Marvin O'Connor (born July 11, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. He played

high school basketball High school basketball, also known as prep basketball, is the sport of basketball as played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. Top high school athletes often go on to play college basketball after ...

at Simon Gratz in his native

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, winning the

Philadelphia Public League The Philadelphia Public League (PPL) is the interscholastic sports league for the public high schools of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The league traces its origin to 1901, with the formation of the Philadelphia Interscholastic League, a conference e ...

title as a senior in 1997. After his freshman year in college at Villanova, O'Connor transferred to Saint Joseph's, where he was an all-conference selection in all of his three seasons there, and won the Robert V. Geasey Trophy as the best basketball player in the

Philadelphia Big 5 The Philadelphia Big 5, known simply as the "Big 5", is an association of six college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is not a conference, but rather a group of NCAA Division I basketball schools who compete for the city’ ...

in 2001. He went undrafted in the

2002 NBA draft The 2002 NBA draft was held on June 26, 2002, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting 57 amateur college basketball players and other first-time eligible players, ...

and spent his only professional season with

KK Partizan Košarkaški klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Кошаркашки клуб Партизан, lit=Basketball Club Partizan), commonly known as Partizan Belgrade, or as Partizan Mozzart Bet for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball Sports cl ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, playing in the 2002–03 Euroleague. He is a member of the St. Joseph's Hawks Hall of Fame (inducted in 2008) and of the Big 5 Hall of Fame (2013).

High school career

O'Connor was born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

in 1978, to Alfred and Alexandria Dockins. He attended Simon Gratz High School, where he was named a starter as a sophomore in 1994–95 by coach Bill Ellerbee. That season, he scored a season-high 20 points against Central. In the following season, his junior year, O'Connor was one of the main players on the team, and was the team's top scorer in 11 out of 14 regular season games in the

. He scored a regular season-best 24 points against Roxborough, 29 points in the semifinals against Frankford and 35 points (a then-career high) against Thomas Edison High School. At the end of the season he was named in the All-City Second Team and in the All-Public League First Team after averaging 15.6 points per game in Public League play. Overall, O'Connor averaged 17 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists per game in a total of 28 games in his junior season. In O'Connor's senior season, he led the team in scoring in 10 out of 16 games during the Public League, including 39 points against Olney (a new career-high), 34 against Fels and 30 against

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

. During the playoffs, O'Connor scored 22 points in the semifinals against Strawberry Mansion, and 14 points, along with 13 rebounds, in the championship game win against Engineering and Science, which was led by

Lynn Greer Lynn Terence Greer Jr. (born October 23, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. He played at the point guard and shooting guard positions. He was an All-EuroLeague Team, All-EuroLeague Second Team selection in 2003–04 Eur ...

. At the end of the year, O'Connor was named in the All-Public League and All-City First Teams, after averaging 23.7 points per game. The ''

Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'' named him City Player of the Year. O'Connor scored a total 1,258 points at Simon Gratz.

College career

O'Connor was highly recruited in high school and received offers from several

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

programs, drawing interest from Clemson, Xavier,

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina sy ...

, Miami (FL), Penn,

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

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, UMass, and Villanova. He signed to play for Villanova in late November 1996. As a true freshman at Villanova, O'Connor found little playing time under coach Steve Lappas, starting 5 out of 21 games, and scoring a season-high 12 points against Temple. At the end of the season he had averages of 4.7 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. After the end of his first season at Villanova, O'Connor decided to transfer to Saint Joseph's. He had to sit out the 1998–99 season due to NCAA transfer rules. He debuted for Saint Joseph's in 1999. Head coach

Phil Martelli Philip Martelli Sr. (born August 31, 1954) is an American college basketball coach, who was recently the associate head coach for the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball, Michigan Wolverines. As the former head coach of the Saint Joseph's Hawk ...

immediately included O'Connor in the starting lineup, and he averaged 16.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game in 31.5 minutes of playing time. He led the team in points per game (16.6), steals with 31 (1.1 average), three-pointers made (73) and ranked second in assists per game behind Tim Brown. He scored in double figures in 25 out of 28 games, being the team's top scorer in 18 of these occasions, and at the end of his first year at Saint Joseph's he was named in the All- Atlantic 10 Third Team''Saint Joseph's Men's Basketball 2018-19 Media Guide''. St. Joseph's University. 2018. p. 94. and in the All-Big 5 First Team.''Saint Joseph's Men's Basketball 2018-19 Media Guide''. St. Joseph's University. 2018. p. 95. In O'Connor's junior season he was joined in the backcourt by freshman

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

Jameer Nelson Jameer Lamar Nelson Sr. (born February 9, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player who serves as general manager for the Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Saint Joseph's Hawks men's ba ...

