LA City is loaded once again

If you recruit junior colleges, you know Los Angeles City College. Mike Miller's program sent players to Tennessee State, Utah State, Norfolk State, Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech and Hawaii-Hilo a year ago. The Division One recruiters will be back this season.

"Our guard, James Spencer, I think he's a high-major kid," associate head coach Wendell Westbrook said. "The other kid, Joseph Taylor, he's probably a mid-major plus right now. He can play a couple of different spots."

JucoJunction has been told that both Spencer and Taylor were dominating at times last weekend at the junior college event in Chicago. Coach Westbrook broke down his two stars for us.

"With James, he is an unbelievable athlete, just a super athlete," Westbrook said. "He can shoot the ball from three, drive, he really plays above the rim. He can play inside and out because of his strength. He can post up, hit the mid-range J, the three, put it on the floor and get to the basket. He is a top twenty or thirty player at our level."

"Joseph is kind of the same in that he can play inside and out," the coach continued. "He is starting to shoot the ball really well, he has been working a lot on his shot. He is a 6-8 kid, strong inside. He can really rebound, he can score inside, has a jump hook with either hand. He can hit the 15-footer and he's working on his three, but that's not really the strength of his game."

Asked which forward spot he'd project Taylor to on the next level, Westbrook said he was probably a "big small forward."

To go with that pair, Westbrook said 6-foot-4, Dejon Prejean is a player to watch. Prejean is a left-handed guard who Westbrook said is capable of playing the point or the off-guard spots.

While Spencer and Taylor, and possibly a couple of other LA City players, decide which summer events to attend, Westbrook is busy recruiting for next year's team.

"I wthink we'll still bring in a couple of more bigs," he said. "We are not close to being finished as far as recruiting."

While Westbrook said it's way too early to be sure, he is optimistic about his team for the 2005-06 season.

"We've lost like one game all spring and summer. We're going to be good, it's just a matter of how good," Westbrook said. "We're trying to be great. Right now, we're just good."

Over the next few months, JucoJunction.com will be doing team previews from coast to coast to get junior college basketball fans set for an exciting 2005-06 season. To talk about this story with other juco hoops fans, check out the JucoJunction Board or our premium forum.