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Carlos “Chino” Paez and the fate that led him to Austin Peay




Carlos Paez warms up before the Governors’ game against Belmont.ERIC ELLIOT

Carlos Paez warms up before the Governors’ game against Belmont.ERIC ELLIOT

It almost seems like a small boy born in Valencia, Venezuela was destined to land at a small mid-major Division I basketball program in Clarksville, Tenn. from the very start.

But there’s a lot that goes into that. Let’s take a step back.

Carlos Paez, son of Meurys and brother of Deyvid, has played basketball since he was six years old. His dad played. Deyvid played. His uncle, Diego Guevara, played for UNC-Charlotte as one of the best basketball players to come out of Venezuela. The game is in Chino’s blood.

Ah, right. ‘Chino.’ It’s the name Paez prefers to go by – even more than just ‘Carlos.’ It’s Spanish for “Chinese.” The name was given to him and his brother because they both looked “a little bit Asian” as kids. Back home, he’s “Little Chino” but to those in the United States, it’s just Chino. He prefers it that way.

Anyways…

He played with the U14, U16 and U18 Venezuelan national teams, even earning a bronze medal along the way. On the U16 team as 15-year-old, Paez led the team in steals and assists while scoring nearly 10 points per game.

That’s how he got noticed. His uncle Diego got his nephew involved in the process to come to the United States to jumpstart his basketball career, bringing him to West Oaks Academy in Orlando.

“My first year was a little bit rough,” Paez said. “I was 15 years old and I was living by myself. It was a hard situation. Of course it was hard because you look at the movies and it’s like OK, this is high school, but it was completely different. It was really hard being away from home and all that.”

After one year, he moved again – this time to Sunrise Academy in Kansas.

“(Sunrise) was more like a family environment. I got taken care of very well, everybody cared about you. It was a Christian school so everybody just had that in them that they always look out for each other. That’s where I spent the last three years and that’s going to be a place that I call home for the rest of my life for sure.”

With far fewer Spanish speakers in Kansas than in Orlando, Paez needed to learn English beyond the basics he already knew. It paid off. Today, his grasp on the language is on par with that of a lifelong speaker and it has given him the opportunity to study sports broadcasting at APSU.

While at Sunrise, he was helped by one of the greatest Venezuelan basketball players of all time – former NBA point guard Greivis Vasquez. Ironically, Vasquez was mentored by Guevara.

Learning from a professional helped, but Paez was not necessarily on the fast track to playing Division I ball. Not even close. Combine that lack of attention and continued separation from his family on another continent, and Chino struggled.

“My junior year of high school, I didn’t play very much at Sunrise so that was a really hard year, but it helped me grow,” he said. “My family always contacted me through the phone. It’s not the same, being able to come to mom and being like, ‘What do I do? I’m struggling.’ Same thing with my brother because we’re really close. I share a lot of things with them and he’s older than me so he kind of went through some of the same things.”

By the time his senior season finished, he had only three college scholarship offers, and two were from Division II schools, but Chino continued to work months after his final game. His team was headed to the Geico Nationals – a nationwide high school basketball tournament in New York City – and he still practiced with them.

This is where fate comes in.

Governors’ assistant coach Sergio Rouco went to see Chino practice two months after the prep season.

Rouco is Cuban, but his wife is Venezuelan – and from Valencia – the same city as Chino. Rouco also coached Uncle Diego Guevara in the Venezuelan pro leagues.

While Paez was in Orlando, Rouco was coaching at the University of South Florida in Tampa – less than two hours from where Chino was going to school.

There were too many direct ties to ignore with the timeline ranging from before Paez was even born to his senior year of high school.

“It was easy for me to recruit him and have a tie and a bond knowing his family history and the language and the culture,” Rouco said. “He’s a kid that has done well everywhere he’s gone. He’s not the biggest guy in the world but he’s a very smart, tough basketball player that is very confident in himself. Everywhere he’s been put at, he’s been successful.”

Rouco and Austin Peay coach Matt Figger watched Chino practice with the team ahead of Geico Nationals. They offered him a scholarship on a Thursday, and the guard committed the next Monday.

The school has been a natural fit for him.

“It’s been about growth,” Paez said. “At first I was not playing very much because I hadn’t figured it out yet, but just the fact that we play with a chip on our shoulders all the time, that’s kind of how I’ve been my whole life, having to overcome a lot of challenges. That’s kind of how we define ourselves. Most of us were overlooked our whole lives… If I play with a bunch of guys that feel the same way, I think we’ll be pretty good.”

Chino is averaging 7.5 points, 3.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game as a freshman with the Governors. He has started 17 games – including every game of the team’s 13-1 conference season as a primary ball handler for the best offense in the OVC.

His impact is felt more than just on the court, too.

“We have a group of kids that are not alpha males and (Paez is) a kid that, if he has to speak up, he’ll speak up to the players or even with Coach Figger,” Rouco said. “He’ll say something to Coach Figger and ask him a hard question and that’s hard for a freshman to come out and do. And Chino will do that with the ultimate consequences being the best for the team.”

Watching him play, it’s clear which three main things the freshman prides himself in.

Sharing the basketball. Chino leads the team with 101 assists – 16 more than the next highest player. To go with it, he only has 32 turnovers, giving him the second best assist-to-turnover ratio in the conference.

Toughness. Listed at 5-foot-10, Paez needs to play bigger than he truly is, and he knows it. When he first met Rouco, he was small and skinny, but his dedication to the craft has helped him get stronger. Even though he has a ways to go, he takes on any defensive assignment. He leads the Governors in steals and has the seventh most in the conference.

Trash talking. Without this one, those others might not even exist. Chino loves chatting it up with the other team and getting on his opponents’ nerves with his play and his mouth.

“That’s how I grew up playing,” he said. “The national tournaments back home are really intense, so you learn to trash talk and all this. I think that that gets in other people’s heads and it gets me going. Every time I talk to the other team, I get energetic and I get going a lot more than usual.”

Without his overall contributions, there’s a good chance the Governors aren’t tied for first place in the OVC. His unselfish play and drive to make others succeed is necessary for any winning team.

He wouldn’t want to be doing it anywhere else.

“When you’ve got your best player celebrating a charge the way he does, when you’ve got Jordyn Adams celebrating the fact that you made a three as if it was his own to win the game is just incredible to have that feeling of togetherness,” Paez said. “I think that’s the best part of playing with this team. Everyone cares about playing with everybody.”

Similarly, Austin Peay knows that they won by having Rouco and fate on their side in getting the small guard from Valencia on their team.

Someday, he’ll find himself playing professional basketball back home in Venezuela. He’ll mentor another young basketball-hungry player like Vasquez did with him and his uncle did before that.

But until then, he’s going to continue to lead the way for talented Govs’ teams, and nobody could be happier about it. 

Except the OVC teams that have to guard him, score on him and listen to him. 

Carlos Paez puts a dribble move on a Belmont defender.ROBERT SMITH/APSU SPORTS INFORMATION

Carlos Paez puts a dribble move on a Belmont defender.ROBERT SMITH/APSU SPORTS INFORMATION

 

 

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