Preview 2006: Guard play key at Eastern Arizona

Eastern Arizona College won 19 games a season ago and sent Brandon Woods on his way to Division One basketball. But coach Tim Parmeter isn't satisfied.

"It's not like it was a bad year, but we just weren't good enough at the guard position last year," said Parmeter. "We lost two of our best guards early in the year and they never saw the floor. We struggled at the point, struggled shooting the ball. You can't win without good guards. It's impossible. We had a great front line last year."

Oddly enough, the situation may be reversed at EAC this season. The frontcourt is a question mark, but the backcourt seems to be in good hands.

"Overall, guard play has been a big emphasis area for us in recruiting," Parmeter said. "If it pans out the way we think it will we think we've got as two guards as anybody can put out there in the country."

Those two guards would be UTEP transfer Ervin Youmans and Chicago product Kerry Dunlap.

"In Kerry Dunlap, we think we got an absolute steal at the point," Parmeter said. "He is a tremendous athlete and a true point. He's got that thing on a string, he finds people and he can make plays."

Dunlap's presence should allow Parmeter to play Youmans at the two slot, though he's capable of sliding to the point.

"There's no doubt he can do both equally well and is equally comfortable doing both," Parmeter said. "He has been in an enormous level of competition. He is from one of the premier programs in the state of New Mexico, he has won state championships. He competes all the time, whether it's a workout, a pickup game, he competes as hard as he can. He has a true ability to make people around him better and yet the thing he's known for is having the most points in the history of New Mexico high school basketball."

Joining the newcomers in the backcourt for Eastern will be 6-foot-3 Chris Booker, who shot nearly 40 percent from three-point range a year ago.

"Chris if he can get things taken care of academically," said Parmeter, "is probably a low Division One level recruit."

The frontcourt has to replace nearly 30 points a game from a year ago. While they may not get all the production back, Parmeter is excited about a couple of players in his frontcourt.

Jerryck Owens-Murrey averaged 14 points a game for Eastern's last dozen games a year ago, and he could emerge as the go-to guy in the paint.

"He is really more of a four. He is very athletic, scores very well, had a great second half of the season," Parmeter said. "Jerryck's probably a solid mid-major. At 6-6, I don't know that he's gonna make it as a three, but I don't know if he's big enough for anything bigger than that as a four."

The hidden gem at Eastern could be a foreign player who redshirted last season, 6-foot-10 Dusko Stojnic. Stojnic was a qualifier out of high school and was close to signing with the Minnesota Gophers, but instead enrolled at Eastern at semester and redshirted.

"Only three schools that know this kid exists because they were the three that recruited him last summer," Parmeter said of Minnesota, Maine and LaSalle. "He has all the tools. He can run, he's a good athlete, long, for a foreigner he plays hard and will be physical, yet he can be on the perimeter and catch and shoot."

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.