Scholar Stories: Ozuna-Harrison Living Hoops, Pre-Med Dreams at Michigan
12/18/2019 10:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Features
By Steve Kornacki
Continuing the series that began in 2016-17, each Wednesday MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Prairie Farms.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Wolverine point guard and pre-med student Rico Ozuna-Harrison is living his dream in both academics and athletics.
He became interested in the University of Michigan basketball team during its run to the 2013 Final Four, and then fell in love with medicine while working in a clinic as a freshman at Detroit Cass Tech.
Five years later, Ozuna-Harrison was part of the Wolverines' next Final Four team, and he's spent three school years pursuing his goal to become a doctor.
"Michigan has always been my No. 1 school since I was in eighth grade," said Ozuna-Harrison. "That was the year we went to the national championship game. Then I started looking into the medical program because I wanted to become a doctor.
"And I based what high school I went to off of Michigan because I knew lot of kids from Cass went to Michigan."
The University of Michigan Medical School's "Doctors of Tomorrow" outreach program with Cass Tech "was the biggest influence" on Ozuna-Harrison attending both Cass Tech and eventually Michigan.
He received a full academic scholarship and walked on the basketball team, making the cut with a select few who focus on preparing the Wolverines for games on the scout team. Rico puts in long hours at basketball practices, conditioning and film studies. Then he hits the books as an English major, while also taking challenging science classes to prepare for the MCAT test required for medical school acceptance.
"I try to make 'X' (Zavier Simpson), David (DeJulius) and Eli (Brooks) work," Ozuna-Harrison said of his basketball teammates. "I'm not the biggest guy (5-foot-11, 175 pounds), but I'm quick. I try to get my hands in passing lanes and be kind of pesky."
Ozuna-Harrison and Wolverine football receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones attended Cass Tech together and now are pre-med students here.
"We crossed paths a lot in high school," said Ozuna-Harrison. "Our classes were basically the same. Our last names are right next to each other, and when they called attendance it would be me first and then him."
Ozuna-Harrison was the senior captain in 2016-17 of Cass Tech's first Detroit Public School League championship team since 1998, and also was a two-year captain of the cross country team. He broke his wrist in the middle of his senior basketball season, and that prompted him to chart the direction he'd like to take in medicine.
"I want to stay around the game and hopefully I can go into sports medicine or orthopedics," said Ozuna-Harrison. "I would always get hurt, and I found myself looking things up to understand why something hurt. And I was always concerned with my health and the health of those around me. When my friends ate chips, I'd tell them, 'You should look at how much salt is in those.'
"And then when I got the opportunity to work in a clinic with a doctor, I fell in love with it. I put a stamp on it and said that's what I want to do, and won't stop until I get there."
His favorite class has been organic chemistry.
"I struggled with it at first," he said, "but the things you do struggle with are things you learn to love as you get it."
Louis Cicciarelli, an English department lecturer, has been one of his favorite teachers.
"I like to write and I love his class," said Ozuna-Harrison. "Every day in his class, he would write a topic on the board and ask us to write about it for 15 minutes. I found my writing really, really excelled doing that under him. My ideas flourished. Sometimes you get writer's block, but after doing that, I never had it."
He also loves to read, and said his favorite authors are Malcolm Gladwell ("Outliers") and Paulo Coelho ("The Alchemist").
A pre-med classmate at Michigan approached Rico about writing a book based on people "who have had big impacts on the science fields" from their hometowns of Chicago and Detroit. They are working on it together.
"I try to be well-rounded," said Rico.
Ozuna-Harrison last season was the recipient of the Jordan Morgan/Mark and Marty Bodnar Award for academic achievement by a basketball player, and also won a Michigan Academic Achievement Award while making Academic All-Big Ten.
Former Michigan coach John Beilein, another Gladwell fan, impacted his game and life.
"He taught me how to prepare by paying attention to the details," said Ozuna-Harrison. "A lot of the way he saw things, I find myself applying to my day-to-day life. He was a 'routine' guy, and 'routine' helps. Those things have helped me in basketball, school and life. He used to do meditation, and I started to meditate, and when I did that, my day became smoother."
First-year head coach Juwan Howard quickly won him over.
"Coach Howard is great and he's taught me a lot of stuff in the months that he's been here," said Ozuna-Harrison. "Again, it's how to prep and attack life every day. He has a lot of sayings like, 'Everything you want is on the other side of hard.' I truly believe that, and I have loved it here with him as the coach. Everyone has bought into all he's been able to teach us."
His coach's advice came in handy whie he struggled to get an eventual handle on organic chemistry.
Walk-ons don't get much playing time, but Rico was able to score his first college basket this season against Houston Baptist.
"Luke Wilson got the defensive rebound on a long board," recalled Ozuna-Harrison, "and was bringing it up court on a fast break. He's on the left side with one man to beat, and I'm in the right lane shouting, 'Luke! Luke! Luke!' I'm sprinting, he throws me a perfect pass, and I lay it up. I was so happy it went in.
"The crowd got really loud, and I was just appreciative to know there are people who see the work we put in, see us get a bucket, and then do that for us. It's pretty cool."
Walk-ons are selfless contributors.
"I just do whatever I can for my team," said Rico. "I love those guys and they love me. So, whatever I can do to push them, I do. I've seen how helping them can help the team. If I push them, they do better and everyone's happy. I love it, and I'll do anything for them."
Michigan won the Big Ten Tournament championship at New York's Madison Square Garden and reached the Final Four title game with Villanova in San Antonio during his freshman season. And so, five years after watching the Wolverines in the Final Four, he was part of another Michigan team reaching the ultimate game.
"That was a crazy experience," he said. "I was just trying to catch onto everything that year, and we were playing really well. We just clicked and everyone was on board. I never expected that."
Ozuna-Harrison recalled guarding Moritz Wagner, the star of that team, on defensive switches: "He would never dunk on me and would just lay it up instead. That was cool of him. He could've put me in the basket, but he looked down and said, 'Oh, that's Rico.' He'd say, 'I'm not going to do that to you, Rico.'"
Not every walk-on is allowed to dress for NCAA Tournament games, and so he recalled running out of the stands after Jordan Poole's dramatic, game-winning shot to beat Houston in 2018 in Wichita, Kansas.
"Me and most of the walk-ons hopped over this little gate," said Ozuna-Harrison, "and we all ran out onto the court chasing Jordan with everyone else. I felt my heart almost bursting out of my chest. I'll remember that the rest of my life."
He credits his parents, Carmen Ozuna and Alanza Harrison, with directing him on a path to success along with his brother, Angel Ozuna-Harrison, 14, a musician and basketball player who hopes to attend Cass Tech next year.
"My dad worked as a social worker for a couple years when I was a kid," said Rico. "He was the one who walked me to school, picked me up, and took me to the gym. He taught me Spanish. He's also a photographer, a jack of all trades. He reads a lot.
"My mom was a teacher when I was a kid, and worked for an after-school program. She worked in a few nursing homes, and when I got into high school she sold food out of our house and shoots photos at weddings.
"My parents were always at every game I played, and they would give up things so I could go to camps and get as much exposure as I could, and go to after-school programs and have a car."
He smiled wide while expressing his appreciation for them.
Rico is considering attending Michigan for a fifth year while preparing for the MCAT.
"Someone told me: 'Don't leave Michigan until you're completely certain you've used all your resources.' So, I want to use as many resources as I can, and take as many classes as I can because my scholarship will pay for it."
He's a maximizer in every way -- a basketball player and student today and a doctor for tomorrow.
