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By InsideHoops.com

Dominic Osei, at 6-5 and 215 pounds, graduated from Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York and is enjoying his role as a member of the Fordham University basketball team. After a very solid freshman season, the kid is ready to step his game up in a big way this upcoming season. InsideHoops.com met with Osei for an exclusive interview.

InsideHoops.com: Hi, introduce yourself.

Dominic Osei: My name is Dominic Osei. Grew up in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. Lincoln High School, four years varsity. Last year was my last year; I got a scholorship to Fordham University.

InsideHoops.com: How young were you when you started playing?

Dominic Osei: I really started playing at the age of 12.

InsideHoops.com: Did you play other sports before that?

Dominic Osei: Yeah, I played soccer.

InsideHoops.com: Talk about your teammates and playing at Lincoln.

Dominic Osei: My first year we had a good year... we made it to the championship our first year, my first year. We lost by two points.

InsideHoops.com: Did you play at lot as a freshman?

Dominic Osei: I was still learning, so I sat on the bench. And then my sophomore year I started, though.

InsideHoops.com: How did it feel to become a starter?

Dominic Osei: It was great, the whole summer I was working out just to start, just getting ready to start. And then it came to practice, they started me. It was a good feeling.

InsideHoops.com: You play bigger than you really are, at power forward.

Dominic Osei: At Lincoln we had a small team, so at my size, I was the biggest guy over there, so I played the four.

InsideHoops.com: When did you realize that basketball could, at the least, get you into college for free and save you a ton of money?

Dominic Osei: I realized it in ninth grade, actually, when I first made the team. I was the only freshman that made the team, so I was very happy.

InsideHoops.com: And talk about what went on in 10th grade.

Dominic Osei: Sebastian (Telfair) came to the team, we started getting more publicity, and we started making trips and stuff, so it was kind of fun.

InsideHoops.com: How much more media started showing up once Telfair was on the squad?

Dominic Osei: His freshman year was a little more, not that much. His junior year we had a good team... that was the year we won the championship.

InsideHoops.com: How about the recruiting process, how early did colleges start talking to you?

Dominic Osei: I got offers through my sophomore year, I had Missouri, Charleston Southern. I had a lot of offers, but I got hurt my junior year, so I wasn't playing like I was suppossed to play, so they all stopped recruiting me. So my senior year I was trying to get back, into recrutiing, I tried, but I wasn't still getting recruiting.

InsideHoops.com: How much did you play as a junior?

Dominic Osei: I played, I started. But I was hurt and wasn't playing the way I was supposed to play. My senior year, after we won the state championship, I started playing, I started working out, shooting from outside and all that. So you know Norm (Ostrin), he made a call, one of his friends knew Derrick. Derrick came to see me play - that's the head coach from Fordham - he came to see me play, he liked the way I play, and he recruited me that day. I got recruited. That's what happened.