Nov. 3, 2009

By Josh Bowe for utamavs.com

ARLINGTON, Texas - Two years ago, 1,549 miles away from home, Marquez Haynes had to make an important decision.

"One of the biggest of my life," Haynes said.

Haynes, senior guard, had a choice between being uncomfortable in a big school or be at peace at a smaller program.

He had played his first two seasons at Boston College, one of the premier programs in the ACC, which is one of the more highly regarded basketball conferences in the nation. But Haynes only averaged 13.9 minutes per game scoring a total of 203 points, less than half the points he scored in his first full season at UT Arlington.

"I was playing decent minutes, but I didn't really like the role they had me in," Haynes said. "I felt the offensive system was a little restrictive."

It was time for a change. Hard to believe coming out of high school that Haynes would want to leave the big spotlight of the ACC. Coming out of Irving High School, Haynes was ranked 150 by rivals.com in the nation and 19th in the state.

The big schools came calling. Kansas, Illinois and Boston College were all after the 6'3'' athletic wingman. But the allure of playing against teams such as North Carolina and Duke were too good to pass up for Haynes.

"Of the three hottest schools that were recruiting me, BC was on me the longest," Haynes said. "I was most familiar with them and I wanted to go to that conference."

And so began Haynes' college career. Two frustrating seasons later, Haynes made the decision to come back home to Texas and UTA. But playing at Boston College did have its perks. Haynes has played in some of the more famous college basketball venues in the country.

"Seeing it on TV and getting to go do that was probably the biggest highlight," he said.

With the decision to leave made, Haynes wasn't done with the hard part just yet. Plenty of schools gave offers to Haynes from Oklahoma and Arkansas to North Texas.

"It was tough to decide to leave and then to decide on where to go after that was even harder," Haynes said. "It was definitely a tough decision."

UTA coach Scott Cross went after Haynes during his senior year in high school. Unable to lure Haynes to Arlington, Cross was very interested to hear what his assistants had to say about Haynes two years later.

"My assistants had told me he was interested in possibly transferring and being close to home," Cross said. "Obviously we were extremely interested because we knew the type of player he was coming out of high school."

Cross and his assistants wasted little time in their pursuit of Haynes. The attention was noticed from Haynes, especially when some of the bigger schools he was deciding on, Oklahoma and TCU, weren't jumping on getting him with their program.

"The other schools I was looking at, the responses were kind of lukewarm," Haynes said. "Coach Cross and coach Bryant at the time they were completely sold on me."

With Haynes on board Cross was completely impressed with what Haynes brought to the team. Cross knew Haynes was a special player during the recruitment, but what he saw from Haynes in practice impressed him.

"Honestly he brings everything to the table. There's not one negative I can say about him," Cross said. "I think he's the first player I've coached that does not have any negatives or no drawbacks at all."

After sitting out his first year in the 2007-2008 season, Cross's words were proved with Haynes performance in his second season. Haynes put up 16.5 points per game, 5.1 rebounds per game and also threw in 3.4 assists per game from the two-guard position.

It wasn't enough to lead the Mavericks to their second NCAA tournament birth however, coming up short in the Southland conference championship game. Haynes had to sit out because of his transfer status in 2008 when the Mavs made their historic run to the NCAA tournament.

Even with though he played in the tournament with Boston College, you can bet Haynes is hungry for more.

"That was crazy, oh I wanted a piece of that so bad," Haynes said with a smile. "It was tough."

Haynes has been doing that a lot more too: smiling. Being at home has completely revitalized Haynes who talked about having a bad game "1,000 miles from home but just thinking about it."

Now he he's back where he belongs.

"You come back here and it's easier," Haynes said then paused before the smile came through again.

"Much easier."