With the Christmas season in full-swing, it’s also officially basketball season in Mississippi. The local high schools are well into their regular-season schedules, and Southwest Mississippi Community College played nine games before reaching its winter break last week.
A handful of local student-athletes are off to great starts this season, and college programs from the around the area are noticing.
McComb High School, off to an impressive 9-0 start, has been led to this point by a core of four battle-tested seniors, all of whom are being looked at by college programs.
Center Stacey Mack and guards Antonio Johnson, Shemar Williams and Lederrius Simmons have all shined for the Tigers this year.
Mack has been a force for McComb, leading the team with 15.4 points 7.6 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game, all team-highs.
McComb head coach Hilton Harrell said Mack has received attention from Division 1 schools, including Abilene-Christian University (Abilene, Texas.) and the University of New Orleans.
Head coach Joe Golding’s current Abilene-Christian squad features only four players from outside Texas on its 14-man roster, but Golding has taken an interest in the McComb program, according to Harrell.
Abilene-Christian also is looking at Williams and Johnson, two guards who can handle the ball, create their own shot and rebound in the interior.
Harrell said Johnson has also received attention from Mississippi College, a Division 2 program.
In addition, all four Tiger seniors are being recruited by various Mississippi junior colleges, including Southwest.
Bears’ head coach Casey Carter was in attendance for the Tigers’ home victory Friday night over Murrah, and said he was there to watch Mack, Johnson, Williams and Simmons. According to Harrell, various other junior colleges are eyeing his seniors, including Co-Lin and Jones County Junior College.
D-1 programs eye Howard
As a community college coach, Carter is not only recruiting talent, but having his current talented recruited as well.
Sophomore point guard Chris Jones has signed to play at Troy University beginning next year.
Forward Twymond Howard is another Bears’ star being sought after. Howard, who has averaged a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds per game this season, said he is being looked at by Duquesne University, Troy University, Old Dominion University and Florida Atlantic University, among others. All four schools have Division 1 basketball programs.
But Howard said it is still too early to know where he may attend next year, and said he has kept his focus on the current season at hand.
“At this point I’m just here to play basketball,” Howard said. “I’m trying to get my team some wins and go from there.”
Jaguars remain optimistic
North Pike head coach Keith Russ said he has not been contacted by any college programs regarding his upperclassmen, but he remains optimistic about his players’ futures.
“No one has really come by yet, but I’m hoping it begins to pick up soon,” the head coach said.
Russ’ Jaguars are 6-2 on the season, and have been led by a strong senior class of their own. Seniors Xavius Turner, Jalen Jackson, Devin Abram and D’Hendrick Wells are North Pike’s top-four scorers, all averaging double figures.
Abram, the team’s point guard, has also averaged 8 assists per contest, but at just 5-foot-7, the feisty guard has physical limitations that could make his path to the next level more difficult.
Jackson has been a force inside for the Jaguars, but despite leading the team with more than 5 rebounds per game, at just 6-foot-1 Jackson would likely have to tailor his game to play from the perimeter should his career continue beyond this season.
But with four excellent scorers, Russ is not sold that his program is completely off the radar of the collegiate ranks.
“It’s not too late for my guys to show something,” Russ said.
Taylor promotes Cook
South Pike head coach Joe Taylor said none of his players have been formally recruited to this point in the season, either, but he said he has talked with Larry Cordaro, former associate mens basketball coach at Southeastern Louisiana University, regarding Desmond Cook.
Cordaro was hired by LSU-Alexandria as the program’s first head coach in September. The Generals are looking to begin the school’s first basketball season in 2014.
Taylor said Cook, a senior, is a player capable of helping the program grow.
“I just informed him that I have a player that would be a good addition to the new program being started,” Taylor said.
Cook is a long 6-foot-4 guard and is a deadly shooter from the outside. The senior leads the Eagles in scoring with 16.4 points per game and rebounding with 6.3 per contest.
Cook has made 25 of 62 3-point attempts this season, a 40 percent clip. No one else on the Eagles’ roster has made more than seven 3-pointers on the year.
Taylor said he has not discussed anything with Cook to this point regarding potential opportunities to play at the next level.
Fellow South Pike senior Derrick Horton has showed tremendous growth to this point in the season as the team’s point guard. In just his second season of organized basketball, Horton has proven himself as a scrappy guard capable of what Taylor calls being “a coach on the floor.”
But like Abram, Horton’s lack of size (5-foot-6, 140 pounds), coupled with just two years of high school basketball under his belt, could make playing at the next level an uphill battle.
With plenty of season left, there is still time for development within the relationships between schools and student-athletes. But with many already on the radar of a number of college programs, the remainder of the current season will be critical.
