From overlooked recruit to featured player: Yorkville Christian grad David Douglas Jr. comes home to NIU

After being overlooked by every D-I Illinois school, David Douglas Jr. went to Green Bay, then Fresno State. Now he's back home at NIU—37 miles from his high school gym. His journey to get there is wild.

After a high school career at Yorkville Christian that included averaging 33.8 points per game as a senior and a state championship and a 3-point title as a junior, all David Douglas Jr. said he wanted was an in-state offer. It never came, so he went to where his only NCAA Division I offer came from, helped Wisconsin-Green Bay to the ninth-best single-season turnaround in D-I history, and was the Horizon League 2023-2024 Freshman of the Year. After two injury-plagued years at Fresno State, Douglas is getting his wish of playing in his home state, a mere 37 miles from his high school gym.

Douglas transferred from Fresno State to NIU to play for new coach Matt Majkrzak as the Huskies look to rebuild the roster. Every player from last year graduated or transferred out after Rashon Burno was fired after five seasons and a 48-106 career record . “I was really hoping an Illinois school would reach out and offer,” Douglas said.

“It would have been cool to play in my home state. To have the opportunity now means something. And coming back to the Horizon League and finishing something we didn’t do, we didn’t make it to the tournament.

So being able to do that in my home state, not too far from home, in front of family and friends, that would just be big for me.” Douglas went to Green Bay, which won three games in the 2022-23 season, and was part of a team that was third in the Horizon after an 18-win season but missed any postseason bid. He said he wanted to stay in Green Bay, but coach Sundance Wicks - an NIU assistant from 2007-2011 - left after one year to become head coach at Wyoming.

So Douglas left for Fresno. Douglas said he thinks it was in his third game as a Bulldog, a 10-point performance against Long Beach State, that he fractured his knee. He played limited minutes the next two games, then sat out two months before returning against Nevada.

He had put up 16 points but planted awkwardly after a 3, reinjuring the knee. He said he was told he didn’t need surgery and played in 18 games before packing it up in February and finally getting surgery. He’s still limited in practice, but his knee is as good as it’s felt since before the injury.

Coming off the injury, he knew his options in the portal would be limited. But Majkrzak, a Green Bay alum, was very familiar with Douglas’ game from the 2023-24 season, when he was also a finalist for the Kyle Macy National Freshman of the Year Award. “I knew he was going to be my first call,” Majkrzak said.

“He’s local, he’s dominated this league and what he’s done up to this point is awesome but he now deserves a chance to be the featured guy and the main guy.” Majkrzak said Douglas has developed a reputation as a 3-and-D player at the college level, but he feels Douglas can provide much more than sharpshooting and lockdown defense. He can get up and down the court.

He can pull up and has a very good mid-range game. He has a feel for passing. He’s gotten bigger and can finish at the rim.

The problem, Majkrzak said, is that he hasn’t been able to show those skills off since Yorkville Christian. “Now is his chance to become Batman,” Majkrzak said. “He’s been Robin and it’s time for him to take the reins and be one of the key players.”

Douglas said he was sold on Majkrzak after doing some research on the coach and his seven-year stint at Northern Michigan. He said he was especially impressed with what he was able to do offensively. The team’s been together for less than a month, so it’s only started to scratch the surface of the playbook.

And Douglas said he’s already excited. “Just seeing the vision of coach Mack and him trying to turn this program around, like how it was in Green Bay,” Douglas said. “I have confidence in him, my teammates and myself that we can do some big things here.”