Gauno making plays at college level

Lafourche Booking Log – Jan. 7, 2019
January 8, 2019
District play begins for local basketball teams
January 9, 2019
Lafourche Booking Log – Jan. 7, 2019
January 8, 2019
District play begins for local basketball teams
January 9, 2019

Terrebonne graduate Deedy Gauno was an offensive machine for the Tigers — one of the better offensive threats that the area has seen in the past couple decades.


Now at Angelina College and in the midst of his sophomore season, not much has changed.

Gauno is still scoring at will and putting up impressive numbers — while trying to impress coaches and scouts to find a future home.

Gauno has enjoyed a huge sophomore season to date for Angelina — the two-year school he picked out of high school.


So far this season, the talented, 5-foot, 10-inch guard averages 14.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game for a team trying to battle above .500 after recent defeats.

In Angelina’s most recent game — a 91-86 loss against Tyler Junior College — Gauno scored 13 points and forced several fouls.

But despite the individual successes, Gauno said he wants the team to start winning more in the back-end of the season, adding that recent losses have a sour taste in both he and his teammates mouths at press-time.


“The season is not going the best right now, but it’s not going the worst, either,” Gauno said. “We are still capable of getting a lot better. For me, coming in as a freshman and playing has taken my confidence to a whole new level because the mistakes I would have made as a freshman, I’ve fixed and don’t make in my sophomore year.”

For Gauno, the big sophomore success is just the continuation of the norm.

At Terrebonne, Deedy was 20-plus points when he got off the bus and walked onto the floor — one of the more decorated scorers that we’ve seen in recent history.


He played since his underclassman days under coach Derek Szush, starting as a role player for the Tigers, then evolving into more.

As a junior, Gauno enjoyed perhaps his best run at the prep level, catapulting himself into local stardom with his play. Gauno scored 20 or more points almost every game as a junior, with a few 30 and 40-point games sprinkled in between.

As a senior, Gauno didn’t have as many huge games as he did as a junior. But that’s because he didn’t have to. The Tigers were highly successful that year, winning 20-plus games, while punching a ticket to the Second Round of the Class 5A State Playoffs.


For his work in that year, Gauno earned All-State honors, while generating light interest from Division I coaches around the Southeast and from several JUCOs around the country.

“He’s a playmaker,” Szush said of his former player. “He makes things happen. He can score in bunches and he really gets all the guys going. And I think more important than all of those things, he’s just a really good kid. He works hard and he wants to see our team and his teammates do well.”

At the end of his season, Gauno was without a home for a long time. His recruitment went well past National Signing Day before finally picking Angelina.


At the time, Gauno said openly that he felt disrespected to not have more looks from bigger schools, but added that he would play at hard as he could at Angelina to make his mark.

And that’s exactly what he’s done.

As a freshman last season, Gauno battled an early-season minor injury and came back with style, averaging 11.7 points per game in 22 contests — one of the leaders of the team.


But he said he wasn’t satisfied with the way the season went, so he worked tirelessly in the offseason to come back bigger, faster and stronger.

“I’ve been working on my playmaking skills,” Gauno said. “I’ve been trying to bring my passing skills to a whole different level. … One thing I’ve learned my freshman year is that this is nothing like high school. Everyone’s talent is brought up to another level, so I know I won’t be better at everyone at everything, so to combat that, I’ve been working on everything — but mainly, my shot, my passing and finishing in traffic.”

Those efforts have paid off.


Gauno has raised his points from 11.7 per game to 14.8 per game this year and he’s more efficient in the process. Last year, Gauno shot 37.9 percent from the field. This year, that’s been raised to 41.3.

For his efforts, Gauno said he’s getting interest from four-year schools, but added that he’s asked his coaches to not tell him about the schools interested because he wants his 100 percent focus to be on his sophomore season with Angelina.

The team started the season 1-4, but has since battled back, winning six of their past 10 games. But Gauno said he believes the team is better than they’re playing and the focus for the rest of the way will be to come together, mesh and find victories.


He said everything — this season, his future and everything else in his career — will be eased by that simple formula: find victories.

“My goals for the rest of the season are just to win,” Gauno said. “For us, if we do that, everything else would take care of itself.”

Deedy Gauno


Follow Casey on Twitter for more. 

https://twitter.com/casey_gisclair