PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Those who saw Brown score a dramatic win over Providence on Friday night will remember that Tucker Halpern made the two biggest shots in the final minute as part of a game-closing 9-1 run. They will probably remember that they were the last two of eight three-pointers he made on the evening en route to scoring 28 points. They might also come away with thoughts on several other things that will bury this story – things like the idea that Providence was crazy to even play at Brown in the first place, that they blew a seven-point lead in the final 45 seconds or that Vincent Council returned from injury.
What they should know is that Tucker Halpern’s story goes beyond merely Friday night’s game and is worth knowing for anyone who is a fan of the game. It’s the kind of game he probably expected of himself once upon a time. At the same time, a year ago a night like this was but a pipe dream.
Halpern missed all of last season due to mono, then a mystery illness that looked like an extended case of mono. It sapped all of his energy, and it was obvious if you were fortunate to see him at any point. While he’s never been what you would call a ball of energy – he’s rather soft-spoken and understated – it was clear he wasn’t the same person. He withdrew from the school for the year, and later, was basically forced to withdraw from life because of how debilitating the illness was.
The result of this was that he couldn’t do much at all because he was constantly tired. Forget working on his game; he could barely stay up long enough to do just about anything meaningful. He said that if there was any bright spot from the long illness, it was that he got closer to his parents, and while that is never a bad thing, it was a sign of how much of a toll this took on his body.
How bad did it get? Halpern’s family at one point suspected he might have chronic fatigue syndrome and sought out a renowned specialist in New York. There was a fear that he might never play again and that his life might be greatly altered, as many people do not fully recover from CFS. Fortunately, the results came back that he didn’t have it, so there was a chance.
Still, it wasn’t until just before the start of practice this season that he was able to get back on the basketball floor, and he had a lot of catching up to do. That’s still the case now, but he’s closing the gap from not working out for the better part of 11 months and being weaker than he would be had he been able to.
“They’re doing a great job of pushing me to my limits to try to get me into shape, scrambling a bit,” Halpern said of the coaching staff.
From a basketball standpoint, he couldn’t help an injury-riddled team that could have used him last year. He also missed playing with his good friend Andrew McCarthy as he blossomed last year, and now that he’s back, McCarthy is sitting out the year, so the two are apart again.
In other words, last year was one to forget. And it all came after he looked poised to really come into his own after he was an honorable mention All-Ivy selection as a sophomore. In postseason workouts with other college players in the area he felt good about how he was playing. With some help on the way in the frontcourt, his junior year could be a big year for him and the team, which some thought could be a sleeper in the Ivy League. We now know how that turned out, and it was not well for both him or the team.
Halpern has always had high expectations for himself both on and off the court. He was on the radar early in his high school career as an intriguing prospect and one who would likely have the grades to get into an elite school since he attended the prestigious Noble & Greenough, and as a rising junior got a good deal of buzz from some performances on the travel circuit. A year later, he was in a rut for a lot of the spring travel circuit but came alive in time for the summer, and ultimately turned that into a chance at Brown. It was a perfect situation – not far from home, great academics and in Division I.
Now, he’s going to be challenged more by the coaching staff. With Rafael Maia and Cedric Kuakumensah playing well up front, the Bears want Halpern to play the small forward spot as part of a big front line. His skill package will translate just fine offensively, but Halpern has usually guarded power forwards at the defensive end, so having to guard a perimeter player will be a new challenge. He’ll take it on, of course, and he no doubt expects he will do well with it in time.
Deep down, you figure Halpern always envisioned having a game like Friday night – a big game where he leads his team to victory. But that might have been dialed back a bit at times for much of the past year as he had an uncertain future. Right now, he is happy to be playing the game again and, more importantly, living a relatively normal life. He seems much more like himself, and slowly but surely is moving towards becoming the player one thought he could become after his sophomore year.
It’s a story that may be buried beneath some other headlines from the game. That’s unfortunate, because for a good young man like Tucker Halpern, it’s a story that should be known because it’s one that should warm the heart of anyone who is a fan of the game.
