FARMINGTON — Little Rock Mills sophomore Javion Guy-King’s season might have started late, but the Arkansas 2020 recruiting target has a chance to finish it the right way.
Guy-King (6-5, 180) and the Comets (27-3) will face Little Rock eStem (25-13) Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in a Class 4A semifinal in Farmington with a berth in next week’s state title game in Hot Springs on the line.
After dealing with a transfer issue after leaving Sylvan Hills, Guy-King has been on the court for just over a month.
“He has had a shortened year because he only started at the end of January,” Cooper said. “His talent level is great. He doesn’t even realize it, but he has got every tool. As he grows into his body and gets stronger, he is going to be really something amazing.
“If he has one fault, it is that he is too unselfish. He can pass the ball, rebound, he can do a lot of things. We are really happy to have him, and his future is going to be really unbelievable.”
Guy-King had 14 points in Mills’ 66-53 win over Morrilton while playing point guard most of the night.
“I think my strengths are shooting the ball and driving and dishing it off to my teammates, and rebounding,” Guy-King said. “I still need to work on getting into the lane, floating shots over the bigs, and my left hand.”
“Being a point guard at 6-5, I can see all over the floor. I can see all over the gym.”
The other Class 4A boys semifinal will pit unbeaten Magnolia (25-0) against either Pottsville or Brookland Saturday at 7:30 p.m. after Derrian Ford, another sophomore with an Arkansas offer, scored 20 points in a 69-52 win over Blytheville.
Ford, Guy-King and North Little Rock center Kelel Ware (6-10) are three of the four in-state sophomores along with Sylvan Hill's Nick Smith who have been offered by first-year Arkansas coach Eric Musselman.
“When I got the offer, I was real excited because I was only one of three (sophomores) out of Arkansas that got an offer,” Guy-King said.
“The other offer I have is from Alcorn State. I have interest coming from Vanderbilt, Auburn, Oral Roberts, Marshall and a couple of more schools.”
He has been impressed with Musselman and the short-handed Razorbacks (19-11, 7-10) this season.
“Coach Musselman is doing a very good job,” Guy-King said. “They don’t really have any bigs and have a hard time rebounding, but they play great defense and just leave everything out there on the court. I think he is doing a great job.”
Cooper was unsure of what he had to start the season, but knew he might have something early in the season.
“They have just kind of kept getting better,” Cooper said. “We really didn’t know at the beginning of the year where we were, but we played tough at West Memphis the first game of the year and I thought, ‘We might be pretty good.’ We won a couple of games early and I think that gave us some confidence and they are starting to play really well.”
Guy-King was quick to give the credit to Cooper.
“It’s the game plan that Coach provides for us,” Guy-King said. “It is just a great gameplan every night and we just go out and execute it.”