Jordan Leslie is ready to empty his basketball tank, because he knows there’s no hardcourt left ahead of him after this winter.
The Mullen multi-sport star was one of the top scorers in Class 6A last year at 22.7 points per game. Now this winter, he finds himself headed to play college ball… only in a different sport than the one he always envisioned himself in at the next level.
Leslie is committed to play football at Dartmouth. It was a 40-year decision over a four-year one: Leslie believes the educational opportunities, networking and doors opened at an Ivy League institution far outweigh the Division II interest he was receiving in hoops.
“I’m still trying to bring (these emotions) in, and control them, and harness them in my play,” Leslie said. “Ever since my freshman year I thought for sure I’d be playing college basketball. And choosing between football and basketball was tough. So this is new to me to have the feeling of a season where, knowing that win or lose the last game, the last game is truly going to be my last game.”
Leslie played football in middle school, but a torn ACL as a seventh grader turned him off from the sport. He was drawn back as a junior, and over the last two falls, racked up 1,382 yards receiving and 14 TDs while also asserting himself as one of the state’s top returners.
Mullen football coach Jeremy Bennett called the wideout/point guard/long jumper “the number one unknown athlete in this state.”
“And he’s a Top 10 athlete overall,” Bennett said. “He’s not going to run 10.7 on the track or (get on a lot of watch lists in football or basketball)… but he does everything really well. He’s a very physical athlete. Had he played four years of football, with his grades and his prowess, we may be talking about how he chose Stanford or Northwestern. He’s that good.”
In his final season of basketball, Leslie is focused on getting the Mustangs back to the postseason after they were a bubble team left out in the cold last year. Mullen has more experience in 2023-24 around its top scorer and ball-handler, as senior shooting guard Anderson Brendle and junior small forward Thomas Stewart complement Leslie as returning starters.
“The main goal is to get my team to the playoffs,” Leslie said. “Besides that, I’m trying to get to 1,000 points. I’m at 865 right now. This is the best team we’ve had at Mullen in a while. The young kids we’re bringing up this year have a lot of potential, and with the other returning starters, I have a lot of hope for what we can do this season.”
While posting a 10-13 overall record and 2-5 mark in the Centennial League last season, Leslie and the Mustangs lost five games by 10 points or less. Roosevelt Leslie, the point guard’s dad and second-year Mullen head coach, believes the team can start to win those close games this year to at least be a Sweet 16 qualifier as they were in 2020 and ’21.
“With more experience this year, and with the same schedule, we’re looking to make a few tweaks and win a few of those games,” Roosevelt Leslie said. “There’s four or five teams from last year that beat us in close games, so we’re looking to capitalize on those. We might have a little revenge tour and see ourselves into the playoffs.”
Overland coach Danny Fisher believes that while there are other players with more raw basketball talent in the Centennial League — Eaglecrest junior point guard LaDavian King, Smoky Hilly sophomore guard Carter Basquez, Cherry Creek sophomore point guard Jeremiah Hammond and Trailblazers junior guard Siraaj Ali are the cream of the crop — Jordan Leslie’s intangibles are his differentiator.
“What carries over from football is the advantage that he has over most players in our league,” Fisher said. “Being a football-first guy, he doesn’t spend as much time in the gym as the other guys… but his impact in terms of his leadership and toughness is what separates him.”
No matter the Mustangs’ basketball fortunes this season, Bennett emphasized Leslie’s already left a legacy at Mullen that will be hard to duplicate. The senior, who spurned football offers from Group of 5 schools such as New Mexico State and Central Michigan, plans on studying economics at Dartmouth, with the goal of eventually getting into the business world.
“He spends a lot of time at the Denver Dream Center, tutoring and helping kids who need that,” Bennett said. “He’s involved with food bank work, he’s involved with traveling internationally with a Christian organization. He never bats an eye about that stuff. He embraces it.
“So when we talk about the total package and what a student-athlete should look like, and what a good human should look like, he’s accomplished so much as a football and basketball player but yet he never loses sight of doing things for his community… the way he handles his business from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. is what you want from any young man.”
Mullen opens the season on Monday at home against Legacy, a team they lost to in overtime of the first game last year.
