Quiring’s Consistency Pays Off, Reaches 1k

When people give you advice saying that hard work pays off, they can now throw one more example at you. Michael Quiring became the latest men’s basketball player to eclipse 1,000 career points, something only 42 previous student athletes had done in the men’s program.

But when you ask Quiring or his head coach, Tom Heil, neither of them truly believed that 1,000 was a goal they had aimed for. “You know, Michael, without a doubt was our best passer. Best ball handler, best defender, and we needed him to be efficient as a score,” Heil said. “Obviously he scored 1,000 points, but we needed him to score this year for us as a senior. There are about five or six things he probably does better than and then score the ball for us.”

In addition to his scoring milestone Quiring was named the OAC Defensive Player of the Year, an award voted on by the coaches of the OAC. And to Quiring, that milestone was more indicative of the work he put in for the last four years, “It just really made me think back to the growth I’ve had over these past four years,” Quiring said. “When I first came here as a freshman the defensive end is definitely one of the things that I thought was a big adjustment, especially when you’re playing teams like Mount Union who had guys who were going overseas to play.”

To both Heil and Quiring they know the individual awards come and go, especially when a player is willing to put in work outside of games or practice, “I think a lot of times the guys that do it have two or three really good years, which probably require them to be in the gym at a really high level pretty consistently and really work on their game and take great pride in their own development,” Heil said. “Or they’re guys like Michael where the minute Michael stepped on campus, he had a major role for us. I think the 1,000 points is probably a result of he played in whatever 120-some games and started most of them, and he was on the court a lot.”

Quiring said the work he put in during practices and on his own helped him with the pace of the game, “It felt like when I was a freshman, the game is kind of moving at a fast pace. I think the thing I’ve noticed is, as the years have gone on now, I’ve had a pretty significant role, but the games got a lot slower,” Quiring said. “My numbers haven’t gone up dramatically, but they’ve kind of been kind of been constant. Just overall the game has gotten slower. And that’s a lot of hard work and my teammates and coaches continue to push me and instill confidence in me.”

But like many other athletes, Quiring was never motivated by the individual goals, but rather just wanted to do what he could for the team to succeed, “Even in my high school years, I was never a score first type of guard. I didn’t score 1,000 in high school so I didn’t expect it here either” Quring said. “I was more driven by just team success and trying to, before last year trying to get to the NCAA Tournament or win the league. And then this year was just to try to repeat that or maybe win a conference title. So I think more of my motivation was team driven than any individual award that you could think of.”

Quiring rounds at his career finishing No. 38 on the BW All-Time Scorers list, with 1,042 points scored over his last four years, however Heil knows it won’t be his scoring that leaves a legacy at BW, “I think a guy’s legacy is like impact he has on those three classes below and how that lives on when he’s gone,” Heil said. “I think Michael was a great competitor and left it out there and gave everything he had. He was also pretty good worker, he’s in the gym all the time. I also think his legacy will be you can do it all. If you’re mature and organized, you can have a lot of fun in college here. You can have a great social life and be a great student having a great academic experience, and you can be a great basketball player. And I think he did all of those probably as well as anybody.”