By David Sudhalter
The Post Newspaper Contributing Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas – The Houston area made David Azore who he is today: from the region’s thriving high school and AAU basketball scene to his love of the Houston Rockets.
“I tell people all of the time that Houston is the best city,” Azore said. “I started playing basketball when I was 4 years old, and my dad got me into the whole AAU thing when I was really young. I played for the Houston Defenders and Houston Hoops. They helped me develop into a player.”
Azore, a 2017 Clear Brook High School Graduate and Houston native, also excelled at the Friendswood-based school between 2013-2017, averaging 20.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. He scored 2,006 career points in four varsity seasons and was a finalist for the Guy V. Lewis Award, which is presented to the top prep player in Greater Houston each year.
After high school, Azore had several opportunities to play college basketball. He chose UT-Arlington over Louisiana Tech, Texas State and Tulsa.
Azore, 22, plays his home games at UTA’s College Park Center – just 2.2 miles southwest of the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
In 4.5 years, Azore has seen the highs and lows of Division I College Basketball. He tore his ACL as a freshman before his season started and has had three head coaches during that span.
“Those things helped me as far as dealing with adversity and understanding you can’t ever really get comfortable,” Azore said. “Tearing my ACL taught me a lot. I was able to sit there and watch the game. It made me a lot smarter.”
Azore graduated from UTA last May with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and is currently working on a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration in Marketing.
Knowing that he’d have his degree, Azore briefly entered the transfer portal after the 2020-2021 season. He decided to pursue his MBA (and continue his basketball career at UTA) when the Mavericks promoted longtime associate head coach Greg Young to head coach last spring.
“Coach Young knows my game, and I knew the vision he had for me,” Azore said.
Young, who has served on the Mavericks staff since 2009, has been the one constant in the program since Azore arrived.
“It definitely helped having him in the program,” Azore said.
Azore, a 6-foot-4 guard, is tied as the Sun Belt Conference’s leading scorer with 17.2 points per game and also has 4.4 rebounds per game. Earlier this month, he matched his career-high of 33 points when the Mavericks (8-8, 4-1 entering this weekend) lost 74-73 in overtime at Georgia Southern. His previous 33-point game also came to Georgia Southern, in 2019.
Azore scored 30 points in the Mavericks’ Sun Belt Conference opener on December 30 in a thrilling 89-87 overtime victory over South Alabama.
Since his sophomore year of 2019-2020, Azore has been a team leader for UTA.
“It’s definitely the role I take pride in,” Azore said. “I show a mix of being vocal and leading by example. As a person, I’m not the one that talks all of the time. I’m introverted, to be honest. On the court, I can be more enthusiastic about things. Most people say I’m a leader by example. The coaches tell me that my teammates listen when I say stuff.”
He learned about leadership from two former teammates at the beginning of his UTA Career, Kevin Hervey and Erick Neal. Hervey was drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder, played briefly there and now plays professionally in Italy. Neal plays professionally in Poland.
Azore said playing during the COVID-19 Pandemic has been a challenge, saying that games often had the feel of practices and scrimmages due to the near-empty arenas.
Academically, he said it was nice to have some classes virtually when the Pandemic started, although in other classes, he missed the connection of in-person learning.
When the Pandemic ended the 2019-2020 season, it gave players an extra year of eligibility.
Azore said he’s still weighing whether to return in 2022-2023 as he would like to pursue a professional basketball career, preferably in the NBA but perhaps internationally.
To the untrained eye, it appeared to be an upset when UTA, then 4-7, knocked off 10-3 South Alabama in the conference opener, but the Mavericks’ non-conference schedule was the larger story.
UTA played eight teams that made the NCAA Tournament in 2020-2021: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Abilene Christian, North Texas, Utah State, Oral Roberts, UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State. With the exception of the Abilene Christian game, they were all played on the road.
UTA defeated UC Santa Barbara and lost to SDSU by six. They took ACU to overtime, falling by nine.
“I love playing those teams – that’s the highest level of Division I Basketball,” Azore said. “No other team in our conference has played the schedule we’ve played. Our overall record doesn’t represent how good we are as a team. Our main goal from Day 1 is to make the NCAA Tournament and win a conference championship. We want to win games and cut down nets.”
The Mavericks will host defending Sun Belt Tournament Champion Appalachian State on February 5.
