Bonded as Blazers

By Jim McCurdy

When Dallas College North Lake first-year men's basketball head coach Josh Mills learned his players Darion Jones and Da'Ryan Williams decided to get a dog, he became worried.

"I was like, 'What are you guys doing with a dog?'" Mills said. "I was very concerned about the dog. 'Who takes care of the dog whenever we go on trips? What is she doing at home?'"

Relax coach, their pit bull, Cali, is in good hands when they're on the basketball court.

"She's been a really big impact on us," Williams said. "She's helped us feel better when we're feeling down or anything like that. After practice, when we're sore, she's there, she's happy, someone we can always have around just to talk to. She's a person, in my eyes." 

Cali is one of many bonds that pit Jones and Williams together. These two are inseparable. They grew up in Austin, albeit at different high schools. They both attended Schreiner University for one year in 2020-21 before electing to transfer to North Lake. They are roommates, playing for the defending National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national champion Blazers.

"I feel like it was definitely the right decision to come back and try to win another national championship," Jones said. "The only thing I'm thinking about right now is winning our first game when we get to New York."

That time has arrived.

North Lake is preparing for its national quarterfinal game 5 p.m. CT Thursday in Herkimer, New York. The game will air on the NJCAA Network, and can be followed via Live Stats. It is yet another experience the two friends will share together.

"We talk about it a lot," Williams said. "Just going back, and winning it back-to-back. We have the same goals and the same mindset. It's always easy for us to push each other. We both have the same end goal, really. We both want to play professionally one day. It makes it really easy, having someone like Darion around."

After their COVID-shortened freshman season at Schreiner, Jones and Williams reached out to former Blazers head coach Tim McGraw, who then visited Austin to watch the two work out. They had been recruited by North Lake out of high school, but opted for the NCAA Division III school in Kerrville, Texas. After a year, they were jumping on that Blazer bandwagon.

"I ultimately decided on coming here because when I took my visit, it just felt like home," Jones said. "I worked out for Coach McGraw. He saw me and Da'Ryan work out, and he just told me to come to the school, work hard and do everything he told us, and we'd win a national championship."

Williams knew North Lake was the right place, too.

"I just think it was a better opportunity for me," Williams said. "Coach McGraw, he seemed really open, and wanted me. I just wanted to go somewhere where I was wanted. I just felt at home here as soon as I came here."

It's a decision both struck gold with.

"My time here has been good," Jones said. "It taught me a lot of lessons. I just felt like North Lake was a good stop for my basketball career. If you want to win, you should come to North Lake. Coming here was a good decision for my career in the two years I spent here. They taught me a lot. One thing I do remember about visiting North Lake was how wide open it was, and that it had a lake. Irving has everything you need with (a lot of places to eat). Just everything you need in one little town."

Williams agrees.

"I love North Lake," he said. "It's a winning program. Everything about it. I just love North Lake and Irving, in general, everything about the school, really. I've just grown with it. North Lake has become a part of me here.

"This is a great program for players to come through here, and work on their craft. It's always a great coaching staff that wants the best for us. There's been so many great players that have come out of here. It's just a great place to be."

Priorities Take Precedence

It hasn't been all rosy, however. Both Jones and Williams nearly had basketball taken away from them.

"My freshman year here, I didn't take care of my grades like I needed to," Jones said candidly. "In the middle of the season, I had failed some classes, and was going to become ineligible if I didn't take the other classes I needed to get my credits. So that just taught me to stay on top of my grades because I feel like I could stop playing basketball and lose basketball at any minute."

Williams was in the same boat.

"It was definitely a wakeup call for me," he said. "Both of us last year, we didn't take things seriously. With the goal we want to accomplish, academics is a big part of basketball, so we have to take care of that. So it was just a big wakeup call for us, and I appreciate everything that Coach Mills did for us over the summer. I just appreciate everything he's done for us, everything North Lake's done for me."

