'Prince Harry of Harlem' finds home at Hinkle

INDIANAPOLIS – There is a lot of New York in Paul Jorgensen ... but a whole lotta Hoosier, too.

Butler basketball teammates might tease him about his slang and the way he pronounces water like “watta.” To nearly everyone, he is “Paulie.” Yet what could be more Indiana than the kid outside his house shooting baskets all day long?

“Morning, noon and night,” said his mother, Anne.

Jorgensen’s father, Eric, works in Knightstown, home of the Hoosier Gym. That is where parts of the movie “Hoosiers” were filmed.

Jorgensen is animated enough to agitate opposing fans ... but he is so nice. Because of him, high school teammates looked forward to practice. He not only talks about loving Butler teammates, but his coaches, classmates and professors.

Hoosiers tout their hospitality. It would be hard to find a friendlier one.

“The most important thing about Paulie is he likes people, and people like him,” his mother said.

Jorgensen has become an important figure for the Bulldogs, who will try to raise their Hinkle Fieldhouse record to 7-0 in Tuesday night's game against Morehead State.

Jorgensen was brought to Butler by former coach Chris Holtmann, who calculated there would be a need for a point guard in 2017-18. Instead, the transfer from George Washington has morphed into a shooting guard, and an accurate one. Over the Bulldogs’ past six games, he is 19-of-37 on 3-pointers (51 percent) and has averaged 13.5 points.

Virtually no one foresaw he would do what he has done — with one exception. He always had self-belief.

“On the court, I always try to bring the New York attitude,” he said. “Because in New York, listen, no matter what you do, no matter how much you do, in anything you do, people are going to think they want to win it. ‘I’m going to take it.’”

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Jorgensen is the first Butler player from his state since Dean Edwards of Olean, N.Y., in 1991-92. (Edwards transferred to Rider after one season.)

Jorgensen’s hometown is New City, N.Y., county seat of Rockland County and located 18 miles north of the Bronx. Rockland has the highest per capita Jewish population of any U.S. county at 31 percent.

“I grew up with everybody,” Jorgensen said of New York demographics.

He grew up playing baseball, football and soccer in addition to basketball, and he was told he had a future as a shortstop. He loved hoops, though.

On outdoor playgrounds, he acquired the nickname “Prince Harry of Harlem.” His hair was longer and reddish then, and he resembled the British prince. And he was a baller.

Beginning his sophomore year, he concentrated on basketball at Don Bosco Prep, an all-boys Catholic school in Ramsey, N.J., that was a 25-minute commute. The school has a national reputation in football but has also thrived in basketball under coach Kevin Diverio, now in his 23rd season.

Jorgensen was “all-in,” the coach said.

“It was all about the program, it was all about the coaching staff. It was about everything but himself.”

Jorgensen averaged 17.8 points as a senior, featuring a buzzer beater that sent Don Bosco past Pope John 61-59 and into the final of the North Jersey non-public A state tournament. He sank five 3-pointers and scored 27 points.

Just as memorable was the night Don Bosco’s team traveled to the Bronx to meet Cardinal Hayes, ranked No. 2 in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area. Cardinal Hayes won 58-54, but Jorgensen scored 20 points and kept the Ironmen in it.

“Every time it looked like they were going to pull away, Paul got us back into the game,” Diverio said. “I think that was definitely a game to show he could play with elite guards.”

Still, recruiters were scarce. None from the Big East came calling. Harvard and Columbia of the Ivy League were interested in Jorgensen, as were Bucknell and Holy Cross.

At George Washington, he was a teammate of Kethan Savage, who also transferred to Butler. In 2016, Jorgensen helped the 28-10 Colonials win the National Invitation Tournament. He averaged 4.9 points and 2.1 assists per game, and his 15.7 minutes were most by a non-starter.

Jorgensen left before the coach, Mike Lonergan, was fired in September 2016 amid allegations of verbal abuse. Longeran filed a suit for wrongful termination, and an out-of-court settlement was reached.

Diverio said Jorgensen told him he did not fit George Washington’s offensive style. Jorgensen declined to comment on his experience there.

“I don’t even think about what happened in my past,” he said. “I’ve worked so hard to be where I’m at now.”

After announcing he would transfer, he was contacted by Holtmann. Jorgensen also considered Hofstra and Northeastern but said the opportunity to play in the Big East, the conference he grew up following, could not be turned down.

“The stars aligned,” his mother said.

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Jorgensen comes from a family of athletes.

His father, Eric, played college football at The Citadel for coach Bobby Ross, who took Georgia Tech to a national championship and San Diego Chargers to a Super Bowl. His brother, also named Eric, 26, played soccer at Manhattan. His sister, Dana, 30, was a swim captain at Holy Cross.

Yet even in his own family, Jorgensen is something of a fitness fanatic.

“He has us all on diets,” his mother said.

In the offseason, Jorgensen lowered his body fat from 13 percent to less than 10 percent. He took yoga lessons in a class that was otherwise all-women, swam laps in the pool, ran hills and developed his own treadmill workout. In Butler’s preseason mile run, he finished first in 5 minutes, 25 seconds.

Anne Jorgensen preceded her son’s arrival in Indianapolis. She is a director in the neonatal practice at Riley Hospital for Children. Jorgensen’s father, vice president of sales for Hy-Flex, followed her to Indiana.

Having family nearby has enriched Jorgensen’s Indianapolis experience, but he already felt at home. He gushes about the city, the school and Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Butler Way, he said, is real.

“Overall, the place is a special place,” he said. “You don’t get that everywhere. A lot of kids don’t understand how good we have it.”

Jorgensen, 21, was young for his class and said he benefited from the season in which he had to sit out. He had heard how hard it was to redshirt but said he did not find it hard at all. He needed the year to improve and learn Butler’s system, and he keeps reminding himself he gets this season and next.

The Bulldogs glimpsed what he could do during an August tour of Spain, and his development has only accelerated. If he has a swagger and a chip on his shoulder ...  well, that fits in with the other Dawgs.

“If there’s two players, and they’re similar skill levels, give me the confident guy every time,” coach LaVall Jordan said. “Paulie’s got that.”

According to kenpom.com, Jorgensen has an offensive rating of 58th out of 2,100-plus players nationally — a consequence of his .434 shooting on 3s and 26-to-6 assist/turnover ratio.

He scored 13 of his 15 points in a 10-minute span Saturday, helping Butler trim a 26-point deficit to nine in what became an 82-67 loss to Purdue. If anything, it was evidence he and the Bulldogs must continue getting better. Not that he needs prodding.

“He wakes up every morning,” his mother said, “looking to maximize that day.”

That is a good state to be in, whether New York or Indiana.

Call IndyStar reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

Morehead State at Butler

Tipoff: 8:30 p.m. Tuesday., Hinkle Fieldhouse.

TV/radio: FS1/1070 AM, 107.5 FM