Published: November 19, 2008 12:55 pm         

Return trip

East Central's Wilkerson headed back to Lubbock

Ada — For most of the members of the new-look East Central University men’s basketball team, Thursday’s showdown with Big 12 power Texas Tech will be just another exhibition game on the road to Tuesday’s season opener at Dallas Baptist. For junior forward Justin Wilkerson, though, the trip to Lubbock is a chance to prove something — not only to the Red Raider coaches and fans, but to himself.

Wilkerson, a star at Greenville (Texas) High School who was recruited by a number of Division I programs, signed with Tech even before his high school career was over. But he left after one unhappy season under former Red Raider coach Bob Knight and settled at ECU, where his brother, Jason, had been a star almost a decade earlier.

When Wilkerson — who averaged 10.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game for the Tigers last season — returns to Lubbock Thursday, Bob Knight won’t be there, but Knight’s son, Pat (who took over when his father resigned suddenly last February) will be on the sidelines, along with the coaches and several of the players Wilkerson played with and for during his brief time with the Red Raiders.

“I’m excited about going back,” Wilkerson said Tuesday. “It’s going to be a tough game, but it should be fun. I’m going to have a lot of friends there.

“It means a lot more than a normal exhibition game,” he added. “I want to prove people down there were wrong about me. I’m pretty pumped. All the coaches there are still the same coaches that were there when I left. Coach (Bob) Knight is just gone. It’s pretty cool to be able to play against your old team.”

Although he has had a little trouble so far this preseason adjusting to ECU coach Terry Shannon’s new up-tempo offense and to a group of teammates that includes only three (center Ian Adams and guards Tyler Thetford and John Qualls) who were with him on the roster last season, Wilkerson said he expects to be one of the veteran leaders on this year’s Tiger squad.

“I think (Shannon) wants me to be a scorer and playmaker and a key to the offense, and I like that,” Wilkerson said. “I’m not really playing as good as I need to be doing, and this offense is part of the reason. We’re not doing anything we did last year, and I’m still trying to figure it out a little bit.

“I see a lot of potential on this team,” he said. “They’re all young, and this offense is new to everybody. We’re a work in progress, but I think we’ll be okay.”

ECU is 2-2 so far this exhibition season, with victories over the Tiger alumni and St. Gregory’s and losses to Oklahoma Baptist and Missouri State. The Tigers will wind up their preseason slate Saturday at UT-San Antonio, and Wilkerson said the atmosphere of Thursday’s game should prepare the young ECU squad for just about anything they will see during the regular season.

“They get real excited about sports (at Texas Tech),” he noted. “The gym (United Spirit Arena) holds about 17,000 people, and I think it will be packed.”

While Thursday’s game has a little added meaning for Wilkerson, Shannon said this week’s road trip is merely a final step in getting his young squad ready for a demanding regular season and Lone Star Conference schedule.

“It’s going to be a difficult task, but we’re going to keep working on things we need to work on and look at the big picture,” Shannon said when asked about his approach to the Tech game. “We’re going to take the games Thursday and Saturday as what they are — scrimmages — and keep working.

“We need to get better defensively,” he added. “We’re not very good defensively at all, and we need to get better at not turning the ball over. We’re improving on each of them. Our offense is coming around, and early in the season that’s usually the last thing to come around.”

Shannon hopes he solved his team’s turnover problem in the second half of the OBU game, when he moved his best shooter, senior Tyler Thetford, to point guard, which had been sore spot in the offense after the graduation of three-year starter (and second-team all-conference selection) Terrell Carpenter this spring.

“He’s strong with the ball and he handles it well,” Shannon said of Thetford, a Byng High product who averaged 4.9 points and 2.9 rebounds last season and ranked second on the team to Carpenter in 3-pointers with 33. “He makes good decisons and put us where we need to be. Hopefully, one of these freshmen will come along and we’ll be able to move Tyler back (to shooting guard).

“He came in (at the point) for the second half of the OBU game (a 93-74 loss) and we only had six turnovers in the second half,” Shannon added. “He’s a stabilizing force out there. He’s a senior, and almost everybody else around him is new. Just having him there has stabilized our offense. (Shooting guard) is his natural position, but he’s having to play where we need him right now.

Shannon said the loss of several key players off last year’s 14-13 squad, including Carpenter and hard-nosed forward Dominique Scales (who recently signed to play in an NBA developmental league) forced him to switch to a new, faster-paced offense and will also force him to rely on his small core of veterans for both offense and leadership this season.

“We’re trying to push the basketball — our goal is to get down the floor and get some easy baskets and speed up the tempo of the game and try to offset some of the deficiencies we have in our halfcourt set,” Shannon said. “Just looking at what we have, I think this gives us the best opportunity to be competitive. It’s also a style that nobody in our league plays, so people will have to prepare differently for us than anybody else in the conference. A lot of factors went into it, but with our talent it gives us the best chance to be competitive.”

Shannon admitted Wilkerson has had some trouble adjusting to the new offense but said he expects his top returning scorer to contribute more as he becomes more familiar with the system.

“It would be helpful if he would become more consistent and reliable for us,” Shannon explained. “He’s having to learn some new things with our offense. Last year was really the first year he had played college basketball. He realizes what he needs to do, and he making some progress.”

And, despite the many new faces on his bench this season, Shannon said he sees a huge upside to his young squad.

“This is a good group,” he said. “The thing about freshmen is that they’re eager and excited. I have some kids who have skill, but at this point they don’t know squat.

“I think we have a chance to be pretty good, though,” Shannon added. “We’re building a pretty good foundation, and I think we’ll get better as the season goes along.”

     

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