Business Publications

[ Junior college players bolstering Big 12 ]

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Feb 3, 2003 by Tony Jimenez Capital-Journal

Junior college players bolstering Big 12

MIKE SHEPHERD/The Capital-Journal

Kansas State's Pervis Pasco celebrates as time expires during the second half of Saturday's game against Oklahoma. Pasco is one of five former junior college players on K-State's roster.

By Tony Jimenez

The Capital-Journal

Not all that long ago, some four-year college coaches across the country took some heat for recruiting junior college players, but that's far from the case today, most notably in the Big 12 Conference.

The Big 12, which has eight schools located in one of the most fertile juco recruiting grounds in the nation --- the Texas-Oklahoma- Kansas corridor --- is, in fact, thriving on help from its two-year school brethren.

"Does it surprise me?" asked Jerry Mullen, a juco talent scout based in Olathe, who services 319 NCAA Division I and II and NAIA schools nationwide. "No. With so many good juco players right in their own background they would be foolish not to recruit them."

There are 34 former juco players from 14 different states playing in the Big 12, five each at Kansas State and Texas Tech. Every Big 12 school has at least one two-year school player on its team.

Kansas and Texas each have sent five of their juco players to the Big 12.

Mullen says several factors make junior college recruits more attractive, including the 60 games in two years they get under their belts, good coaching and experience living away from home.

Also, he said, juco players are hungry. They don't take all of the benefits of the major college ranks --- flying to games instead of packing a van and driving, better food and increased exposure --- for granted.

"When Coach (Bobby) Knight got to Texas Tech (last season), he added a lot of credence to the jucos by recruiting so many of their players," Mullen said.

Knight had five former JC players on his first two teams, including Kasib Powell of Butler County and Pawel Storozynski of Dodge City, and will add two more next season, including 6-foot-8 Devonne Giles of Seward County.

That's a far cry from the nine JC players he had on his rosters in 29 seasons at Indiana.

Knight's most recognized former two-year school player back then was Keith Smart, the new Cleveland Cavaliers coach who also played at Garden City before becoming a Hoosier. He won the NCAA tournament championship game for Indiana in 1987 against Syracuse with a late shot.

"Great coaches figure out what they need," Butler County coach Dennis Helms said. "They find ways to succeed and that's what Coach Knight has done since he got to Texas Tech."

"Going to juco prepared me for where I am now," Powell said. "Some people say it's a step down in your college career, but to me it's been a step up."

Powell and Tony Allen (Oklahoma State) were teammates on the 2000- 01 Butler County team that went 25-7 and won the Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division championship.

"We figure if they are from the right program and they have done it right for two years they can do it right for two more years," K- State coach Jim Wooldridge said. "They want to prove that they belong at this level."

Wooldridge points to Gilson DeJesus as a good example of what he's looking for in a juco player.

"I don't know if I've ever had a harder worker, no matter where I've coached," Wooldridge said of the Trinidad State, Colo., product. "He is the most well-trained athlete on our team."

When Kansas State played host to Texas Tech earlier this month, eight of the game's 10 starters had played at junior colleges.

A year ago, Oklahoma got to the Final Four by using six juco players who averaged 55 of OU's 78 points.

"The one thing I like about juco guys is that they have already had their bubble burst," OU Coach Kelvin Sampson said last season. "They've handled just about every adversity there is too handle. They have a genuineness to them."

"These guys are playing in front of empty gyms or in front of 100 people and all of a sudden they are on national TV and playing in front of 12,000 people or more," Mullen added. "Most juco guys feel lucky to do that."

Juco products in the Big 12

Former junior college products now playing in the Big 12:

BAYLOR