Texas Talk

Juco hoops in Texas are entering their stretch run. Two of the three conferences races appear to have a clear-cut leader.

In the North, McLennan is 8-1 in conference play with 5 games remaining. Their game on Saturday night vs. Ranger was postponed due to bad weather. The top four teams advance to the NJCAA Region V tournament March 9th-March 12 at Lubbock Christian University in Lubbock, TX. McLennan is trailed by Temple, who has a 7-3 record, with only four games left to play.

In the West, #1 ranked Howard has taken a commanding lead with a 10-0 record. #12 ranked Midland follows in second place with an 8-2 mark. Both of those losses have come at the hands of Howard. The top four teams in the West also advance to the NJCAA Region V tournament. They will face the top four teams from the North Texas Junior College Athletic Association.

As one might suspect, the East is far from decided. In juco basketball's version of the Big East, Paris leads with a 14-3 record. Followed by #17 Angelina with at 13-4. Also, Lon Morris is only two games out of first place with a 12-5 record. All of the East teams have five remaining conference games. Also, none of the twelve teams have been mathematically eliminated from the conference tournament. The Texas Eastern Conference/NJCAA Region XIV tournament will be held March 11th-13th at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, TX. The top eight teams advance to the postseason tournament.

The Week in Review

On Wednesday, Tyler upset #17 ranked Angelina 71-58. Freshman guard, Tyrone Cole-Scott led Tyler with 21 points. In addition, Cole-Scott leads NJCAA Region XIV in scoring at a 20 point per game clip. Lamont Mack, an ultra talented freshman from Chicago, with 21 points, led Angelina. Also, on Wednesday evening, Lee defeated Kilgore 80-75. Juco Junction All-American, Mike White paced the Rebels with 19 points. Standout freshman guard, Marcus Thornton continued his stellar play with 22 points.

On Thursday, there was the highly anticipated match up between #1 ranked Howard and # 12 ranked Midland. The Hawks downed the Chaparrals 73-57. On Saturday, Collin County pulled out a huge win 107-99 over Temple. Sophomore sniper, Corey Hale led Collin with 26 points. Sophomore guard, Corey Harbert paced Temple with 25 points.

Games to Watch

(Mon.) McLennan @ Hill

(Wed.) Paris @ San Jacinto

(Wed.) Kilgore @ Angelina

(Thur.) Howard @ South Plains

(Sat.) Navarro @ Lon Morris

(Sat.) Tyler @ Panola

Player of the Week

This weeks Texas juco player of the week, Tyrone Cole-Scott, currently leads the Texas Eastern Conference in scoring. Cole-Scott is a 5-foot 10-freshman guard from Tyler Junior College. The Waterloo, IA native averages just over 20 points per game on the year. Cole-Scott helped to lead the Apaches to two huge wins this week. On Wednesday, Tyler upset #17 ranked Angelina, behind Cole-Scott's 21 points. He followed that performance up with another outstanding one on Saturday, when he helped the Apaches defeat Lee 92-90. He also scored 21 points that night. Expect Cole-Scott to be one of the more highly recruited players in the country next season.

Recruiting Updates

One of the most highly recruited players over the course of this season in Texas has been Eugene Spates from Collin County Community College. Spates is a 6-foot 8 215-pound small forward from Dallas, TX.

Spates is averaging over 13 points per game and 7 rebounds per game. He is very long and athletic. In addition, he is very skilled offensively and can score inside or outside. He handles and passes the ball very well.

One of the most intriguing aspects about Spates recruiting is that he can leave with three years to play. This makes him much more attractive to NCAA Division I schools. As a result, schools, such as UNLV, UTEP, Texas Tech, SMU, UT-San Antonio, Stephen F. Austin, and Sam Houston have begun recruiting the young man. Texas Tech may be the early leader, due to the fact, that they have already hosted Spates on a visit.