Even while he finished up an accomplished basketball career at the high school level, Derek Raridon ’13 spent very little time engaged in the recruitment process with college coaches. He knew early on that all of his future plans involved playing for his father, head coach Todd Raridon, at North Central College.
The four-year journey with the program still held some surprises, though, and would ultimately meet with a tremendous finish.
“I was comfortable here and have been here most of my life, so that made (college) an easy decision,” Derek said. “One of the things I wasn’t prepared for was the leadership role he expected out of me. He put a lot of faith in me, even as a freshman, in that respect.”
In that first year, Raridon scored 21.3 points per game, the program’s highest single-season average in more than a decade, and earned Second Team All-College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) honors along with National Rookie of the Year accolades from D3hoops.com. Over the following three seasons, however, the team’s improvement led to changes in Raridon’s role, and he responded by helping lead the way to 34 victories in 42 CCIW games as the Cardinals won two CCIW regular-season championships and a pair of CCIW Tournament titles.
“It wasn’t a tough change because we saw the results in the win column,” said Raridon, who became the first Cardinal since Bill Warden ’55 to earn All-CCIW honors four straight years. “It’s a credit to my teammates and the coaches for bringing in the players we needed to be successful.”
As a senior, Raridon earned CCIW Player of the Year honors, as well as a First Team All-America nod from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and a Fourth Team All-America pick from D3hoops.com, as the Cardinals set the current program single-season win record with a record of 28-4, winning a second straight CCIW Tournament and advancing to the NCAA Division III national semifinals.
“It was really neat,” Raridon said of the tournament run. “We had all the students on campus behind us, as well as a lot of people from Naperville who had never been to games before. It was a really cool experience to have so much tremendous support.”
Raridon finished his collegiate career ranked second in the program’s history in scoring (1,690 points) and free throws made (450) while ranking fourth in games played (111) and fifth in assists (248).
He also gained national notoriety through a feature story published regarding his on-campus job as a member of the custodial staff at Gregory Arena, which he valued for the extra opportunities it provided to hone his craft.
“Finding a job around the athletic facilities gave me a chance, on my lunch break, to work on my game,” Raridon said. “It was neat to get recognized for more than basketball, but some of the most fun I had over the summer was getting to work with them and mess around in the gym during breaks.”
