Mount St. Mary’s Dakota Leffew ready to assume leadership role | Collegiate

“I feel like I’ll be at the top of [the opponent’s] scouting report,” said Leffew, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound senior guard who is the Mountaineers’ top returning scorer (13.1 points per game) and was recently named First Team All-Metro Atlantic Conference (MAAC) in a preseason poll of the league’s coaches.

Mount St. Mary’s, which finished 13-20 overall and 8-12 in league play last season — its first season in the MAAC — opens the season against Maryland at 7 p.m. Tuesday in College Park.

To reach a higher tier, the Mountaineers will need Leffew to take on a bigger leadership role on and off the court.

Team leaders who have shouldered the brunt of the load on both ends of the floor in recent seasons, such as Malik Jefferson, Jalen Benjamin and Deandre Thomas, have either graduated or moved on.

The Mount coaches have challenged Leffew to be more of a vocal leader rather than just by example.

“I feel like I can do it,” Leffew said prior to a practice this week. “I just need to do it.”

Leffew was discovered by Mount St. Mary’s while playing in an AAU tournament in his home state of Georgia.

“They reached out to me and then kept following me,” he said. “They were on me pretty hard.”

When Mount coach Dan Engelstad went to Leffew’s hometown of Hampton, Georgia, to watch him play for Jonesboro High School, he saw a smooth player with the ability to handle the ball, make 3-pointers and the athleticism to play above the rim.

Leffew caught and finished a lob in transition and passed well with both hands when Engelstad went to see him play.

And, yet, he left the coach wanting to see more.

“He…