Jones and Williams were forced to take courses after the fall semester of their first year at North Lake and again last summer to remain eligible.

"Coach Mills helped me get into the classes, and told me I needed to stay on it," Jones said. "He was helping us do study hall every day during the summer. He was just telling me that if I wanted a future with basketball, I had to take care of my grades. That's the first thing coaches ask about in recruiting is grades.

"I was just focused on basketball last year. I was just basketball, basketball, basketball. I wasn't taking care of my grades. You definitely need to get your priorities straight, and take care of what needs to be taken care of. Basketball comes second after grades."

Jones earned an A in a speech class last summer, and then posted a 3.67 grade point average in the fall. Williams had a 3.58 GPA in the fall.

"I'm very proud of myself," Williams said. "I feel like I came a long way. I've grown, not just as a student or as an athlete, but as a person, in general. Taking care of responsibilities is just something you're going to have to do in life, in general. School work was a responsibility that I wasn't taking care of, so now that I understand that I have to take care of that, it's going to help me in the future."  

Both are on track to graduate with Associate of Art degrees in May. They plan to major in athletic training or an area that will keep them connected to basketball.   

"Sometimes guys get off and away from their parents, and they change their priorities," Mills said. "Now their priorities are where they should be."

Bringing their A Game

In the NJCAA Division III South Central District Tournament, Jones strung together his best two games of the season. He had 20 points, eight rebounds and a block in the 30-point semifinal win over Dallas College Mountain View, going 6 of 11 from the field, while burying all three triple tries. In the 27-point championship game victory over Dallas College Richland, he matched his career-high with 25 points on 10 of 13 shooting, including 3 of 4 from three-point range, and had four assists, two steals and three rebounds. 

"I would definitely say it was my best performance this year," Jones said. "I just didn't want to go home. I knew if we lost any one of the games that we played in the (district) tournament, there was a chance that we could go home, and not get a bid (to the national tournament), so I just didn't want to lose. It was really just about getting to the next stage, and getting to New York to play for a national championship."

Now they are there, ready to embark on everything they've talked about.

"I'm going to approach it how we do every other game: just work in practice, and prepare for the games," Jones said. "With the newer guys, I'm just telling them, 'To play your hardest, and play like it's any other game. Don't think about it too much.'"

For the Blazers, there's been a lot to soak up this year. They went unbeaten in Dallas Athletic Conference play, winning the regular season title. They went 16-0 at home, and claimed the district and Region V trophies. North Lake takes a 21-game winning streak into Thursday's 5 p.m. CT national quarterfinals.

"It does mean a lot," Jones said. "It's special that I could finish this year undefeated at home."

A 6-foot-3, 185-pound sophomore guard, Jones was voted the conference's Most Valuable Player and First Team All-DAC. He enters the national tournament averaging 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game, while shooting 49.1 percent.

"Darion is a very consistent scorer, but an even more consistent rebounder for his position," Mills said. "He's an amazing rebounder for his position. The amount of growth he's had, as far as development as a player, development as an athlete and his maturity, just by what he's done in the classroom, going from being ineligible to making himself eligible over the summer … that's stressful for someone who wants to play basketball, and wants to earn a scholarship. Not only did he become eligible, he totally changed his habits."

Last year at South Plains College, an NJCAA Division I school with players touted as four-year school scholarship talents, Jones had 10 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals in what became an eyebrow-raising moment for Mills.

"He was just playing harder than they were," Mills said. "He was crashing (the boards), and getting offensive rebounds. He has a really good knack of knowing where to be. That's the game that sticks out most to me.

"He's a soft-spoken kid. He has a great attitude, great personality. He doesn't make enemies, only makes friends. I don't think anybody could say anything bad about him. He's the type of person that we want in the program, those type of guys. Not necessarily the ones who have to learn how to pass classes, but are going to be tough enough to get through some adversity, and admit when they know they screwed up, and get it back on track. He could've easily just said, 'Forget it, I'm going to go back home. I'll work at whatever,' and not given basketball more of a shot. Now he has a chance to win a second national championship. I think he deserves, and will get a full basketball scholarship to a four-year school."

