'Just call me Duke': This dynamic Bradley Braves point guard has a story to tell

PEORIA — Duke Deen was born to be a playmaker, literally since he could walk.

"My parents have video of me taking my first steps," Deen said. "The first thing I did I walked toward a (child's) basketball hoop and put a ball in.

"By the time I was 5, I was playing basketball for real. Football and T-ball, too."

And that's how basketball became a lifelong journey for the 5-foot-8 point guard of the Bradley Braves.

Born Cody Deen and raised in a tough neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, Deen is an athlete and a main character.

He's at the heart of a Bradley team that is in a four-way tie for the Missouri Valley Conference lead, the first time the Braves have been in first place in February since 2001 when they were tied with Indiana State at 8-3 before losing at Illinois State on Feb. 6 of that season.

At 5-8, Deen can hit 3s and he can dunk. He can play center field on a baseball team. Safety and receiver on a football field.

And he's a father. His son, CJ, is seven months old.

"My dad and my son came to see me play in the game against Arkansas," Deen said. "CJ lives in Shreveport with his mom and her family.

"Everything changed when he was born. That moment, my life was no longer about just me. I wasn't playing basketball just for me."

More:'We're right there again': A look at Bradley's position in the balanced MVC title race

How the Duke was crowned

Deen is known to everyone as Duke, not Cody. The story is simple.

"My dad would call me, 'Dude,' all the time," Deen said. "A teacher heard it and thought he said Duke. People started calling me Duke and that was it, I've been Duke my whole life. I tell people, 'Just call me Duke.' "

Deen's father, Eric Clark, and mother, Tocka, run a mental health business in Shreveport, which helps explain in part why the player is a psychology major at Bradley.

He has siblings Eric Jr., Demetrius and Moke.

"We were in a pretty tough neighborhood, a lot of negative things going on and happening to people," Deen said. "But not me. I was blessed with a two-parent family, and they protected me from all that, kept me out of it."

And around him, everywhere, were athletes.

Deen's cousin is Morris Claiborne, the former LSU and Dallas Cowboys defensive back. He knows NFLers Ar'Darius Washington (Ravens safety), Robert Rochell (Rams corner), Greedy Williams (Browns corner), Terrace Marshall Jr. (Carolina receiver) and Tre'Davious White (Bills corner), all from Louisiana.

"Football is what I thought I was going to be," Deen said. "I was a safety and receiver. And if you want to know, baseball is actually my best sport. I was a center fielder, third baseman and shortstop.

"But basketball was something you could play every day, it never stopped. I fell in love with the game and I've never stopped playing it."

The making of a point guard

Deen grew up playing pickup and league basketball games at Lakeside Recreation in Shreveport.

The kids in those games had a special rule.

"They had an NBA 3-point line on the floor, and a regular-people 3-point line," Deen said. "When we played, if you made a basket from the NBA line it counted as two points.

"A basket from the shorter distance only counted as one. So you had to shoot long, and shoot well, if you wanted to win.

"That's how I learned the game. That's why I'm a point guard."

He made a pair of 3s for Bradley in the second half Wednesday against Southern Illinois, one in the waning moments of the game, that were daggers in a BU victory that moved the team into a first-place tie.

He's shooting 38.6% from 3-point range in his first Valley season. His 11.2 points per game is third at Bradley, and his 67 assists are a team-best.

"Duke is transitioning as a leader of the team," Bradley coach Brian Wardle said in January. "He continues to have great practice habits and preparation. We want him to get stronger, more consistent. That's his challenge.

"But he's hit some momentum-changing 3s and his talk is improving. As soon as he was in the transfer portal, we called him."

Life at Bradley

Deen was Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year at Troy last season.

Then he jumped into the NCAA transfer portal. He had offers from Corpus Christi, Appalachian State, Longwood University, UIC and Cal State Fullerton in addition to Bradley. He made the move to Bradley, which had just lost Terry Roberts to Georgia via the portal.

"Cody has a winning DNA," Wardle said at the time, "and has had a successful impact wherever he goes and whatever sport he plays."

Deen was needed. And he's delivered for a BU team now 16-8 overall and 9-4 in the MVC.

"It's going great," he said. "The atmosphere at Carver Arena, the place the team has in the community. Wherever I go people want to talk to me about Bradley basketball.

"Our practices have been intense and focused and coach (Brian) Wardle has us ready to do some things."

When he was in high school he played on the Nike AAU team in Shreveport. "That's when I thought, 'I can do this,' "

Deen said. "Still, I was under-sized so the only offer I had was Nicholls. And they eventually pulled it."

He was sitting in Chili's with his Bossier High School team at the Louisiana state tournament when COVID hit and everything stopped.

More:Here are 14 things to know about Bradley at the midpoint of the Valley basketball season

"We were watching Rudy Gobert joking about COVID in his NBA postgame news conference," Deen said. "No one knew what was going to happen after that.

"I thought basketball was done for me."

But his father convinced him to give junior college ball a try. Bradley initially recruited him, and he went to Troy.

"Then when I put my name in the transfer portal Coach Wardle was the first person who called me," Deen said. "I'm so glad he called."

Bravely Speaking

The Braves have lost three of their last four road visits to Northern Iowa. … Bradley is in a four-way tie for the Valley lead with fellow 9-4 teams Belmont, Drake and Southern Illinois. … Analytics expert Matt Hackman's site moved Bradley into the No. 2 seed in projections for the Arch Madness tournament. Drake is at No. 1, and SIU is No. 3. … Bradley forward Ja'Shon Henry has 953 career points as he pushes to become the 51st player in Bradley history to reach 1,000 career points. … Braves center Rienk Mast is third among all active Valley players in career rebounds with 574. He has reached double figures in points in 17 of his 18 games. … ESPN, bracing for coverage of Lebron James' all-time NBA scoring record pursuit, shifted the BU-UNI game from ESPN2 to ESPNEWS.

Home of the Brave

Home of the Brave, the NIL collective in Peoria created to support Bradley men's basketball, has launched a fundraiser through its website https://hotbrave.com/.

The public can go into the site and pledge a monetary amount for each 3-pointer or rebound the Braves get through the rest of the season. Bradley had 35 rebounds and made five 3s against Southern Illinois on Wednesday.

The money raised will be split, with half going to the athletes and the other half to Friendship House via former BU player Marcellus Sommerville.

Bradley at Northern Iowa

• When: 5 p.m. Saturday
• Where: McLeod Center, Cedar Falls, Iowa
• Watch: ESPNEWS.
• Listen: WMBD-AM 1470, FM 100.3
• Records: Bradley, 16-8 (9-4), 1st in MVC. UNI, 12-11 (8-5), 5th in MVC.
• All-time series: Bradley, 34-36.
• In '22-23: Bradley W 68-53 at home on Nov. 30.
• NET ranking: Bradley, No. 74. UNI, No. 184.
• KenPom ranking: Bradley, No. 89. UNI, No. 173.
• MVC preseason poll: Bradley, No. 2. UNI, No. 5.
• Head coaches: Bradley, Brian Wardle (8th season). UNI, Ben Jacobson (17th season).
• Players to watch: Bradley Braves: C Rienk Mast 13.7 ppg and 8.3 rpg (2nd in MVC), 51.5% FG (2nd in MVC), an MVC first-team preseason pick; F Malevy Leons 11.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg (10th in MVC) and MVC-best 40 blocks, plus 39 steals (2nd in MVC), and 38.6% from 3; F Ja'Shon Henry 9.8 ppg, 4.1 rpg; G Duke Deen 11.2 ppg, team-best 67a, 38.6% from 3. Northern Iowa Panthers: G Bowen Born 19.3 ppg, team-best 63a, 41.2% from 3; Wing Tytan Anderson 12.7 ppg, 9.4 rpg.

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.