Temple's Cummings Ready To Run With The Rockets
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Guard Will Cummings enjoyed an outstanding career at Temple, wrapping things up with a senior season that saw him named first-team All-American Athletic Conference and All-Big 5.
Now Cummings is taking his shot at the NBA with the Houston Rockets. He recently agreed to terms and is slated to play in their upcoming summer league in Las Vegas.
"It's finally here to the point where you just put in around like 18 years of work just to be able to get to a point where you have a chance to make it on a team," Cummings tells KYW Newsradio. "It's kind of just a surreal moment, at the same time you know you still have a lot of work to do. But it still is a great moment to know you're hard work is paying off."
Listen to the entire interview with Temple product Will Cummings...
Cummings finished his Temple career with 1,245 points, 35th all-time in school history, and he led the Owls in scoring (14.8 ppg), assists (4.2 apg) and steals (1.9 spg) as a senior. He talks about how his time at Temple helped prepare him for a shot at the NBA.
"I would say off-the-court, just being able to manage everything that comes with playing basketball on a stage," Cummings says. "Just being in the public eye all that type of stuff. Just being able to really just play basketball and stay focused while you're getting attention from everybody else. On the court, I would say my junior, senior year really prepared me the most, just because I had to be the leader on and off the court. I really had to step up and take my game to another level."
And what part of his game does he think translates the best to the NBA right now?
"I would say my speed," Cummings says, "and just my ability to really just keep people off-balance and not being able to guard and stay in front of me. I would say that's where I really excel and I've been told that's the part of my game that's really just (NBA) ready right now."
The Las Vegas Summer League runs from July 10th to the 20th.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.