Jason Flanigan needed a piece of the puzzle that was going to help the Holmes Community College men’s basketball team stay on its title track.
When Flanigan found that piece and discovered there was a second one to go with it, the HCC coach counted his blessings for finding two “great kids” and then crossed his fingers and hoped the relationships he and assistant coach Jason Harrison built were strong enough to convince the players to come to Goodman.
On Thursday, Aberdeen High School seniors Marcus and Derrell Carouthers put the finishing touches on the recruiting process by announcing their decision to attend HCC in a signing ceremony in the school’s auditorium.
The ceremony was a formality for Flanigan, who received faxes of the signed letters of intent Wednesday morning.
“Recruiting in Mississippi is like recruiting at the Division I level,” Flanigan said. “With 15 junior colleges in the state, there are a lot of good players, but there aren’t a lot that can impact a program right away. With Marcus, he is a guy who can impact the program as soon as he steps on campus.”
Carouthers, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound guard led Aberdeen to the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 3A State title game, where it lost to Velma Jackson 76-38. Carouthers paced the Bulldogs (26-7) with 21.1 points per game. He also averaged 6.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 2.7 steals, and 1.1 blocked shots per game.
Carouthers said he was motivated by not being selected as a member of The Clarion-Ledger’s Dandy Dozen, which recognizes the state’s top players. Even though he said Aberdeen came up short of its ultimate goal, he was proud of the season he and his teammates had.
“I tried to work harder and push myself to show them what they left off,” Marcus Carouthers said. “I believe (I proved something to them). I have been leading the team all year, and that’s what leaders do.”
Derrell Carouthers, a 6-foot, 175-pound guard, played the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. He said Thursday he will have surgery April 22 and anticipates a five-month recovery process, which would put him right on track to have a chance to play as a freshman at HCC.
“It was our whole plan that we were going to stick with each other through the whole basketball career,” Derrell Carouthers said. “I am going to do my rehab at Holmes. I am going to stick with it. … I am going to put in that work and be ready to play at the next level.”
Aberdeen High coach Jaworski Rankin said the Carouthers brothers “bought in” to his style of coaching in his first season at the school. He said that was important because it helped everyone make the adjustment to a new system.
“They had the right mind-set,” Rankin said. “They knew these were the areas they had to work on if they wanted to play college basketball. Marcus, with the talent he has, he had to polish it and work on his fundamentals. They really bought in to that early and throughout the year saw success early, which gave them more and more confidence.”
Flanigan said he won’t rush Derrell Carouthers and that he planned to redshirt him if he wasn’t 100 percent healthy for the 2015-16 season.
“Marcus was our main priority signing him,” Flanigan said. “When we went to see him, we saw his brother. We didn’t know he had a brother and we saw him making shots. We think Derrell can come in and make shots. We think both kids can have great careers here.”
If that happens, HCC most likely will stay on the course it charted this season. The Bulldogs won the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges North Division title and Region XXIII crown and finished second at the MACJC State tournament to advance to their first NJCAA National Tournament. HCC advanced to the Elite Eight and finished the season 25-7.
Flanigan credited Harrison for laying the foundation with the Carouthers brothers. He said HCC anticipates having nine players return from this past season, which means the program will have six players, including one from outside of the state of Mississippi, to sign. With Marcus and Derrell signed, Flanigan can exhale with confidence because he knows he has two pieces that could help keep the Bulldogs on their championship path.
“Marcus can play all of the guard spots,” Flanigan said. “He might bring the ball up some. I am expecting him to take a starter’s spot. Marcus Washington, who is going to Louisiana-Monroe, brought a lot to the table. I expect Marcus to come in and fill that void for us.
“I told him we were losing a mid-major player and that he had to be ready to come in and play and do the same things that Marcus Washington brought to the table in order for us to be champions again.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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