When he's first asked what motivates him to pour all of his energy into college basketball, University of Charleston senior guard Tino DiTrapano isn't sure of the answer.
"That's a tough question," he said.
After a while, though, an answer forms. He knows why he spends countless hours in the gym, why he hits the books as hard as he hits the practice floor, why he tries to wring every last drop of ability out of his body.
The hometown boy wants to do good.
"I just want to be the best I can be," he said. "I want to be a good example, a role model. That's what motivates me now."
In four years, DiTrapano transformed from a UC walk-on into one of the most essential members of the Golden Eagles roster, one that coaches past and present laud for his relentless desire to get everything he can out of college and college basketball. In his quest to improve, he rekindled the love for the game that went missing for many of his younger years.
DiTrapano will play his last regular-season game in a Charleston uniform at 4 p.m. today at the Civic Center, where the Golden Eagles (14-13, 11-10 Mountain East Conference) face West Virginia State (6-20, 4-17).
By his own admission, DiTrapano was a good high school basketball player at George Washington - earning Class AAA all-state honorable mention twice and being named to the third team once - but not as good as he could have been.
That began to change as soon as former UC coach Mark Downey invited him to walk on to the team, because DiTrapano's work ethic underwent a major transformation.
"I didn't realize how much working out and all those other things could help you when I was in high school," he said. "When I was in high school, I wasn't doing things to make myself better. I was just good enough to play and win games. I wasn't averaging great numbers. When I got to college, I realized I was just an average college player. I'm not going to be good unless I worked."
Downey had seen DiTrapano play in high school and always liked his grit and toughness. He figured he didn't have anything to lose giving DiTrapano a walk-on spot. The freshman attacked the opportunity with everything to gain.
When Downey would walk into the Eddie King Gym each morning to begin his day, he'd see DiTrapano on the court, shooting. If Downey would leave the office in the mid-morning to get something across campus, he'd return and find DiTrapano, back on the court between classes.
"There were times where we said, 'Tino, go home, you're gonna burn yourself out,' " Downey said. "Those guys are easy to work with. He wasn't gifted with great, great athleticism. He doesn't jump over the rim. He's not unbelievably quick. He's strong and smart on the court and has just made himself a player."
DiTrapano said that first year at UC wasn't always easy. There were times he'd sit in his living room and tell his dad he didn't feel it was working, he didn't feel like playing basketball anymore and didn't even feel like going to school anymore. His dad tried to lift his spirits.
"He said, 'No. You're in a good position now. Just keep working and you're going to be all right,' " DiTrapano said. "At the end, if felt like everything lined up."
DiTrapano played sparingly in that first year, averaging just 6.7 minutes over 18 games. But Downey, who left after DiTrapano's first year to become head coach at West Alabama, knew DiTrapano was a future starter. That future came quickly. When Dwaine Osborne arrived to take over the team, DiTrapano vaulted into the starting lineup and would start 79 of his next 85 games.
DiTrapano put the same effort into his schoolwork, and the player who was an OK student in high school became a perennial member of the dean's list. As much as DiTrapano improved in his first season, Osborne said that progress has continued ever since.
"He works as hard as anybody we have, anytime we have something organized," Osborne said. "Anytime we have a team activity - weight training, conditioning, practice, whatever it is - he is as engaged and gives as much effort or more than anyone at all times. And it never changes."
What changed in DiTrapano from high school to college was his emergence from the dark times he trudged through starting in middle school. At a cookout for his AAU basketball team in sixth grade, the younger brother of one of his teammates went missing. It was DiTrapano who found the 6-year-old boy drowned at the bottom of the pool.
"I was just yelling, crying," he said. "From that day on, it just went bad. I didn't really care about playing basketball anymore. I played, but I stopped going to the gym and shooting around."
For the player who, as a child, would need the basketball pried from his hands, the love for the game was gone. It wouldn't return until he donned a UC uniform, and then it came back almost out of necessity. The 5-foot-10 DiTrapano took a look around the program and realized that what used to be passable effort wouldn't cut it anymore.
"If I'm not working harder than anyone else, I'm just going to be an average player," he said. "I don't want to be an average player."
It wasn't just that his shooting improved - he's averaging 12.2 points this year and leads UC shooting 41.2 percent from 3-point range - or the devotion to the weight room that added 15 pounds to his frame. Osborne said DiTrapano's basketball IQ has improved tremendously in terms of shot selection and understanding of time and score.
DiTrapano's growth at Charleston hasn't been limited to the court. He has grown in his faith as well. He has seen the power of his prayer work in some crazy ways.
Before the 2014 MEC tournament final, when UC lined up against top-seeded and national No. 3 West Liberty, he found a quiet corner of the Civic Center and prayed for the Golden Eagles to play as hard as they could. UC upset the Hilltoppers 63-60 to win the inaugural MEC crown.
DiTrapano's faith has helped keep him steady and at peace during his Charleston career.
"It does, because, you know, if you have faith, you walk with God," he said.
UC's season hasn't always gone the way DiTrapano had hoped, with the Golden Eagles hovering around .500. Yet he feels that, even in losses, he improves, learning how to accept responsibility for the result and figure out how to fix it. Past his final college basketball season, he's not sure what the future holds.
DiTrapano will graduate with a degree in sports administration. Whatever comes, he said he'll take it on with the same fervor with which he approached his hoops career.
He figures his post-basketball career will take as much effort as the last four seasons, but in wanting to make his hometown proud, he sees no reason to mess with a winning formula.
"It's not going to be easy at all," he said. "It's not easy now. But I've got to do it, or else I'm not going to be successful."