Now that he's "all in" at Old Dominion, guard Randy Haynes is thriving

At the appropriately named "Perfectly Frank" eatery last April, Old Dominion guard Randy Haynes and assistant coaches John Richardson and Bryant Stith got right down to business.

Haynes had dropped a bombshell several weeks earlier, walking into coach Jeff Jones' office and announcing without warning that he was transferring.

"I made the decision without talking to anybody," Haynes said.

Now Haynes was ready to talk, or at least, listen. Over chicken wings at the hot dog joint in ODU's University Village, Richardson and Stith laid out Haynes' options if he transferred as a junior with one year of eligibility left. They also told him how he could fit if he stayed at ODU.

"I'll always remember that day," Haynes said. "I wouldn't say they changed my mind, but they brought my confidence back. I told myself that I'm no quitter. I can do this."

After averaging 3.1 points and 1.5 rebounds in 11 minutes per game off the bench last season, he's averaging 10.9 and 3.6 this year. He has started every game, become perhaps the team's best perimeter defender and sparked ODU at times with energy and hustle.

"I'm definitely happy with my decision," he said. "Once I made it, I knew there was no thinking about it, no going back. I'm all in."

Haynes had faced similar crossroads before, at every level of the game, crises of confidence that caused him to doubt himself, he said.

"I played on a lot of teams where I thought it wasn't going to go too good, but I always said that I was going to figure it out, get around it, do what I had to do to play good."

Indeed, Haynes, who starred at Potomac High with fellow Monarch Trey Porter, landed a spot on the Hampton Roads-based Boo Williams AAU team, only to leave briefly when he wasn't sure how much he'd play. He returned and became a starter.

Homesick after enrolling at New Mexico Junior College out of high school, Haynes also considered leaving there.

He stayed, and at a long-armed 6-foot-4, developed into a premier scorer, averaging 19 points on 46 percent shooting. He came to ODU in large part to improve defensively, he said.

That was good in theory. In practice, Haynes had trouble transitioning from the relatively wide-open style in junior college to a more structured setting at ODU.

"Randy's situation was, like most guys coming out of high school or junior college, they're set in their ways," Richardson said. "And for Randy, it was a little bit harder because he was a little bit older."

For Haynes, the clock was ticking. Unlike freshmen, who get four seasons to figure things out, most junior college transfers have just two. When his first season didn't go as planned, Haynes began wondering whether he needed to leave.

"He was frustrated," Jones said. "He wanted to play and it was hard and things weren't working out."

He got his release, and his name went out on the transfer list – college basketball's free-agent wire. He heard from a handful of schools, both in Division I and Division II.

But he was at a loss about what to do.

"I was going through it," he said. "I didn't know how things were going to turn out."

Richardson, who recruited Haynes to ODU, had been out of town recruiting when Haynes told Jones his plans. Haynes felt bad about not letting Richardson know first. When he got back to town, they arranged the summit at Perfectly Frank.

Richardson and Stith didn't use hard-sell tactics, Haynes said. But what they said made sense.

"They showed me the chance I had, the opportunity, being here," he said.

That opportunity grew when forward Zoran Talley, the Conference USA Sixth Man of the year, was dismissed from the team.

Haynes' next step was to have a heart-to-heart with Jones, he said.

"It was more so just venting; we really just told each other how we felt," Haynes said. "He told me what I needed to do; I told him what I thought I could do, as far as being confident."

Haynes was re-committed, and all-in. Richardson said Haynes' "whole approach" changed. He was more attentive to detail, more purposeful.

Jones said Haynes never had a bad attitude or lacked a strong work ethic. He'd just let impatience and doubt take too firm a hold of him.

"Sometimes it just takes time," Jones said. "He's like a poster child for hanging in there, and not giving in when things go against you."

Once a gambler on defense, Haynes is now a solid defender who keeps his man in front and contests shots with a 6-foot-8 wing span. He pays more attention to scouting reports and can better anticipate what plays opposing teams will run.

Offensively, Haynes doesn't play like someone who was ever unsure of himself. He's aggressive, still more of a scorer than a pure shooter, but capable of finishing from above the rim or behind the arc.

Things have come together, maybe better than Haynes could have imagined a year ago. If he could go back and advise his younger self, he knows what he would say.

"I would tell myself to relax," he said. "Take everything one step at a time. Just learn, just keep learning."

Sage advice that has paid off for Haynes.