The past two years have seen Milwaukee natives play key roles on the Pratt Community College mens basketball team, and 2010-11 should be no different as PCC coach Trevor Rolfs has signed a pair of talented players from Milwaukee to headline his next recruiting class.
Rolfs and assistant coach Jesse Shaw have also received letters of intent from a third out-of- state player and three Kansans, giving the Beavers six incoming freshmen for the 2010-11 season.
“Our needs for next year were obviously the point guard position where Tyrone Gordon had started basically every game for us for two years. We addressed that need by signing a young man named Terry Taylor,” Rolfs said. “He’s a lot different point guard than Monty. He’s more of a jet.”
Taylor, a 5-10 Milwaukee native, will be counted on to play plenty of minutes next season as the Beavers shift to an even more uptempo style of play.
“He likes to push it, which is what we were looking for, more of a transition point guard. He can really score in transition too,” Rolfs said of Taylor. “He’s not a great shooter but a solid shooter. We really, really like him.”
Rolfs also addressed his team’s need for a post player, by signing John Cathey-Macklin, another Milwaukee product.
“We obviously had a need on the inside, with graduating Jay Valerius and Illi (Baldwin), who started about every game this year,” Rolfs said. “That was an immediate need we needed to address.”
Cathey-Macklin will be counted on heavily as one of the Beavers’ main post players, and Rolfs is excited about his potential.
“He’s 6-8, a Ben Wallace type player. He’s really, really athletic, and runs like a deer,” Rolfs said. “He will be without question the most athletic player I’ve ever had here.”
“I think both the kids from Milwaukee that we signed are very, very talented, and I’m probably as excited about them as any kid I’ve ever signed,” Rolfs added. “While Illi and Monty (Gordon) were really good for us, we’ve gotten away from the way I want to play. While we didn’t stall and we were still in the top end of the league in scoring, I want to push it more, get out in transition more, and any bigs that we get, we’re going to make sure they can run the floor and want to run the floor.
“We’re after more of a hybrid 4-5 guys instead of the big, back-to-the-basket type players. We want to get more Mike Tyler type players.”
Rolfs and Shaw also signed Justin Bailey, a 6-11 Texan, who will also be vying for time in the frontcourt next season.
“His brother plays in the NBA Developmental League,” Rolfs said of Bailey, a Cibelo, Texas, product. “He’s got a lot of talent, but didn’t start playing basketball until he was a junior in high school. He’s been out of high school a few years and is trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. He’s a project, but he’s 6-11 and really, really athletic. He runs like a deer and gets off the floor really well.”
The Beavers also addressed the point guard and post player situations when recruiting from within Kansas, as PCC is bringing in a point guard from Olathe, a post player from Nickerson, and a guard/forward from St. John.
“We signed a point guard from Olathe Christian named Dante Lee. He’s a very solid young man, very solid point guard,” Rolfs said. “He can shoot it, pushes it, really has a great feel for the game. He will push for time at the point guard position as a freshman.”
PCC also received a commitment from Nickerson’s Troy Smith, a familiar face for Greenback fans who saw his Panthers take on PHS twice during the 2009-10 season.
“He really came on late this season, and he was one of the MVPs of our all-star game out here,” Rolfs said, referring to Smith’s performance in the South Central Kansas All-Star Basketball Classic March 21 at PCC. “The MCAA plays the Heart of America in an all-star game and he was the MVP of that. He’s another one of those kids who has a good feel for the game.”
Smith helped lead Nickerson to the Class 4A State Tournament, where he was listed at 6-6, though Rolfs says the future Beaver has grown since the start of his senior season.
“He’s a legitimate 6-7 now and he’s a pretty thick kid,” Rolfs said. “He’s a kid we think can give us some minutes as a freshman.”
PCC also signed St. John senior Danton Hilton, another player who was part of the South Central Kansas All-Star Basketball Classic, along with Lee and Smith.
Hilton led the Tigers in scoring, but Rolfs doesn’t expect him to score his first point as a Beaver until the 2011-12 season.
“We’ve already talked to Danton and we think it’s in the best interests for him to redshirt Danton,” Rolfs said of the 6-3 Hilton, who will need to adjust to the taller, faster competition at the college level after playing for a Class 1A high school.
With those six joining the program, six players back from the 2009-10 team, plus a pair of redshirt freshmen who will see their first college action in November, Rolfs feels good about next season already.
“We didn’t have to go very far in state, because we were redshirting Mico Anderson from Topeka High, who we think is going to be a really good player out on the wing for us,” he said.
The 6-3 Anderson and Wichita point guard A.D. Blue both spent the 2009-10 season as redshirts, and they’ll join with current PCC freshmen Trae Beck, Shaquille Hall, Taner Hayes, Jamar Reese, John Rutherford, and Marcus Smith to form a solid nucleus of returning players.
Rolfs said that he and Shaw still hope to sign at least one more post player from outside Kansas, and they are considering signing another guard as well.
The Beavers will open their season November 3 by hosting Northern Oklahoma – Tonkawa at the Beaver Dome.
