Seahawks open up with all-stars from junior colleges
Published 7:52 pm Tuesday, October 31, 2017
A year ago, Rodney Brown of Beaumont was nowhere to be found on a basketball court.
It was an unusual feeling for the then-Huston-Tillotson University student, who decided to give up basketball to focus on his schoolwork.
“I came to an open gym one day, and coach decided to give me an opportunity,” Brown said, “and I’m glad he gave it to me.”
Wednesday night, Brown will start for Lamar State in its season opener against an all-star team of junior college players from the Lone Star College and Houston Community College systems known as the Gladiators.
The starting lineup for the Seahawks, who went 17-13 last season, will look almost completely different from the previous season’s. With West Brook graduate Jared Gobert’s departure to focus on academics, Tra Grubbs of Silsbee is the only returnee on the team.
Grubbs will start as a shooting guard, with freshman Alex Williams at guard, redshirt freshman Ethan White at the three-guard, redshirt sophomore Brown as a power forward and Croatian sophomore transfer Matej Gaspert at center.
“My starting five isn’t necessarily my best five, but it’s five guys who’ve got the best chemistry right now, and it might be the best five in practice that week, so it might change from game to game,” sixth-year Lamar State coach Lance Madison said.
Madison will have on hand a deep bench with plenty of local ties, including Nederland sophomore Jase Miguez, who transferred earlier this year from Southeastern University in Florida, redshirt freshman and Beaumont Central grad Devin Ellis and recent Ozen alumnus Justice Vaughn.
“I think we have a pretty good group, a lot of talent and a lot of hustlers on the team,” Brown said. “I think I fit in real well just doing anything coach asks me to do.”
Brown, a 6-foot-7 forward, has added to the local flavor, working back into game shape during the offseason.
“It was very difficult, going from playing basketball every day to not playing at all,” Brown said, adding the experience was miserable.
The Gladiators are a club team that’s played 10 to 12 games already, Madison said, but the Seahawks are expected to be in game shape as well after two home exhibitions, a jamboree in Dallas and another outing at LSU-Alexandria.
“We learned a lot about ourselves,” Madison said. “I thought our preseason schedule was very competitive. We played some pretty good schools at a tournament in Dallas. We learned from our mistakes.
“We’re tired of playing against each other. Now we need to start playing other opponents, hearing the whistle and playing a structured game and getting the competitive juices flowing.”
After Wednesday, the Seahawks will see how they stack against some of the nation’s best.
On Saturday, Lamar State will take on No. 3-ranked South Plains College, based west of Lubbock, in the Texas East-West Challenge at Flower Mound High School. Their visit to the Pensacola Beach Classic at Pensacola (Florida) State College will begin Nov. 24 with No. 2 Northwest Florida State College.
But first, the Seahawks are still learning each other and Madison’s system.
“We’ve got a new assistant coach, and he’s learning the system as well,” Madison said. “So, we’ve done quite a bit of teaching these last few weeks. You know, when you’re teaching that many guys, that many new faces, sometimes your quality of teaching goes down, too, because you’re teaching that many. We’re getting better and working hard. Our goal is to get better every day.”
I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews