KU’s De Sousa makes quick adjustment: ‘In college you play with men’

Recent IMG Academy graduate Silvio De Sousa has been on the University of Kansas campus for a little more than three weeks, long enough to realize he really, truly is not in high school any more.

“I feel like the difference is that in college you play with men. In high school it’s more like you play with boys and all that stuff,” De Sousa, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound native of Angola, said Thursday in speaking with media members for the first time since arriving at KU late on the night of Dec. 26.

“When I was in high school, people used to say I’m a grown man because of the way I’m built. In college everybody looks the same. Everybody is the same age. I think it’s a lot different,” De Sousa added.

Not shy about asking for help, De Sousa, a power forward, has leaned on his new KU teammates for a quick indoctrination into college basketball.

“Everything has been great,” De Sousa said. “I’m just trying to adjust myself. My team, people around me are supporting me and helping me a lot. I’m going with them to learn,” De Sousa added, acknowledging one player who has provided the greatest assistance.

“Mitch Lightfoot … he is the one who has been telling me everything: ‘That’s how you should be on this play. That’s where you should be.’ He’s helping me the most,” De Sousa said.

De Sousa never looked back after making the decision to leave the comfort of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., midway through the season for a KU team in need of depth on the inside.

“Every day I woke up with two different decisions to make in my life. On Dec. 25, I had two decisions (choices): It’s either I stay in high school or I make my next step,” De Sousa said. “I had to choose my next step because college is where I want to be. So I called my coach and told him I want to move on. I don’t want to stay in high school. I want to experience something new. That’s why I decided to come to college early.”

De Sousa — who practiced but did not play against Texas, Texas Tech or TCU as he waited to be certified as an amateur by the NCAA — was cleared for the K-State game which was Jan. 13 at Allen Fieldhouse.

He headed to the scorer’s table midway through the first half and was stunned to hear the reception from the Allen Fieldhouse faithful.

“That moment I think I’ll never forget. I think it was a dream come true,” De Sousa said of the thunderous ovation upon entering his first college game. “I like Kansas. I just feel Kansas was the right place to be. It was No. 1 and always will be my No. 1 school no matter what.

“I could see the crowd. I could see the fans, the way they wanted me to play,” he added. “I love that. I am thankful for them. I think they are really good fans. They are motivated. They are support.”

De Sousa did not score in his four minutes of play against Kansas State. He scored his first bucket and grabbed three rebounds in seven minutes in his second game, on Monday at West Virginia.

“When I got in the game against Kansas State, I was just not myself,” he said. “Right now I just need to see how it is like. I just wanted to feel. The next game I told myself, against West Virginia I’m going to try to get used to it. That’s how it’s going to be the next couple games, try to adjust myself and hopefully get better.”

Kansas coach Bill Self says De Sousa has adjusted well to the rigors of college basketball.

“It’s going to take some time for him to get comfortable, but he’s getting more comfortable,” Self said. “I can’t imagine moving to a foreign place and in three weeks be expected to know everything there is to know when he was playing high school ball three weeks ago. He’s done a nice job. You can see the lights starting to flicker. It (light) is not on, it’s flickering. I really believe he (De Sousa) is going to be a really good player here before long.”

Self added: “He did make one move against West Virginia where he didn’t think, and it was pretty impressive. If we can get him comfortable, I think a couple weeks from now he can be a guy who can play a lot and really impact us.”

Fellow freshman Marcus Garrett said it’s been fun getting to know his new roommate.

“I get to talk to him a lot,” Garrett said of De Sousa. “He’s just like us, likes to listen to the same type music we do, likes playing video games. He opened up easily. He’s very funny. He likes to tell jokes. He likes being around people basically, being uplifting, all the good things you want to be around somebody.”

De Sousa showed some of that personality when a media member asked him if he felt any pressure joining a college team that needs inside production.

“Pressure?” he said with a laugh. “To be honest I know how to handle pressure. I feel there’s been a lot of pressure before. Right now I’ve grown a lot. I know how to deal with it, so it’s not a big deal. I just handle it the way it should be. I handle it.”

Or as Garrett noted: “I feel like ever since he came he’s been trying to compete and learn things on the fly. He’s done well, especially in practice. His footwork is great basically. He can do a lot of things on the post.”

Self on opening vs. Michigan State

Kansas will open the 2018-19 season against Michigan State as the Champions Classic announced this week that it would move the one-day, four-team event to Nov. 6 to coincide with the new beginning of hoops season.

Self was asked Thursday if he’d change anything since KU starts off with a major team instead of a game or two against mid-majors or smaller-level schools.

“No, no. We will play our exhibition games like we always do,” Self said. “That was a decision which I think is good for college basketball, personally. When you play on Friday and open on Friday, you still have Saturday football, which is right in the heat of the season. So playing on that Tuesday, moving it up, there is no football games on Wednesday. I do think it gives the chance to have a bigger impact.

“Then the other thing is, it allows you to probably consistently play a game that during the entire day is paying honor to our military and our veterans, which isn’t always the case the way it is now, because Veteran’s Day could fall before our season started, so I think that’s real positive too.”

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 5:30 PM with the headline "KU’s De Sousa makes quick adjustment: ‘In college you play with men’."