Satisfaction not guaranteed

Sporting News, The, Dec 23, 1996 by Steve Harrison

We are told they are "Can't Miss Players," that they can "Fill It Up," that they "Have No Weaknesses In Their Game." They have been exiled to hamlets like Hutchinson, Dodge City or Hiwassee, where, we are told, they have little to do but study, play ball and sip shakes at the Dairy Queen on Maple and Elm. We remember their inspirations junior college legends Mitch Richmond. Larry Johnson, Latrell Sprewell and. of course. Keith Smart, the high school hamburger flipper turned Indiana hero.

We know about Proposition 48, which 10 years ago, sparked a boom in junior college recruiting. Now JCs are the weapon of choice in some conferences, like the Sun Belt, and even a panacea in others, like the Southeastern and Big 12. Four seniors leaving? JCs will fix you. Two studs bolting early for the NBA? Grab a JC transfer or two. Need a point guard? Well, there's a good one down Kansas, another out in west Texas ...

Each season, more players head to junior colleges and, subsequently, four-year programs. According to the National Junior College Athletic Association, 729 former junior college players were in NCAA schools in 1988-89. In 1994-95, that number was nearly 1,400. NCAA initial-eligibility requirements rose again this season, which will send more nonqualifiers--and more talented players--into junior colleges.

But here's the skinny: Those highly touted transfers, those "Can't Miss Kids," rarely pack their promised punch at four-year schools.

"There are no guarantees," says Rick Ball publisher of Ballplayers J.C. Report and organizer of several summer camps for JC players. "There are adjustments on both sometimes. Juco recruiting has become a fad for some coaches, and you have to know how to do it. Some coaches do and some coaches don't. Bob Knight recruited three juco kids last year, and I could have told you two wouldn't work out."

Indeed, Knight, who ushered an era of junior college respectability by recruiting Smart and Dean Garrett in 1986, had an unsuccessful return to college basketball's underbelly. Center Haris Mujezinovic was the lone success. Guard Chris Rowles left the program over the summer after playing sparingly, and forward Lou Moore had a personality problem with Knight and left early last season.

This season, transfer again equals savior. Horatio Webster, a forward from Connors (Okla.) State, is expected to revive moribund Mississippi State. Michigan guard Brandun Hughes of Barton (Kan.) County Community College has been billed as a charitable assist man for the dysfunctional Wolverines, which is odd considering Hughes had Iversonesque numbers in junior college, averaging 28.2 points per game. And there is Cincinnati No.1 in The Sporting News preseason poll.

Huggins who used JC transfers Herb Jones, Corie Blount, Nick Van Exel, Allen Jackson, B.J. Ward, Erik Martin and Terry Nelson to build the Bearcats' program--and send Cincinnati to the 1992 Final Four--has assembled a wonderful JC class for 1996-97 perhaps the best ever. Huggins, along with Nolan Richardson of Arkansas and Jerry Tarkanian of Fresno State, best knows how to tap a JC's potential, how to boost his sometimes bruised psyche. "UNLV East," Cincinnati has been called, mostly with disdain.

"I have a different perspective on the JC guys," the ill-tempered Huggins says. "They have already been away from home. They've woken themselves up. They are much more appreciative. They are used to getting in vans. They are hungrier."

"Hugging," Ball says, "is almost a juco bad boy himself."

The gem of the Cincinnati class is 6 6 forward Ruben Patterson, the JC Player of the Year from Independence (Kan.) Community College who reminds Cincinnati faithful of Jones. There also is D'Juan Baker, a 6-2 point guard and first-team All-American from Midland (Texas) College, and 6-1 guard Charles Williams from Chaffey (Calif.) College.

So far, the Bearcats are a humbling 2-2. Baker, the projected point guard, has struggled and played just one minute in Cincinnati's shocking loss to Xavier. Patterson, the savior, has missed two games, one for breaking team rules, the other for not hustling in practice. And then there was the collapse against Kansas, when guard Darnell Burton was cold, forward Danny Fortson was in foul trouble and the JC guys ... well, in the second half at least, the JC guys were back at the Dairy Queen.

Is this to say the Bearcats will stumble on the road to Indianapolis, home of the 1997 Final Four? Not necessarily. (Remember how funky Kentucky looked in its loss to Massachusetts last November.) Is this to say the Bearcats, with five roster spots held by junior college players (Jermaine Thomas, a 6-9 center from McLennan (Texas) Community College, will make it six if he can gain his eligibility), have a shaky foundation? Yes.

Here's why:

Adjust quickly or perish

When Dontae' Jones, the human pogo stick, struggled in his first 15 games or so at Mississippi State last season, his coach at Northeast Mississippi Community College, Mike Lewis, wasn't surprised. "The same thing happened there that happened here," he says. "He was head and shoulders athletically above everybody else. But he had to let things come to him. When he came here, he had a lot of playground in him, and his shot selection wasn't what we wanted."