There are girls for every sport. Some girls go for football players — “puck sluts” is a slang term for hockey chasers. Girls message you, get right down to the point and say “Let’s hook up.” Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook. I’d say I’m hooking up four or five times a week. Sometimes on the weekend I’ll hook up with two or three different girls. Many of them are just hooking up with me because I’m a basketball player. They’re using me as well. We’re men, got our hormones and everything, and we kind of just want to release those every now and then. Hooking up does depend on what the girl looks like to a certain degree, and then it depends if I’m tired or not.
Sometimes the guys on the team get competitive about sex. Our freshman summer we actually made it a competition: Who could have sex with the most girls. We had a point system, and we called ourselves the EFC: Elite Fucking Committee. We’d keep track and meet up on Sunday and tell stories.
As an athlete, I’ve gotten talks from the school about girls and hooking up and alcohol and stuff. I don’t want to overstep my boundaries. The girls make it very obvious what they want, so I don’t push them at all. But women are kind of crazy sometimes, especially with athletes and wanting to get their money. Obviously, as college athletes, we don’t really have money right now, but it’s kind of scary: Any girl that I hook up with could lie and say that I sexually assaulted her or raped her. The woman usually gets the benefit of the doubt in those cases. I remember reading an article on Justin Bieber and how he had a consent form for girls to sign and I’ve honestly thought about doing something similar.
It gets old sometimes, sleeping with people and having it not mean anything. I did have a girlfriend once for like three and a half years, and sex was much better when you were emotionally attracted to that person. There’s times now where I definitely want a girlfriend. But at the same time in my head I’m like, How am I supposed to know if she likes me for me or because I’m an athlete?
I have girls at several Big Ten schools who will come to my hotel room when I’m on the road. Before I go to bed, we’ll hook up, and then I just pass out. I’ve made the mistake of having them stay over, but they keep me up, and then I’m really tired the next day when I have a game. Now I politely ask them to leave, or I just turn over and go to bed and they get the point. They seem fine with it.
I’m actually starting to think about how my sex life will change after school. It depends on how my career goes. If I go pro, it’ll be professional jersey-chasers after me, and if I don’t, well, then I’m actually going to have to put some effort into hooking up and be a normal person.
*This article appears in the October 19, 2015 issue of New York Magazine.
