Wesley Matthews

Wesley Joel Matthews Jr. was born in San Antonio in 1986. Matthews comes from a family of athletes. His father, Wesley Sr, was a two-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers and his mother Pam was an All-American runner and basketball player at the University of Wisconsin. Matthews played high school basketball at James Madison Memorial, averaging 22.5 points as a senior and leading his team to a 24-2 record and state championship. For those efforts, he was named Mr. Basketball for Wisconsin by the WBCA/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and crowned the 2005 Associated Press Wisconsin Player of the Year. Matthews then attended Marquette University, where he appeared in 127 games over the course of three seasons. He ranks as Marquette's all-time leader in free throws made, eighth all-time in scoring and third in games played. You can follow Wesley Matthews on Twitter and Instagram @Wessywess23. Matthews was a second-generation basketball star, as his father played for the Wisconsin Badgers. The 6-5 guard stayed in-state to play hoops, but opted to play for coach Tom Crean at Marquette. He started 14 games as a freshman and averaged 9.0 points and 4.0 rebounds. As a sophomore, Matthews joined the starting lineup and was part of a trio of guards that included Dominic James and Jerel McNeal, providing the Golden Eagles an identity for the next three seasons. Matthews averaged 12.6 points and 5.3 rebounds, but Marquette was ousted from the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. As a junior, the guard recorded 11.3 points and 4.4 rebounds and helped the squad defeat Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament with 13 points. Matthews became a big-time scorer as a senior and led the team with 18.3 points to go with 5.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 steals. The guard scored a career-high 30 points during a loss to Tennessee. He was named to the All-Big East Second Team and dropped 24 points in the last game of his career, a loss to Missouri in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.