Williams, a 6-5, 210-pound sophomore forward, was named the league's Most Improved Player and an Honorable Mention All-DAC selection. He's averaging 12.6 points and 5.5 rebounds, and has a 51.9 field goal percentage.

"Da'Ryan's improved so much from last year to this year," Mills said. "Last year, we had such a dominant player in Greg Crawford, who's at a Division I school now at Alcorn State. He wasn't an intimidating person. He wasn't a mean person, but he played so hard, and he was so physical that he could've been intimidating. For a guy like Da'Ryan, who plays the same position, he probably took a step back. He has all the same capabilities that Greg had, but he wasn't as aggressive. This year, he took that ownership, and became that same type of player, with that same type of attitude that, 'I can go get a shot when I want to. I can be aggressive.' He's shown the right flashes at the right times. He won us the game at Redlands (this season) by being as aggressive as he was."

Williams had 20 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, three assists and two steals in North Lake's 81-70 win at NJCAA Division I Redlands Community College Dec. 3.

"He improved his shooting, improved his post play, improved his defense, improved his athleticism. He was already a good athlete, but staying here over the summer, getting in the weight room and developing more of a college-ready body really helped Da'Ryan," Mills said. "In the same way, academically, he was ineligible. He became eligible because he stayed here, and worked with us. He's totally changed his work ethics around academically. He'll be on his way to getting a scholarship at a four-year school as well."

Williams admits he was on a learning curve his first year as a Blazer.

"It was definitely a humbling experience," he said. "Last year, we had a lot of great guys on the team. We had the (National) Player of the Year on the team who was ahead of me. So I was learning my role. When I came in, I had the idea I was going to be one of the main scorers, and ultimately, it didn't come down to that. I feel like that kind of made me a better teammate, in general. Now, for the team we have this year, we have a lot of great scorers as well. It's just kind of easier for me to play my role, while still being a leader at the same time."

Soaring to New Heights

In the home opener this season – on a day North Lake packed its gym with area elementary school kids – on the first play of the game, Williams slid into the passing lane for a steal, and went coast-to-coast for a dunk.

The gym went bonkers.

"I don't think the gym has ever been as loud as that time," said Mills, who served as a student assistant coach and assistant coach before taking over as head coach last summer. "What a way to start the season at home."

Williams will never forget that.

"That was a great moment for me," he said. "I had my whole family there. It was the beginning of the season for the whole team. Everybody was trying to see how everybody was going to play. The kids, I felt like I made a really big impact on them. I had certain kids come up to me, and they remembered my name. It was just a good feeling. Winning the game, the first home game of the season to start off the season, it felt really good."

It was a high-flying moment for sure, which is ironic for someone afraid of heights.

"Last year, going up to Chicago (for the national tournament in Rockford, Illinois), it was real nerve wracking for me, getting on the plane," Williams confessed. "I didn't want to tell anybody, but I was kind of scared on the plane."

Williams and Jones both worked part-time during the summer, while taking classes and working out. They mirror each other in so many ways.

"Those two guys are best friends," Mills said. "They play well together. You can see some passes that they make. They kind of know where each other's at on the court. They take the same classes at the same times to kind of help support each other in that way. They have a unique friendship that will probably last a lifetime. Whenever you win, it helps build those bonds."

This week, Williams and Jones are bonding with the Blazers on the biggest stage.

"It means a lot," Williams said. "Time flies by real fast. We're two of the leaders on the team. Next year, it's going to be real different. So we're just trying to leave an impact on the team, and leave a path for them for next year and the year after that. This week's going to be a real big week for us. I feel like we're going to get everything done that we should get done, and finish off the year good."