. O'Connor was the leading scorer of the team throughout the season, leading the team in 24 out of 32 appearances. On December 11, 2000, O'Connor scored a new career-high 32 points on 11/17 shooting against his former team, Villanova: the game ended with Saint Joseph's losing, 75–78. On March 3, 2001, O'Connor scored 18 points in 57.5 seconds, reaching a new career-high of 37 points in a game against La Salle.''Saint Joseph's Men's Basketball 2018-19 Media Guide''. St. Joseph's University. 2018. p. 63. The Hawks qualified for the 2001 NCAA tournament, where O'Connor debuted scoring 21 points against

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

. On March 17, 2000, he scored 37 points (equalling his career high) against

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

shooting 15/20 from the field, including a perfect 10/10 on 2-point field goals. The performance was the highest-scoring game of the NCAA Tournament that season. At the end of the season he was ranked 10th in the entire NCAA in scoring at 22.1 points per game and he received several accolades: he was named in the All-Atlantic 10 First Team, All-Big 5 First Team, NABC All-District First Team,''Saint Joseph's Men's Basketball 2018-19 Media Guide''. St. Joseph's University. 2018. p. 93. and he received the Robert V. Geasey Trophy as the best basketball player in the

. His 706 points in the 2000–01 season are an all-time record at Saint Joseph's. O'Connor was named in the preseason watchlist for the John R. Wooden Award before the beginning of his senior year. He also received nomination in All-American teams selected by ''

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'' and ''

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''. On December 21, 2001, he scored 33 points, a season high, against Georgia State. In December 2001 he was included in the Midseason Top 30 list for the Wooden Award. He scored at least 10 points in 26 out of 29 games, and in 8 of these he scored more than 20 points. He was the team's leading scorer for the third season in a row and he was named in the All-Atlantic 10 Second Team, the All-Big 5 First Team, and in the NABC All-District First Team. He ended his career at Saint Joseph's with a total of 1,678 points (14th in program history as of 2018) and 231 three-point field goals made, which at the time of his graduation were the highest mark in Saint Joseph's history (4th as of 2018). He started all the 89 games he played with the Hawks. In 2008 he was inducted in the Saint Joseph's Hall of Fame, and in 2013 he was inducted in the Big 5 Hall of Fame.

College statistics

, - , align="left" , 1997–98 , align="left" , Villanova , 21 , , 5 , , 15.6 , , .354 , , .217 , , .357 , , 1.7 , , 1.2 , , 0.5 , , 0.0 , , 4.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1998–99 , style="text-align:left;", Saint Joseph's , colspan=11 align=center , ''Did not play – transfer'' , - , align="left" , 1999–00 , align="left" , Saint Joseph's , 28 , , 28 , , 31.6 , , .408 , , .354 , , .736 , , 4.4 , , 2.6 , , 1.1 , , 0.1 , , 16.6 , - , align="left" , 2000–01 , align="left" , Saint Joseph's , 32 , , 32 , , 33.5 , , .465 , , .374 , , .676 , , 3.7 , , 2.6 , , 1.1 , , 0.0 , , 22.1 , - , align="left" , 2001–02 , align="left" , Saint Joseph's , 29 , , 29 , , 33.0 , , .429 , , .286 , , .717 , , 4.2 , , 2.5 , , 0.6 , , 0.0 , , 17.5 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , , 110 , , 94 , , 29.5 , , .430 , , .331 , , .692 , , 3.6 , , 2.3 , , 0.9 , , 0.0 , , 16.1 , -

Professional career

After the end of his senior season at Saint Joseph's, O'Connor was automatically eligible for the

. After playing in the

Portsmouth Invitational Tournament The Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, (PIT), is the only postseason camp restricted to college basketball seniors. The Portsmouth Invitational is the first of two NBA pre-Draft (sports), draft camps, the other being the Orlando pre-Draft (sport ...

, O'Connor went undrafted. He played in the 2002 Shaw's Pro Summer League with the

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NB ...

. After a brief tryout with

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Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

team

Virtus Bologna Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, known for sponsorship reasons as Virtus Segafredo Bologna, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1929, which makes it the oldest club in Italy and one ...

, O'Connor signed a professional contract with

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. He played 11 games in the

YUBA League The YUBA League was the top-tier men's professional basketball league in Serbia and Montenegro (previously FR Yugoslavia). Founded in 1992 and folded in 2006, it was run by the Basketball Federation of Serbia and Montenegro. The name ''YUBA Le ...

, averaging 6.3 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 17 minutes per game. He also played in 10

Euroleague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

games during the 2002–03 season, posting averages of 4.1 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1 assist per game in 14.4 minutes of playing time.

References

External links

Career stats at ProBallers.comProfile at RealGM.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Marvin 1978 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Serbia and Montenegro American men's basketball players Basketball players from Philadelphia KK Partizan players Saint Joseph's Hawks men's basketball players Shooting guards Villanova Wildcats men's basketball players 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen