By Mike London
Salisbury Post
There’s always a place for a guy who can shoot, and Wesley Honeycutt can definitely shoot.
Honeycutt showed flashes of lights-out offensive basketball between injuries when he was at South Rowan. After a year off from school, the 2007 all-county pick has signed with Davidson County Community College.
“We actually recruited Wesley some last year, but things didn’t work out,” DCCC coach Matt Ridge said. “He came up here for workouts recently and we liked him. We know he can shoot, and he seems coachable. “We’re going to help him become the best player he can be and we welcome him to the Storm family.”
DCCC got back in the basketball business in June, 2007, and Ridge startled the world by hastily assembling a squad that produced a 22-7 record. That team included former West and South Rowan athlete W.J. Parks and East Rowan’s Kurt Misenheimer.
DCCC plays like Pfeiffer. It goes small, forces furious tempo and makes opponents uncomfortable with lots of pressure and lots of 3s.
DCCC opened last season by scoring 132 points, won games by eye-popping tallies of 151-63 and 140-94 and led the nation’s Division III junior colleges in scoring.
Honeycutt, 6-foot-2, could be a good fit for the Storm because he’s more athletic than the average 3-point bomber. He’ll score on floaters as well as 3s, and he can hold his own with most forwards on the boards.
The boards are important because in DCCC games, there are obviously a whole lot of shots going up.
DCCC lost about 80 percent of its scoring punch, most notably Justin Strickland, who created a lot of buzz by scoring 34 points a game for the Storm.
Honeycutt won’t be Strickland, but he should help.
“They lost a lot of scoring, and there are some big shoes left there to fill,” Honeycutt said. “I’m going to try my best.”
Honeycutt said he’s been part of the work force, but he kept his skills sharp playing in organized leagues, including a very competitive one in Mooresville that attracts college players.
“I’ve played basketball every day, stayed active, and I’m healthy now as far as my knee and ankle,” Honeycutt said.
Rec league shape and college basketball shape, especially at the frenzied pace DCCC plays, are two different things. Honeycutt understands that. He acknowledges he’ll have to work hard this fall at a game that’s always come easily for him.
Honeycutt played a little on South’s varsity as a sophomore and arrived to stay as a junior in 2005-06. He and Derek Davis were the first guys off the bench on the strongest team the Raiders have put on the floor lately. The starters were Parks, Josh Chapman, Michael Gore, Jarad Osterhus and David Wolford.
Honeycutt’s breakout was a 25-point effort in a December romp at A.L. Brown’s Bullock Gym that included five 3-pointers. An ankle injury slowed him not long after that, and he ended his junior season averaging 6.0 points a game.
Healthy and starting, he began his senior year drilling shots from everywhere. In South’s fourth game, he poured in 33 points against Salisbury, the most ever scored by a Raider against the Hornets.
South’s been playing basketball since the 1961-62 season, so that’s saying something.
He dropped 32 on Mooresville, and his 29-point effort against North Rowan was the best scoring night a Raider has ever enjoyed against the Cavaliers.
Honeycutt hyper-extended a knee in the Christmas tournament, but he still had some big games after South entered CPC play against talented 4A Winston-Salem schools.
He scored all 13 of South’s points in one explosive stretch in a loss at West Forsyth, Chris Paul’s alma mater.
Then he buried the Titans when they visited South with six 3-pointers and 30 points. That was the night ó Feb. 2, 2007 ó the Raiders ended a painful string of 39 consecutive losses to West Forsyth.
Honeycutt contributed five 3-pointers and 21 points against R.J. Reynolds.
He averaged 14.0 points a game in the CPC, 15.1 overall, and was chosen for the all-county team.
No one knows if he can get back to where he was on those magical evenings against Salisbury and West Forsyth when he soared and swished everything, but Ridge is going to give him an opportunity to find out and Honeycutt is eager to see what he can do.
Carson’s Justin Basinger is also headed to DCCC and Honeycutt might room with him. They were South teammates when Honeycutt was a sophomore and Basinger was a freshman.
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com.