Greece-born Dimitrios Sklavenitis adapts quickly to college basketball with Seton Hill men
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The Seton Hill men’s basketball team made a quantum leap in coach Ben Wilkins’ first season. After winning only three games during the 2021-22 season, the Griffins went 16-13 (11-11 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) in 2022-23.
If Wilkins wanted to keep his team on that trajectory, he knew one of the main positions he would need to fortify was point guard.
While scouting an AAU event in Washington, D.C., during the offseason, he bumped into Donny Lind, an assistant at UNC Greensboro who served with Wilkins on the staff at Mount St. Mary’s. Wilkins informed Lind about his quest for a point guard.
About 6 that evening, Lind texted Wilkins and said, “Hey, I found your point guard.”
The young man’s name was Dimitrios Sklavenitis, a native of Greece who spent two seasons at Hoosac School, a co-ed boarding school in New York just a few miles northeast of Albany. So Wilkins went and found the court where Sklavenitis’ team was playing.
“It took me about three trips up and down the court to know that Donny was right,” Wilkins said. “This was the guy we needed who fits exactly what we are looking for in every area.”
Six games into his first season, Sklavenitis has done nothing to make Wilkins question Lind’s scouting report.
Sklavenitis, 6-foot-3, started every game, averaging 8.5 points and 2.3 rebounds and recording a team-high 12 assists. And for someone with the ball in his hands so much, Sklavenitis had committed only 2.5 turnovers per game.
The early workload for Sklavenitis was partially a result of his talent and partially a result of an injury to senior guard Sean Dillon. Regardless, Wilkins knew Sklavenitis would be a big part of his plans right away.
“I’ve been doing this 20 years, (and) I coached one kid — Tommy Funk at Army, he’s the all-time Patriot League leader in assists — that passes like Dimitrios,” Wilkins said. “The passes he was making, he was playing chess when the other team was playing checkers. He’s three or four moves ahead.”
Added Sklavenitis: “I feel like I am doing OK. I could definitely do some more. As time goes by, I definitely would like to get better as a player.”
Sklavenitis’ path to Seton Hill was unconventional. Growing up in Glyfada, Greece, a southern suburb of Athens, he took up basketball at age 8, following the lead of his father, who had played some competitive basketball. As he got older — he said he studied English at school — he started to entertain thoughts of going to college and playing basketball overseas, specifically in the U.S.
Through a family acquaintance who had connections in America, he made his way to Hoosac School, where he played for two years.
After Wilkins started recruiting him, Sklavenitis had planned to visit the Greensburg campus this past summer. But he already had his ticket back to Greece and couldn’t change it. So his decision to commit to the Griffins was based mostly on text messages and chats with Wilkins and some photos of the campus.
He also got a sales pitch from Angelos Markakis, a fellow native of the Athens area who is a keeper on the Seton Hill men’s soccer team.
“I like the campus,” he said. “It’s small. It’s perfect. Everything is close. The teachers know you, too, academically.
“Everyone on the team is like a family. I think I have stuck with everyone pretty well. … They felt like a family since Day 1.”
And Sklavenitis was able to make an impact from Day 1. In the Griffins’ opening game, a 97-96 overtime win over Wheeling, he had 15 points, including five — and two rebounds — in overtime.
Two weeks later against Davis & Elkins, he helped Seton Hill earn a 78-74 win. With the score tied 51-51, he committed a turnover but then stole the ball right back, and the result was a layup by teammate James Rice. Then, he got a defensive rebound and converted a layup on the other end.
Seton Hill never trailed again, and Sklavenitis sealed the game with a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left.
The Griffins entered the weekend 4-2 and 1-1 in the PSAC after splitting a pair of crossover games entering December.
“He’s willing to step up and make the plays,” Wilkins said. “He’s not scared of any moment, and I think that’s rare for a player. At Davis & Elkins … he didn’t do what he needed in the first half, but then he really responded in the second half and he was terrific. I think that’s the sign of a great player.
“You’re going to face adversity, and in big moments, are you willing to just make the play you need to make?”
To be sure, Sklavenitis is far from a finished product. As good as his decision-making is, Wilkins said, Sklavenitis has to learn how to make them faster amid the more frenetic pace of a college game. Defense, naturally, is an area where he and the rest of the Griffins need to improve (they were yielding 76.5 points per game over the first six).
But all the raw materials are in place, and Wilkins expects to see Sklavenitis among the best point guards in the PSAC in the near future.
“His talent level is exceptional, and I also love that he’s very, very coachable,” Wilkins said. “He wants to get better. He’s willing to learn, and that’s a big part of the process because if you’re not willing to learn, you’re not going to get better.”
Added Sklavenitis: “We’re just trying to improve every day. I’m just trying to be the best version of myself every day and try to be better than I was yesterday.”