It’s the day after the MSU men’s basketball team beat the Louisville Cardinals to advance to the Final Four, and a 6-foot-9-inch man walks through the halls of IM Sports-West beaming with pride.
“How about that Final Four,” he says, poking his head into the offices of every one of his colleagues.
Dujuan Wiley is his name — and he’s a former MSU basketball player himself, and his tenure spanned from 1996 to 1998.
But he’s also a man whose life has taken many twists and turns since those playing days came to a close.
This includes a playing career which has taken him all over the world, but also to his life today as the intramural coordinator at IM Sports-West.
And as Wiley struts into his office every day on the second floor of the intramural sports building — just a five-minute walk to Breslin Center — it’s amazing everything has come as full circle as it has.
Wiley, a native of Detroit, came to MSU in fall 1996 out of Wabash Valley College in Illinois and was part of a class of upstart Spartans that included the likes of Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson.
In Wiley’s two years at MSU, the group helped head coach Tom Izzo to his first Sweet 16 appearance of his career in 1998, and served as catalysts of what the MSU basketball program has become today.
“Back then you didn’t look at it like that,” said Wiley, who averaged 6.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game for the ’98 squad.
“It’s hard to explain what it was like back then because we were in the moment. Now that I look back on it, if I were to look back at coach’s evolution as a coach, then until now, I can see a huge difference.”
After the 1998 season, Wiley went on to a successful overseas basketball career for years. Wiley’s playing days took him to countries such as Hungary, Germany, Austria and Australia.
When Wiley’s initial playing career came to an end, he returned to MSU in 2005 to finish his degree in sustainable parks, recreation and tourism with an emphasis in recreation management.
It was also around this time Wiley worked at IM Sports-West, something he said was key in helping him earn his degree.
“They treated me real well here and helped to facilitate a healthy environment for me to actually finish up my degree,” Wiley said. “Without a job and the structure in place like it was in place here, and good people around me, it would have been a lot harder.”
Upon graduating from MSU in 2006, Wiley got the itch to play basketball again. And after taking a 10-month hiatus to train and get back in shape with Izzo’s team at the time, and selling his Cadillac to pay for a plane ticket to Europe, Wiley was able to do just that.
Within a couple of games playing for a team in Hungary, Wiley was one of the top players in the league.
Eventually Wiley’s playing days did come to an end, though, as he returned to East Lansing to start the next phase of his life.
But in his first couple of years back, Wiley struggled to find what he wanted to do, working an odd assortment of jobs for years.
This included anything from security at Sparrow Hospital to selling AT&T U-verse.
“I think that’s something that’s really underrated for former athletes, is to find your niche after your respective sport,” Wiley said. “That’s a phase I was going through and it was really tough to try and find out ‘What am I good at now when I’m done playing basketball?’”
So when Wiley learned a spot was opening in the upstairs offices of IM Sports-West in the summer of 2014 — the place he worked when he was finishing his degree — he stepped right in and found his niche.
“He’s a great guy,” IM Sports-West Associate Director Joel Eddy said. “In the evening when he’s here, it seems like he knows all the students that come in the building. They all know who he his and have conversations with him. And that’s one of the great things about Dujuan. He’s so down to earth.”
Student employees at the facility have also enjoyed getting close to Wiley during the past several months.
“The first time I introduced myself to (Wiley), he seemed very nice and personable,” advertising sophomore Katie Hollemans said. “He genuinely cares about the facility and the people working here. He’s constantly around the building making sure things are running smoothly and checking on us employees to make sure we are doing all right.”
In addition to this, Wiley has always kept a connection to the MSU basketball program, which he said is a testament to Izzo, who’s always had an open door policy for past players to spend time with the team.
For the 2015 squad specifically, Wiley believes it’s amazing what they’ve accomplished.
“This season in general has been a really special season,” Wiley said. “For those guys to be able to turn it around at the right time, and to shift the momentum, and start winning and now you’re in a Final Four, it’s absolutely amazing.”
And for Wiley, after all he’s done and all the places he’s seen, he’s extremely happy with where he is today.
“It’s great,” Wiley said. “The energy working on campus with all the young people. ... Watching (them) grow and develop as individuals, I feel like they’re always generating fresh ideas and it kind of keeps you young ... I love being on campus.”
