. In the alleged texts from Cage to Fuller Cage implies negative consequences for Fuller if he refuses to show Cage what he has written so far. In the alleged texts from Stallings, which were to Fullers mother, Stallings begs her to get her son to quit the book saying "he doesn't have a story to tell-he is starved for attention" as well as more personal comments such as "he's going to dirty the family name-his fathers name no less" referring to Fuller's deceased father.

References