Beyond the arc: Double Dribble debut, JBA announced, Young animal

As discussed last week, this column is intended for news and notes from the world of college basketball. Since the Ball brothers are all professionals, I shouldn’t need to discuss them any longer.

That makes room for a new segment that I’m going to call “Double Dribble”. In this segment I’m going to pick one former Tech player and give a little information about their career at Tech and explain what they’re doing now. I am also a fan of women’s basketball so I will probably have a former Lady Raider from time to time as well.

Double Dribble

Whatever happened to Will Flemons? Flemons hailed from Paducah, TX and played forward for the Red Raiders from 1990-93. He started his career at Tech by being named the 1990 SWC Freshman of the year. Flemons was also twice named SWC Player of the Year and a two time AP Honorable Mention All-American selection in 1992 and 1993.

Flemons averaged over 10 points per game in all four of his seasons with the Red Raiders and currently ranks No. 11 on Tech's all-time scoring list with 1,604 career points. He is the program's all-time leader with a .598 field goal percentage, third with 109 career blocks and fourth with 934 career rebounds. Flemons averaged a double-double twice in his career highlighted by 20.2 points and 10.8 rebounds as a senior in 1992-93. He amassed 43 double-doubles which ranks second behind only Rick Bullock in program history since the 1970s. On September 2, 2017 Will was inducted into the SWC Hall of Fame.

Flemons went undrafted in the 1993 NBA draft but played professionally in France for one year. After his brief pro career he began his coaching career as an assistant at Tech. It would be the first of two different stints at Tech. His coaching career has included eight different stops including four years at Wayland Baptist as the head coach of the Flying Queens.

Flemons is back home now. Will currently resides in Paducah with his wife Lori and their three children. In February of 2014 he was named principal and boy’s basketball coach at Paducah H.S.

The things I remember fondly about Will Flemons are his smile and caring, loving spirit. Paducah brought home one of their own and coach Flemons is a great representation of Red Raider spirit.

BBB Basketball League

I didn’t want to talk about the Ball brothers, but their dad keeps finding a way to stay relevant. It was announced recently that LaVar Ball plans to start a basketball league, the Junior Baskeball Association (JBA), for high school players that want to play professional basketball without going to college. His plans are to recruit about 80 players and pay them $3,000 to $10,000 per month.

Basically, Ball wants to start a nationwide select basketball league for high school players. I started to say graduated high school players, but there really is no reason for me to believe he will care if they graduated.

Look, I don’t necessarily agree with making elite players wait a year before going into the NBA draft. However, I don’t want to pay the $20 entry fee to watch my own kids play select basketball, I surely wouldn’t pay it to watch other high school kids and that is basically what this amounts to. If you listen closely you can hear this idea explode before it gets started.

Trae Young

Oklahoma’s Trae Young became the first player in two decades to record a 20 point, 20 assist game. The 6’ 2” freshman guard put up 26 points and 22 assists in a 105-68 rout of Northwestern State.

The 22 assists tied an NCAA Division I single game record shared with three other players. Young currently leads Division I in per game points (28.5 PPG) and assists (10.2 APG).

Wofford Upset

The Wofford Terriers pulled off a huge upset Wednesday night as they went into Chapel Hill, NC and beat the No. 5 North Carolina Tar Heels 79-75. The win was the biggest upset of the season and the first for the Terriers over a top 25 team in school history.

Final Tuneups

The Red Raiders, along with several of their Big 12 bunk-mates, will play a final tuneup game before beginning of the conference schedule in earnest on Friday, December 29.

The first game of conference play will tip at 6:00 p.m. CST in Stillwater as Oklahoma St. hosts West Virginia, followed by Tech hosting Baylor at 7:00 p.m. This is shaping up to be an exciting year in Big 12 basketball as six teams are currently ranked in the top 25.