Djery Jean Baptiste ; born 12 November 1995) is a Haitian

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's team ...

and the UMass Minutemen.

Early life and high school career

Baptiste was born in Gonaïves, Haiti to Hebert Jean Baptiste and Wislonde Destin. He arrived in the United States when he was 15 years old. Baptiste attended the Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas and won two consecutive state championships the two years he was there. At the end of his senior year, he was named Defensive Player of the Year by his team. He was named All-Area Honorable Mention by the

Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...

College career

Baptiste chose to play at Vanderbilt for academic reasons, despite receiving multiple offers from other schools. Baptiste departed from the team in June 2018 to focus on his studies. In August 2018, it was announced that Baptiste will be transferring to UMass after he graduates from Vanderbilt in December 2018. During his redshirt senior season, he missed three games with a knee injury.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;", Vanderbilt , style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;", Vanderbilt , 35 , , 2 , , 7.8 , , .521 , , – , , .650 , , 1.9 , , .0 , , .1 , , .4 , , 1.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Vanderbilt , 29 , , 10 , , 15.2 , , .455 , , – , , .732 , , 3.6 , , .2 , , .2 , , .9 , , 3.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

UMass The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

, 20 , , 12 , , 17.9 , , .511 , , – , , .455 , , 4.1 , , .3 , , .3 , , 1.2 , , 2.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 27 , , 0 , , 10.6 , , .510 , , – , , .389 , , 2.6 , , .1 , , .4 , , .9 , , 2.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 111 , , 24 , , 12.2 , , .495 , , – , , .594 , , 2.9 , , .1 , , .2 , , .8 , , 2.4

Personal life

Baptiste arrived from Haiti speaking no English. He taught himself English from music listening to

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

singer

George Strait George Harvey Strait Sr. (born May 18, 1952) is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. Strait is considered one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. In the 1980s, he was credited for ...

's songs and is now his favorite genre. He speaks French,

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; ht, kreyòl ayisyen, links=no, ; french: créole haïtien, links=no, ), commonly referred to as simply ''Creole'', or ''Kreyòl'' in the Creole language, is a French-based creole language spoken by 10–12million people wor ...

, and Spanish fluently.

References

External links

UMass Minutemen bioVanderbilt Commodores bio
1995 births Living people Basketball players from Plano, Texas Centers (basketball) Haitian expatriate basketball people in the United States Haitian men's basketball players People from Gonaïves Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball players UMass Minutemen basketball players {{Caribbean-basketball-bio-stub