Impact Of A Scholarship: Drew Nicholas

On September 26, 2023, National Champion Drew Nicholas addressed a large crop of current Maryland student-athletes and donors as the featured speaker at Maryland’s Scholarship and Endowment Dinner. Nicholas’ messages were clear: cherish your time at Maryland, appreciate how special of a place Maryland is in all facets (athletically, academically, and socially), and try to give back and help others in the same way you’ve been helped. 

For Nicholas, delivering that message at a place that means so much to him was a no-brainer.

“Maryland means a ton to me,” Nicholas said. “It was such an influential four years of my life, not just growing as an athlete but as a person. It helped shape me tremendously as a person. I’m forever grateful for my time at the University of Maryland.” 

Nicholas always dreamed of playing in the ACC, but growing up in Long Island, Hofstra was his hometown school. He developed a close relationship with Jay Wright, the Hofstra coach at the time, and was close to going there until Maryland came in late. 

And once head coach Gary Williams and the Terps came into the picture, it was pretty much a done deal.

“I had always considered it to be a dream school, just because of the combination of being able to play in the ACC and being able to play for Coach Williams. It made the most sense for me.”

While at Maryland from 1999 to 2003, Nicholas experienced a wide range of success, highlighted by winning the National Championship in 2002. By the time he was a senior, Nicholas had also developed a knack for hitting big shots. 

He sank a big three-pointer with 1.5 seconds left near the end of the 2003 regular season against NC State to give Gary Williams his 500th career victory. A few weeks later, he etched his name into March Madness history by hitting a buzzer-beating three-pointer to top UNC Wilmington in the NCAA First Round. 

“It was a surreal experience overall because I know a lot of people look at the time period I was there as kinda the glory years of Maryland basketball,” Nicholas said of his collegiate career. “In the four years I was there, we made the Second Round, then the Final Four, then we won the National Championship, and then we made the Sweet Sixteen my senior year.”

Those moments are still things Nicholas cherishes today.

“I never expected to have that type of career and experience,” he said. “It’s just one of those things where you just take it one day at a time and you’re with a special group of people and then all of a sudden you look back on it and you’re thinking about how great those four years were.”

Upon graduation, Nicholas began a professional career in Europe, where he played in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain and Russia. The lessons and qualities instilled in him while at Maryland helped him settle in quickly to the new surroundings.

“One of the biggest reasons why I went to Maryland was to make sure I was around a group of guys who had similar goals and a similar mindset as me. We were such a hard-working group and Coach Williams just continued to develop that. And that was one of the biggest things that helped me as I transitioned out of being a college player after graduation. I already had the work ethic and the mindset piece down.”

While overseas, Nicholas won a pair of championships and was the EuroLeague scoring champion in 2005-06. However, he learned just as much from his experiences off the court.

“Those experiences in themselves, even outside of basketball, were just amazing. I learned Italian, I met so many different people from across the world and got to see so many different things. I was really able to cultivate my mind in so many different perspectives.”

Once Nicholas was done playing, he moved back to the United States—but he still wasn’t ready to give up the game of basketball.

He got into scouting and worked stints in Minnesota, Philadelphia and Boston. Most recently, he became the Denver Nuggets’ Director of Scouting where he helped them win the 2023 NBA Championship. 

“It’s very full-circle,” Nicholas said of winning a championship at the NBA level. “I never would have thought a kid from Long Island would be able to sit back and say, ‘I won a NCAA Championship and I’ve been part of an organization that won an NBA Championship.’ It’s all pretty surreal.”

“I don’t think you can ask for anything more than that,” said Nicholas, who also won two titles in Europe and a state championship in high school.

And in many ways, scouting is the perfect profession for Nicholas—who has made a living off of always working tirelessly in the background. 

Nicholas didn’t make his varsity high school team as a freshman and barely played on it as a sophomore—a far cry from some of the blue chip recruits who average double-digits from the minute they start. At Maryland, Nicholas came off the bench for his first three seasons, backing up the legendary Juan Dixon. Even in Europe, Nicholas had to work his way up to the EuroLeague, the top league over there. 

“Everything in my life has sorta been a process and something where nothing’s ever been given to me,” Nicholas said. “I’ve had to take it step by step, one day at a time. And that’s just kinda how I like it. If you do the right things and you continue to put in the hard work, you’ll get pretty far.”

Nicholas certainly has gotten pretty far in his career—and he can trace a lot of it back to his time at Maryland. It’s part of why he was so honored to be asked to speak at the Scholarship and Endowment Dinner recently and why he wanted to speak about the importance of continuing to give back so more student-athletes get the same experience he did for years to come.

“I said it when I spoke at the banquet, but when you initially come to Maryland and are on scholarship, you don’t take it for granted, but you don’t necessarily think about it that much. You don’t think about the sacrifice that other people make in order for you to have the types of experiences you do. There are tons of kids out there who, without the help of the people who give back, they don’t have that opportunity. It’s definitely something I don’t take for granted.”