Willimantic — It would be poetic to quote the famous poem about the road not taken for Max Lee, how this passionate conversation with his parents one day about his future cultivated the rest of his life.

Except that it was more of a monologue, not a dialogue.

Lee, a GameDay favorite and former guard at St. Bernard, made the decision: He would leave Wentworth, where he was a freshman in college two years ago and enter the workforce. He prepared himself to break the news to B.J. and Steve, otherwise known as mom and dad.

"Well," Lee was saying Friday afternoon, "it wasn't a long conversation. If you know my parents, it was very quick. My plan wasn't going to happen."

Turns out Lee is quite thankful. He landed at Eastern Connecticut, where he's become a testimony to trustworthiness, playing 36 minutes per game, leading the team in rebounding as the point guard and bears a weep-tears-of-joy 3-1 assist to turnover ratio.

"I had it in my mind that I wasn't going to go back to school," Lee said. "I had no idea what I wanted to do. My parents kinda said that's not an option. Before going to Wentworth, it was down to Eastern and Wentworth. I left Wentworth because I was homesick. I knew I could commute and go to Eastern. It's worked out well."

Indeed. The words of Eastern coach Bill Geitner:

"Max's basketball IQ is very high," said Geitner, whose team is 11-7. "As our lead guard, it's like we brought in another coach almost on the court. He's very unselfish, always making the right play, the right pass. His job is to put the other guys in position where they can be successful. He's done really good job at that. He's starting to shoot the ball better, a good rebounder (7.4 per game) and his assist (115) to turnover (38) ratio is off the charts."

Geitner has been at this long enough to know that unselfishness has become the blue whale of sports: a critically endangered species. And then this pass-first kid shows up, sustaining why former Eastern assistant Bill Strand recruited him in the first place.

"It's harder to find kids like this, but it's probably always been hard," Geitner said. "But I definitely think today with so much social media, it's about stats and how many points you score. But if you find enough guys who aren't concerned with their scoring — let's get US a good shot every time — let's just say Max has been the best player on the court only taking two shots sometimes. It's rare. Last year, we weren't sure what to expect from him. This year, he's really blossomed."

Lee's basketball education began with his dad. He later played for the Hoosiers, a local AAU team coached by Dan Spellman, who led East Lyme to several ECC titles (and who occasionally goes volcanic in the face of selfish play). His days at St. Bernard also prepared him for the college assignment, making shots when he had to in the days coach Mark Jones was building the program. Mostly, though, he was the quarterback.

"At St. Bernard, I played with some great shooters like DeAndre (Williams), Hunter (Baillargeon) and JoJo (Beltran)," Lee said. "I didn't have to shoot the ball. One pass and we scored. But here, too, we have Tom (Close), Tyreice (Woods) and Jalen (Williams) who can shoot. It's about getting it to them. I'm perfectly fine with going the whole game without shooting as long as we win. That's all I care about. Whether we win or lose."

Lee's basketball life has emerged into a literal win-win. His college team is winning. His alma mater leads the ECC. Sure beats working for a living.

"I watched (St. Bernard) the other night against NFA," Lee said. "Those freshmen are really good. That No. 24 (Amare Marshall), I would have liked to have played with him for sure. They're going to be really good for years to come."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro