Team Focus: Redlands CC
Kiwan Smith played three years at Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina where he scored 1,227 points for coach Kenneth Gordon and Billy Reid. Smith and his Redlands Community College teammates are right in the thick of things in Region 2 play.
Smith played last season at Odessa College in Texas and now he is at Redlands Community College in El Reno, OK. Smith, (SO) 6-foot-8 (220) from Brooklyn, NY,
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reunited himself with his former coach Kenneth Gordon at Redlands Community College. Smith, a combo forward, is averaging 10.1 ppg and 5.4 rebounds a night this season.
"Kiwan is very talented there is no doubt about that. He just needs to bring it every night out on both ends of the floor," said JucoJunction staff member Bret Swanson.
West Virginia, Baylor and Charlotte are expressing interest in Smith this spring according to coach Gordon.
Nate Flowers, (SO) 6-foot-5 (220) from Washington, D.C., is also generating interest. Flowers played last season at Eastern Oklahoma for current Redlands Community College head coach Win Case. Flowers went west for his sophomore of college and joined his coach at the El Reno campus.
"Nate is a left-handed undersized post player that is very effective in the paint," said Swanson.
Nate is getting interest from Northern Arizona, Wright State and Murray State. Flowers is averaging 7.5 ppg.
Celeste Mayele: (SO) 6-foot-7 (230) from Central Africa. Mayel played at Eastern Oklahoma last season and prior to that at Laurinburg Institute (NC) with coach
Gordon.
"Celeste is very raw on the offensive end of the floor. He has the ability to change the game on the defensive end and is a great team player," said Gordon.
Delaware State, North Carolina Central and St Francis (NY) have expressed interest in the power forward this spring. Mayele is getting 2.8 ppg a night.
Johnnie Young and Trevon Duty round out the Redlands sophomores this season. Young, 6-foot-3 (190) from Edmond, OK, played last season at Western Oklahoma State College. Young is currently averaging 9 ppg and hearing from D2/NAIA schools.
Duty recently returned to the team and saw limited action early with the death of his father. Duty attended Tyler Junior College (TX) last season as a freshman and prepped at Stoneridge Prep (CA) under head coach Ron Slater. Duty's teammates were Jonathan
Gibson-New Mexico State, Taj Gibson-USC, Lawrence Bohra-Utah, Hasheem Thabeet-UCONN and Beas Hamga-UNLV.
"Trevon is a very skilled post player," said Gordon.
St Francis (NY),San Diego State and Louisiana Tech are following his progress this spring.
JucoJunction will follow up on the very talented freshman class at Redlands Community College in the near future.